2013 Immigration Facts

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2013 Immigration Facts

990,553 persons became Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR) of the United States. This is a decrease from 2011 and 2012.

66% of these new LPRs received their status through a family member who is a US citizen or LPR.

New LPRs: Mexico (13.6%), China (7.2%), India (6.9%), Philippines (5.5%).

 The Diversity Visa

Every year, 50,000 diversity visas are issued for natives of countries that have historically low rates of immigration to the US. The lottery is free and the season kicks off October 1. Natives of the following countries are barred because over 50,000 natives from those countries have immigrated to the US in the previous five years:

Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom, Vietnam

New Lawful Permanent Residents by State 2013

California: 191,806 (19.4%), New York: 133,601 (13.5%), Florida: 102,939 (10.4%), Texas: 92,674 (9.4%), New Jersey: 53, 082 (5.4%). Pennsylvania is number 10 with 24,720 (2.5%).

52% female and 48% male.

Over 58% LPRs are married.

New York City-Northern New Jersey-Long Island more than doubled the second metropolitan finisher (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ann) in most number of LPRs.

Constitution and Citizenship Day Celebrates Naturalization!

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Immigration reform merits what seems like obsessive and excessive attention because of its vast and critical implications to millions of people – currently and in the future. However, it is important to look away sometimes and celebrate our immigration process and those who have navigated it to take their final step into citizenship.

Naturalization Celebrated

Constitution Day

Credit: @grand_canyon_nps – Flickr

September 17 is Constitution Day, with 2014 being the 227th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution. Authored mostly by founding father and later fourth President James Madison, the document has guided our nation’s laws and been amended accordingly (27 amendments including the Bill of Rights). September 17 is also Citizenship Day, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service celebrates the occasion by inaugurating thousands of citizens in naturalization ceremonies throughout the country.

This year, USCIS naturalization ceremony will include 27,000 new citizens in 160 different ceremonies over the course of a week throughout the country. For Americans who are not born with US citizenship, naturalization can be one of the most special days of their lives. USCIS is encouraging new citizens to share their experiences with the hashtag #newUScitizen. The Law Offices of Andrew Wood, LLC are proud to have been able to contribute this years new naturalized citizens.

Eric Matthews teaches a citizenship class:

EB-5 Visa

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For the first time in its history, the EB-5 Investor visa hit its cap. Given a cap of 10,000 visas per year (starting October 1), the visa reached its ceiling on August 23, 2014. The Department of State issued a notice to signal that the category was unavailable to Chinese nationals until the new fiscal year. However, on September 9, the October Visa Bulletin showed that the category was “current” for China.

EB-5 Visa Requirements

EB-5 Visa

Credit: @blmurch – Flickr

The EB-5 visa requires a one million dollar investment that creates or preserves at least ten jobs for United States workers ($500,000 in “Targeted Employment Area”) from a foreign national. The visa has been available for 20 years, but its popularity has soared in the past six years, following the economic crisis in 2008. 75% of all EB-5 visas have been issued in the past six years, and that percentage looks primed to jump higher with each successive year breaking the previous year’s mark.

EB-5 Visa Proves to be Beneficial

The benefits from the capital invested through the EB-5 visa program are apparent in Pittsburgh. Bakery Square, a renovation project in East Liberty and Shadyside, was built primarily through the efforts of EB-5 investors. 70 investors contributed $35 million into the project. The infusion of capital makes the program attractive to the United States. The program is particularly attractive to investors from countries such as China because they are unable to obtain the E-1 Treaty Trader Visa and E-2 Treaty Investor Visa, which requires that an appropriate commerce treaty with the United States.

The EB-5 visa has been criticized for being a thinly veiled money for visa transaction, but its popularity and benefits are apparent. The recent surging growth of the EB-5 visa should portend prosperously for the United States and local communities. Perhaps next fiscal year, the limit will be reached even earlier and more countries will be pushing the limit.

inHUMANE Act

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The proposed HUMANE Act seeks to expedite deportations of minor children from countries noncontiguous to the United States. This would result in a marked change from the 2008 Wilberforce Bill, signed by President Bush, that designated children from noncontiguous countries to undergo a different process from Canadian and Mexico children in proceedings.

President Obama has labeled the surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the Southwestern border a “humanitarian crisis.” Consensus is difficult to come by in making headway with the crisis. Proposed legislative bills aim for quick assessments and expedited deportations with substantial political traction. However, neither populist nor political backing should motivate clumsy and grossly unfair proposed solutions. Many law firms and rights groups have collaborated to sue the Department of Justice over the lack of representation for minors during their deportation hearings. The crux of their lawsuit is that each child deserves due process and a proper day in court. That fundamentally American principle should apply here to these children. Expediency may seem attractive but is hardly an answer.

These are children trying to escape incredibly dangerous conditions and real violence ravaging their nations; they are fleeing their home countries to escape poverty and gang violence. Those blights seem to predominate the landscape of many Central American countries recently, including El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. These are some of the most dangerous places on earth. Possible solutions floated about include asylum screening processes in the home countries and collaborating with those governments to thwart “coyotes” from misinforming potential migrants. Citizens of those countries will seek escape until home country conditions ameliorate, regardless of the punitive qualities of our deportation system. The HUMANE Act muddies the immigration waters and instead of providing a solution, it seems to palliate mass deportation supporters.

The Law Offices of Andrew Wood, LLC believe the HUMANE Act to be a blatant misnomer and overall harmful piece of proposed legislation. While understanding the appeal of the bipartisanship imprimatur on the HUMANE Act, we fear the aesthetics deflect from the negative qualities. If the HUMANE Act is passed, minor children will not receive proper representation and hearings. A truly humane act would protect the interests of the children and ensure that they receive a fair hearing, rather than accelerate automatic departures. It is a scapegoat action to pinpoint culpability for the increase in undocumented minors from Central and South America on the 2008 bill that rerouted minors from noncontiguous countries.

Groups Sue Federal Government for Not Providing Children in Deportation Proceedings with Legal Defense

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This blog has previously covered Deferred Action Children Act (DACA). That executive order stands out in the immigration debate because it highlights the importance of figuring how to handle the status of minors who were brought to the United States by their parents and have lived as Americans virtually their entire lives. Deportation is a very different proposition for a child than an adult in many cases. For example, a child who has been living in Western Pennsylvania for her entire conscious life with no memories of her birth place is starkly different from a thirty year old man who came to this country of his own volition and who came of age and was educated in his home country. The role of children is front and center once again in the immigration debate, as President Obama has asked Congress in a letter for funding to address the “urgent humanitarian situation” of unaccompanied teens and children crossing the Southwestern border without parents. A class-action lawsuit was filed this week to address the concerns of minors without a legal defense. The suit specifically charges the immigration apparatus of the federal government of violating the US Constitution’s Due Process Clause and the Immigration and Nationality Act’s provisions requiring a full and fair hearing before an immigration judge.

 

Children who are set to be deported, often to some of the most dangerous locations in the Western Hemisphere, such as El Salvador and Honduras, should have the opportunity to defend themselves against deportation. Many of the young plaintiffs in the suit have fled gang violence and personal threats to their lives. This is a cruel state of affairs for individuals who badly need a defense, as their lives are inevitably going to be altered drastically. Lacking a legal defense, they are almost marked for deportation to a possibly unknown land. Many of those children were brought to the United States by their parents in the first place to escape violence and persecution.

 

An advocate for providing minors with a legal defense said that “the unique vulnerabilities require that children have a legal representative in their proceedings.” The dire situation is summed up: “Deportation carries serious consequences for children, whether it is return to a country they fled because of violence and persecution or being separated from their homes and families. Yet children are forced into immigration court without representation – a basic protection most would assume is required whenever someone’s liberty is at stake. Requiring children to fight against deportation without a lawyer is incompatible with American values of due process and justice for all,” said Beth Werlin, deputy legal director for the American Immigration Council.

 

It is the firm opinion of this law firm that minors facing deportation proceedings should have a right to legal defense. There are immigration problems unique to children. We advocate for the better protection and legal defenses of these children and hope that the federal government will treat this concern as the “urgent humanitarian situation” that President Obama called it. The child who has come to the United States to escape violence, persecution, or poverty deserves a legal defense. There are also additional concerns for the unaccompanied minors crossing the Southwestern border being pawns in larger human trafficking operations. Immigration is an important matter that requires comprehensive and sagacious solutions. However, this is an especially pressing aspect of immigration and one that deserves immediate remedies.