The Wall Street Journal's Louise Radnofsky and Miriam Jordan report that E-verify, the Dept. of Homeland Security program to catch illegal immigrant workers, isn't catching illegal immigrant workers. E-verify's social security check was only able to catch 1 in 2 illegal workers. E-verify is now required for all businesses ...

Rallies in Chicago put the local spotlight on an issue that has struggled to maintain relevance in Washington By Matthew Blake Stephen N. Smith does not lack for enthusiasm. A 30 year-old community organizer who has already written a book about his political activism, Smith was hired ten days ago by the Illinois Coalition of Immigration and Refugee Rights to campaign for immigration reform – the ambitious legislative goal to preserve national security while bringing an estimated 11 million illegal aliens out of the shadows of American society. There Smith was – on a dark, windy and freezing Wednesday afternoon in Chicago relaying the fun he was having talking to Congressional staffers about immigration rights. “The next step is for America to pivot from health care reform to immigration reform,” Smith told a small group of post-adolescent activists huddled in front of downtown Federal Plaza. “We are raising a ruckus to make sure that this is the number one next issue on the national agenda.” The pitch came during a week of immigration demonstrations that culminated with a rally Saturday afternoon at Chicago’s elegant First Baptist Church, fifteen blocks west of downtown. Nationally, other cities with high Latino populations – like Los Angeles and Phoenix – also staged demonstrations. In Washington, though, reform of an increasingly punitive immigration policy vies for attention with job creation, financial regulatory reform, and climate legislation – issues that also received scant attention during 2009 (or “The Year of Health Care").

Charlie Peters called this one in following problems at the Department of Homeland Security reported on by the New York Times (and following a post from our own Matthew Blake which should be nominated for best 2009 immigration-related-blog-post headline).  Charlie says that "eight years after 9/11 they still ...

The New York Times' Kevin Sack positively reviews changes in the federal government's medicare pay system for hospitals. Medicare is no longer footing the bill for "reasonably preventable conditions" caused at hospitals. It's part of the new "performance-pay" model at the Center for ...

The Wall Street Journal’s Kelly Evans says that new restrictions on non-agricultural seasonal labor are hurting small businesses. Last year, in the midst of unsuccessfully trying to craft a comprehensive immigration bill, Congress let expire an exemption in its H2-B Visa program allowing for non-agricultural seasonal labor.

So ...

The New York Times’ Julia Preston reports that after five days the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration arm received 163,000 visas from highly-skilled potential immigrants. The visa application window is now closed and a lottery will be held next week to choose the 85,000 lucky winners.

These immigrants ...

If you are reading this, it may already be too late to apply for the government’s H-1B work visa program for highly-skilled immigrant labor. Julia Preston of the New York Times reports that today hundreds of thousands of foreigners are expected to apply for 65,000 available spots.

Last ...

How do you get a government agency to care enough to do things differently?  Let's hope Fernanda Santos's recent story in the New York Times will encourage people at Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) to find a faster solution for immigrant soldiers and Marines who have served (and sometimes died) ...

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, a division of the Dept. of Homeland Security, will accelerate green card processing for 47,000 applications delayed due to flaws in the FBI's security review system.  Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post reports that the change applies only to people who have applied for ...

Julia Preston of the New York Times reports that a new contract for passport processing issued by the State Department will cut wages for some 20% of workers at passport center in Vermont and California.  These cuts target long-term workers as well as recent hires.  The wage cuts come as ...