Immigration Judge’s Removal From Bench For Discriminatory Remarks Is Upheld
In Levinsky v. Department of Justice, NY-0752-03-0329-I-1 (MSPB,
Sept. 9, 2006), the Merit System Protection Board stated that “as
an official responsible for ruling on matters affecting the lives
of aliens, the Defendant had a special obligation to avoid giving
the impression that his decisions could be influenced by the
aliens’ nationalities. His remarks linking members of certain
nationalities to certain crimes and other undesirable conduct
could reasonably be construed as manifesting ethnic bias.”
Republicans’ Immigration Bill would create police state: Hillary Clinton
Washington, Mar 09: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a
potential White House candidate in 2008, alleged that some
Republicans are trying to create a “police state” to round up
illegal immigrants.
Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, spoke
out on the US Immigration Policy after largely staying away
from an issue that has roiled congress in recent months and
spurred a number of conflicting proposals.
Speaking at a rally of Irish immigrants, Clinton, a
Democrat, blasted a bill the House passed in December that
would impose harsher penalties for undocumented workers.
“Don’t turn your backs on what made this country great,”
she said, adding the house bill “is a rebuke to what America
stands for.”
The house measure makes unlawful presence in the US,
which is currently a civil offense, a felony.
Clinton called it “an unworkable scheme to try to deport
11 million people, which you have to have a police state to
try to do.”
She called instead for immigration reform “based on
strengthening our borders in order to make us safer from the
threat of terrorism.”
While her remarks will draw attention for the
implications for the 2008 presidential race, many of those in
the crowd traveled from New York, where she is up for
re-election this year.
As she was speaking, the Senator also sent a four-page
letter to constituents outlining her views on immigration. She
shied away from specifics in the letter but said she supports
allowing at least some of the estimated 11 million
undocumented workers to earn citizenship.
March against US immigration bill
03/08/2006 – Thousands of people have protested outside the US
Congress against an immigration bill ahead of a Senate debate on the
controversial proposals.
Demonstrators demanded that all illegal immigrants be granted residency.
Research released on Tuesday suggests there are 11.5 million undocumented migrants in the US.
The Pew Hispanic Center says illegal immigration has
been rising steadily since 2000, despite increased security on the
US-Mexico border.
More than half the undocumented immigrants come from
Mexico, but there have been large increases in illegal migration from
South and East Asia, the study says.
It adds that, in 2005, about 7.2m unauthorised migrants were employed, accounting for about 5% of the civilian labour force.
In certain occupations, such as farming, cleaning,
construction and food preparation, they are reported to account for a
large proportion of the work force.
The report is based on a March 2005 population survey.
‘Shameful’
The controversial bill which is being debated by the
Senate on Wednesday includes proposals to use of troops and police to
halt migrants, and tighter employment controls.
The bill – which has already been passed by the House of
Representatives – also proposes the construction of a 1,130-km
(700-mile) fence on the Mexican border.
Washington has accused Mexico of not doing enough to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the US.
But Mexican President Vicente Fox has described the fence plan as “shameful”.
He recently told the BBC in 10 years’ time the US would have to “beg for Mexican workers” to cover its needs.
An estimated 1,500 Latin Americans, mostly Mexicans, are believed to cross into the US illegally every day.
President George W Bush has said that “border security must adapt to the nation’s changing needs”.
Irish Illegal Aliens Win Clinton as Ally of Immigration Law Change
By DANIELA GERSON – Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 9, 2006
WASHINGTON – Not long after
the pubs shut their doors for the night, the Bronx’s Little Ireland
sprang back to life yesterday. Hundreds of the city’s newest wave of
illegal Irish immigrants – students and carpenters, waitresses and
nannies – descended on Woodlawn’s main strip, bundled against the cold
and cracking jokes as they waited in the dark to board buses headed for
Washington.
A few hours later, as the Senate Judiciary Committee began its
second day of crafting an immigration bill, the busloads from the Bronx
joined nearly 2,000 other Irish from across the country, canvassing the
halls of Congress in T-shirts emblazoned with “Legalize the Irish.”
Of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in America, the 50,000
illegal Irish are just a tiny drop in the pool, but yesterday the newly
formed Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform proved a unique force in the
drive for a legalization program.
Bertie to plead with Bush for 25,000 Irish in US
By Gene McKenna
of the Belfast Telegraph
09 March 2006
US President George W Bush will next week be asked to allow up to 25,000 undocumented Irish regularise their status in the US.
Both Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot
Ahern will raise the issue at the St Patrick’s Day ceremonies in the
White House tomorrow week as they did on the same occasion at the
ceremonies last year.
Irish-American campaign have now formed a major group, the Irish
Lobby for Immigration Reform, which had a rally in New York’s Gaelic
Park on Sunday and yesterday organised a march to Capitol Hill in
Washington. During eight visits to the US last year, Dermot Ahern held
a series of top-level meetings with Senators and Congressmen in New
York, Washington and Boston to press for a breakthrough which would
help bring about a resolution to the problem.
He is expected to meet the leader of the Irish lobby group, Niall O’Dowd, again in Washington next week.
Many emigrants have found themselves in traumatic situations in
having to decide whether to stay in the US or return home to visit sick
relatives with the risk that they would not be allowed back into the
US.
The Kennedy-McCain Bill put forward by Senators Ted Kennedy
(Democrats) and John McCain (Republican) is still believed to be a long
way from being approved.
Under this Bill, undocumented people could regularise their status by applying for a temporary residency visa.
They would receive work and travel authorisation, which would
provide them with greater protection in the work place and allow them
to travel to and from Ireland without fear of being refused re-entry to
the US.
What distinguishes the Kennedy/McCain Bill from other proposals is
that it includes a path to permaHnent residency. Official estimates
here of the number of undocumented Irish living in the US range from
20,000 to 25,000.
Local police shouldn’t be U.S. immigration agents
State lawmakers should ask Congress why immigration isn’t a high priority
State lawmakers are considering legislation that
calls on Tennessee law enforcement officers to actively assist in
helping in the identification and deportation of illegal immigrants.
Judging
from the number of legislators who have signed on as sponsors of the
legislation, the idea of using local police and Tennessee Highway
Patrol officers on immigration cases is popular. But before state
lawmakers vote on this measure, they need to do some homework.
First, they need to talk to the police chiefs, THP
officers and the district attorneys in their districts. When they do,
they will find stiff opposition to the idea because of the impact it
could have on criminal investigations and community police efforts.
This
newspaper recently had such a conversation with Metro Police Chief
Ronal Serpas and Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin, both of whom
talked about their efforts to build ties to immigrant communities.
Serpas specifically cited the recent breakthrough in a homicide
investigation, which he attributed in part to cooperation from
Nashville’s Hispanic community.
Cooperation from
the public is vital in all facets of police work. If Hispanics or
people of other ethnicities believe that every time they talk to the
police, the officers will ask for proof of their status, that trust
would be shattered. And what about the thousands of native-born
Tennesseans who may look like immigrants? Would police call upon them
to prove their citizenship? If so, the practice would invite racial
profiling.
Another conversation that state
lawmakers need to have is with the Tennessee congressional delegation.
They should ask members of Congress why the federal government hasn’t
accepted immigration as a high priority and approached it in a
comprehensive way.
Local police and THP officers
already alert immigration officials when they learn that someone in
custody is in this nation illegally. That level of cooperation makes
sense.
But Tennessee lawmakers can’t expect
local police to be effective in their jobs as peace-keepers and
crime-solvers if they also are required to be immigration agents.
Immigration control is a federal function. The federal government’s
failure to manage that job is no justification in foisting it off on
local police and THP. •
Business owner voices concerns over immigration law hurdles
By Patricia Zapor
Via The-Tidings.com
Though she’s an immigrant
herself, Carmen Larsen took a long time to come around to the idea of
hiring immigrants for her own company.
But having turned that corner eight years ago, Larsen understands the
advantages and complications of hiring immigrants. She also has
developed strong feelings about the problems with the current
immigration system, as well as some clear ideas about how it ought to
be changed.
As a board member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Montgomery
County, Md., Larsen is among the nation’s business owners who are
encouraging Congress to adopt immigration legislation that addresses
more than just enforcement problems.
An enforcement-only bill passed in the House in December has been
broadly criticized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, its Hispanic
counterpart, immigrant advocacy groups, labor unions and religious
institutions, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those
organizations are lobbying for legislation that also would address
systemic problems with legal immigration and provide a way for illegal
immigrants currently in the country to regularize their status.
For Larsen, it was one person’s story that started to bring a whole range of immigration-related complications into perspective.
As the owner of AQUAS (Automated Quality Applications and Systems), a
small Internet technology and management consulting company in Chevy
Chase, Md., Larsen assumed that the costs and paperwork necessary to
hire skilled workers from outside the United States would be far more
trouble than it was worth.
“I used to say you had to be a permanent resident or a citizen,” she said. “It was just simpler.”
Born in Italy to Ecuadorean parents who were part of the diplomatic corps, Larsen came to the United States with them at age 16.
Having attended American schools abroad, she said, she never really thought of herself as anything but an American.
“I was an American long before I got here,” she said. She graduated
from Georgetown University in 1973 and became a U.S. citizen not long
after marrying an American when she was in her early 20s.
So, in running her business, Larsen didn’t feel any particular empathy
for people whose immigrant stories were dramatically different from her
own.
Then, a Russian who had been an unpaid intern for AQUAS asked Larsen to
sponsor his application for a visa that would allow him to return to
work there.
He had been an asset as an intern and Larsen was pleased at the
prospect of getting him back. He even offered to take care of the
paperwork himself and to delay his own salary to offset the extra
expense to the company of paying immigration processing fees, she said.
“As it turned out, I really didn’t have to do much,” she explained, and
the Russian man became a valued employee. Since then Larsen has
continued to hire immigrants for her staff of about 24.
She has learned a lot about what employers and immigrants go through to
meet the requirements for working legally in the United States. To
start with, paperwork and related fees to obtain an H1B visa, the
category for skilled workers, each cost her company between $3,600 and
$4,000, she said. Although few stay in the country long enough to
collect on Social Security, and they are ineligible for unemployment
compensation, employers must pay into both systems for H1B workers.
Larsen ticked off other problems:
—Employers of people with H1B visas are required to pay them at least
the rate set by the U.S. Labor Department, no matter what the
prevailing wage is for that job.
“That tends to be much higher than we would ever pay someone in the
current market,” Larsen said. Yet, when her company gets U.S.
government contracts, the maximum wage payable to workers fulfilling
those contracts also is set — at a rate lower than what the Labor
Department requires her to pay them.
“I get contracts from the federal government that would never pay the wages they require me to pay,” she said.
—The foreign-citizen spouses and children of workers with H1B visas
are allowed to join them in the United States, but they are not allowed
to hold jobs here. With a business based in one of the most costly
residential areas in the country, “we know that in this area a family
needs two incomes,” she said. So when an H1B employee brings a family,
“we have people living in substandard conditions because there is no
second income,” she added.
—Even getting a driver’s license for a legal immigrant is
complicated. Larsen learned that in Maryland, an H1B visa holder must
make an appointment with a particular office of the Motor Vehicle
Administration. A staff member of that office interviews the applicant
and reviews extra documents to make sure he or she is eligible to apply
for a license. Although the state has no role in enforcing immigration
laws, Larsen and her employee encountered an attitude of suspicion at
the Motor Vehicle Administration that the immigrant was trying to get
away with something illegal, she said.
“Are we encouraging people to come in without documents?” Larsen asked.
“I think we are.” She said she understands and accepts that there
should be extra requirements for immigrants to get permission to work.
But she believes some laws — such as the prohibition on spouses of
H1B visa holders getting jobs — serve little practical purpose and
only encourage people to do things illegally to survive.
“Business owners tend to want to do things the right way,” Larsen said.
“We don’t want to deal with undocumented workers. It’s bad for
business.”
But in the United States, she said, “the reality is we’ve set up a
system that encourages people to come in illegally” because doing
things the legal way is prohibitively difficult.
She told of being approached by a man who had obtained legal residency
under an amnesty program years ago. One condition of his visa requires
him to keep working. He had lost his job and needed an employer to
sponsor him in order to keep his visa. That sponsorship will cost the
new employer $5,000 in fees, a hefty price tag for a new, untested
employee.
In the meantime, to pay his bills, “he has to be one of those people working underground,” she said.
Larsen, who’s active in two Maryland Catholic parishes, said she was
only vaguely aware of the Justice for Immigrants awareness campaign
started last year by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Though
the principles she voices echo those of the church in some ways, she
said her perspectives about immigration have come largely from her
experience as a business owner and from watching the changes around her.
For instance, she worries about the effects of having a whole community
of people in an underground economy who avoid all contact with the
government.
“It makes them more vulnerable to crime if they’re not going to be
forthcoming with the police for fear of being deported,” she said. “So
much is at stake.”
—CNS
Woman hopes race raises awareness of issues facing day laborers
03/01/2006
Via the Stamford Advocate
STAMFORD —
Ingrid Fernandez is not related to any of Stamford’s day laborers, but she calls them her boys.
Many of her friends are day laborers and she often drops by the labor
pickup zone on the East Side to talk to them. She uses her knowledge of
English and social services to help them any way she can, such as
accompanying them to court when they claim their employers did not pay
them properly.
The Stamford mother is
scheduled to fly this morning to California to participate in a
cross-country race that aims to raise awareness about day laborers and
the issues they face. Fernandez said she volunteered to attempt the
3,000-mile race to represent Connecticut’s day laborers and ensure the
runners will pass through Stamford.
“If they don’t come by here, they won’t know about our guys. They won’t
know about our problems,” said Fernandez, 41, a native of Honduras who
works as a pharmacy technician. “Now they will know. I’m letting them
know about my people.”
Issues surrounding day laborers have
been at the forefront of the nation’s heated immigration debate. There
have been protests for and against laborers — mostly Hispanic men
without proper immigration documents — throughout the country,
including in Stamford.
The National Day Laborer Organizing
Network in California is sponsoring the race, which will start in
California on Saturday, pass through Washington, D.C., and finish in
New York City in a couple of months. About a dozen runners, including
Fernandez, will attempt to run or walk the distance, and will be joined
by many other day laborer advocates along the way, said Chris Newman,
legal coordinator for the network.
Bush drops hints of relaxing H1B visa limit
An
inconspicuous banner outside the lane that led to the Indian School of
Business (ISB) seems to have caught the eye of US President George Bush.
“Would
you like to work in the US?” was what the banner asked. Well, Bush
seems to have answered that question during his interaction with a
select group of entrepreneurs at the ISB – an indication of relaxing
H1B visa rules was given.
At present, the cap on H1B visas is 65,000 for knowledge workers, and India Inc has been urging the US to relax the limit.
Sashi
Reddi, chief executive officer of AppLabs Technologies, said the issue
of H1B visas did come up during the informal interaction, and there was
an indication that the US was actively looking at relaxing the limit.
Reddi was among the 16 people selected to meet Bush.
Another
significant issue that came up during the discussion was about setting
up a US consulate in Hyderabad. According to an ISB spokesperson, the
response was, “An agreement has been reached but it’s Condoleeza Rice
who has to provide the funding.”
Questions on the Kyoto deal
were also asked and Bush is reported to have categorically stated that
he totally disagreed with it.
Apart from the above, however,
the sense one got from the people who interacted with Bush was that he
was very “informal in his communication, down-to-earth and casual as
the media was not around to take him on record.”
Rammohan Rao,
the dean of ISB, was visibly happy with the visit of the VVIP. “We were
happy to be short-listed for his visit and this will help us to attract
more international students and faculty to our school,” he added.
Incidentally,
US ambassador David Mulford had visited the ISB in January 2005.
Although nothing was stated about Bush’s likely visit to the ISB, it
seems that Mulford’s visit paved the way for ISB being shortlisted for
the high-profile visit.
The others who met Bush at the ISB
included Harsha Paruchuri, director of Pragati Offset Printers, Amar
Ohri, managing director (MD) of Ohri Group, Madhavi Vuppalapati,
chairperson of Prithvi Information Solutions, Anjali Patel, student at
ISB, Rajesh Mishra, MD of MESA Corporation, Seshavataram Manepalli,
executive director of Suryachakra Power Corporation, Sumanth Paturu, MD
of Icomm Tele, Nagarjun Valluripalli, CEO of Lanco Global Systems,
Siddharth Sanghi, vice-president of The Sanghi Group, Srinivas
Ventrapragada, CEO of Clintox Bio Services, Satish Reddy, MD of Dr
Reddy’s Laboratories, Teja Raju, MD of Maytas Infra, Salman Babukhan,
MD of Babukhan Constructions, Prachi Patodia, director of Knitters and
Shankar Prasad Madiraju, MD of SPC Biotech.
Senate debates immigration
Via the Associated Press
Mar. 2, 2006 10:00 AM
WASHINGTON –
The Senate on
Thursday took up what a key senator called the “gigantic task” of
tightening U.S. borders against undocumented immigration, while
maintaining the flow of low-wage workers for U.S. business.
The
effort pits two Republican bases against each other leading up to the
midterm congressional elections. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Arlen Specter, R-Pa., opened the panel’s first of what will be many
sessions trying to put together the legislation, saying he’s been
flooded with negative reaction to a bill that he proposed as a starting
point.
“I have seen virtually no agreement on anything. Emotions are at an all-time high,” he said.
Nonetheless, Specter said he hoped his committee could have a bill ready by the end of March.
The House passed a border security bill last year – pleasing
conservatives clamoring for an immigration crackdown. But that came
only after House leaders beat back an attempt by some GOP members to
include President Bush’s proposal for a temporary worker program.
In contrast, the Senate is wading right into the thorny guest worker issue.
Specter said a solution is needed for the problem of 11 million undocumented immigrants “in the shadows” of the country.
“Our first job is to bring them out of the shadows and that is a very big job,” Specter said.
He acknowledged some Republicans want all undocumented immigrants sent
home, but said that if undocumented immigrants know they will be kicked
out when they “show up” then they will not come out of the shadows.
He also said he does not object to providing a tract to legalization
for immigrants who work in the country as proposed by Sens. John
McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. But, Specter added:
“The political reality is that is going to be very difficult to do.”
Bush called for a temporary worker proposal in January 2004, but it quickly got bogged down in election-year politics.
With the business lobby pressing on the issue, Bush has renewed his call for temporary visas for workers.
Pressure to move forward intensified this week as governors meeting in
Washington said they consider immigration one of their major concerns
and made it an agenda item in their private meetings with Bush and his
Cabinet.
Specter’s plan would allow immigrants who entered this country before
Jan. 4, 2004, and who have jobs to participate for up to six years in
the temporary worker program.
The bill and another proposed by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Jon
Kyl, R-Ariz., would force workers to return to their countries of
origin if they want to become permanent legal U.S. residents.
The Cornyn-Kyl legislation goes further than Specter’s and mandates
that undocumented immigrants leave the country within five years.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been promoting his own immigration
reform proposal in town halls around the country. His bill has the
backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, other business groups,
immigration advocates and some labor unions.
His bill, co-authored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would penalize
employers who hire undocumented workers but allows immigrants
participating in the temporary worker program to work toward
eligibility for legal permanent residence.
“I have serious concerns about Senator Specter’s proposal and I hope
that we can improve it,” Kennedy said at a rally of immigration workers
Wednesday.
Some Republicans, however, want to toughen up Specter’s bill. Alabama
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions said Specter’s proposal is “like someone
trying to leap a 10-foot ravine and going 9 feet.”
“It just doesn’t get there on law enforcement,” Sessions said.
He said the upcoming immigration debate will be a test for Congress on
whether it wants immigration law enforced. He’s expected to offer some
amendments to Specter’s bill, including one to allow local law officers
to enforce immigration law.
Presidential politics is an undercurrent in the debate. Majority Leader
Bill Frist, McCain and Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, who has
pushed immigration legislation to provide a steady supply of workers
for the agriculture industry, are considered potential 2008
presidential candidates.
Frist told several key senators early last month that he planned to
take up immigration on the Senate floor March 27, leaving open the
possibility that he might offer his own immigration bill if the
Judiciary Committee did not yet have a consensus bill.
Nanny’s time in U.S. running out
Via The Boston Herald
Time
is running out for a 32-year-old Hingham nanny who overstayed her
student visa and is set to be deported to her native Belgium Thursday.
Victorian
Vannerom has spent the last month in the Suffolk House of Correction at
South Bay awaiting deportation after her arrest in January by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Efforts
by her employers – two Hingham biotech executives whose twin sons
Vannerom cared for – to legally adopt her have failed, said Alicia
Secor, 43.
Secor and husband Jim McGorry, 49, hired Vannerom in 2004 and said she has become an integral part of their family.
“It’s
a shame. I can’t tell you how much we are going to miss her,” Secor
said. “I still feel in my heart of hearts there should be a legitimate
way for her to stay in the United States.”
The
Vannerom case has raised questions about how aggressively ICE should
target immigrants in the United States who hold down jobs, have no
criminal record and pay taxes, as Vannerom did.
Bush visits the New India
Stories highlighting President Bush’s visit to India
- Bush’s Visit Highlights India’s Growth
BusinessWeek via Yahoo! News – Wed, Mar 01, 2006 - What Bush wants in India
at Christian Science Monitor – Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - Bush Will Find Strong Backing in Passage to India
at The Los Angeles Times (reg. req’d) – Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - A Reversal of the Tide in India
at The Washington Post (reg. req’d) – Tue, Feb 28, 2006 - India and Outsourcing: Silicon Valley East
at MSNBC – Sun, Feb 26, 2006 - Rethinking India
at The Los Angeles Times (reg. req’d) – Wed, Mar 01, 2006 - Why Bush has to deliver in India
at Rediff (India) – Wed, Mar 01, 2006 - India seeking a friend, not a patron
at Asia Times Online – Wed, Mar 01, 2006 - Thank you, Mr President
at Rediff (India) – Wed, Mar 01, 2006 - President Bush Goes to India
at The New York Times (reg. req’d) – Tue, Feb 28, 2006
The U.S. Immigration Law Blog by Ashwin Sharma 
The H4 virus
Via IndianExpress.com
Three weeks to find a partner, 45 days to get rid of
her. When it comes to shotgun IT/NRI weddings, the numbers don’t add up
anymore, says Jaya Menon
IT was a grand
ceremony. Sindhu Rajagopal was as excited about marrying a software
professional as her Thanjavur-based parents. The groom, Kamesh Kannan,
was the ideal package—a Silicon Valley-based consultant, and an IIT
graduate with a master’s degree from an American university. In five
years, Kamesh had started a consultancy firm that had nine branches
across the US and one in Chennai.
Having
gone to Virginia with her husband (an H1B visa-holder) on a dependant
H4 visa, Sindhu’s American dream soon began to sour. She did little
except cook, clean and later, look after her daughter. Her weekends
were equally tedious.
A fortnight ago,
after five years of marriage, 30-year-old Sindhu arrived in Chennai.
Kannan’s parents took possession of her visa and she now lives with her
parents. Back in Virginia, Kannan has initiated divorce proceedings.
Once Sindhu signs the legal notice, Kannan will have his divorce decree
in just 45 days.
This
is not an unusual story, or the stuff of low-budget, desi crossover
films. Speedy arranged marriages between NRI men and India-based women
are becoming more short-lived than ever before. In NRI lingo, they’re
known as ‘21-day weddings’—so called because everything takes place
within the groom’s three-week holiday. The first week, the prospective
boy and girl are introduced, they get to know each other the week
after, and the wedding takes place in the third. No space for any
intensive digging.
The
result: ‘‘There is an alarming rise in divorces among US-based IT
professionals,’’ says Menaka Rajendran, a lawyer with Smith White
Sharma & Halpern, a US-based immigration law firm. Rajendran, head
of the company’s Chennai office, claims more than 50 per cent of 21-day
marriages solemnized in Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and
Kerala over the last three years have broken down, some within a week.
More than 50 per cent of 21-day marriages solemnized in Punjab,
Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala over the last three
years have broken down, some within a week
Every
year, 65,000 (the prescribed quota for India) H1B visa holders leave
for the US. Of this, more than 40 per cent are software professionals.
Rajendran says her Chennai office gets at least one call a day from
US-based IT professionals’ wives. After opening its Chennai office in
1999, the law firm recently set up branches in Mumbai and Ahmedabad
after receiving numerous calls from these cities.
‘‘According
to US Immigration Laws, H4 dependant-visa holders are not eligible for
a social security number. Without that, these women cannot even open a
bank account, let alone get a driver’s licence or work permit,’’ says
Rajendran. According to US laws, divorce proceedings are quick and
after a divorce comes through, there’s little any law firm can do. Due
to a backlog of cases, judges in US courts (district counties, as they
are called) have no time to even check the veracity of the signatures
of the women on divorce petitions.
‘‘Few
women even know that their H4 visa could be converted to H1 in just 90
days. They can look for a job, start working and be more independent
and mobile,’’ says Rajendran. Most of the women who are back in India
believe they could never have worked in the US.
Lately,
Smith White Sharma & Halpern has taken to organising programmes
across the country to educate prospective brides. ‘‘We found that the
Russian and Japanese consulates have counsellors who guide first-time
travellers and find out their future status. But the US consulate here
and the Indian embassy in the US don’t provide counselling sessions to
visa applicants,’’ says K Aishwarya, a second-year MA student of the
MOP Vaishnov College for Women in Chennai, who recently organised a
two-day awareness programme in her college. ‘‘We have heard of so many
marriages of our friends and their friends breaking up. It is a typical
scenario now,’’ she says. The college also launched an intensive media
campaign to publicise the issue in local Tamil magazines and television
channels.
Thirty-two-year-old
Nisha Kapoor from Haryana was married to Manish Kapoor, an
Atlanta-based accountant, but she never managed to get to the US. Even
after the birth of their two children, her husband came up with various
reasons to dissuade her and her parents from visiting him. Since they
had not registered the marriage in India, legally they were unmarried.
After seven years, Nisha, a BSc graduate, found herself divorced.
Worse, she lost custody of her older daughter. Nisha had willingly
signed the papers for ‘dissolution of marriage’ under the ‘mutual
consent’ slot, without even reading them.
In
some cases, the woman takes the call. Twenty-three-year-old Vani Reddy,
the daughter of a wealthy businessman in Hyderabad, walked out on her
husband and flew down from the US a week after their marriage because
‘‘she was disgusted with his lifestyle’’. Her husband is waiting for
his easy, 45-day divorce to come through.
colleges in Chennai found that while 92 per cent of the students would
love a US-based husband, only three students knew about the dependant
visa status and its consequences
As
parents frantically hunt for IT/NRI grooms, young women continue to
fall into the H4 trap. ‘‘In a study we conducted in six popular women’s
colleges in Chennai, we found that while 92 per cent of the students
said they wanted arranged marriages and would love a US-settled
husband, only three students knew about the dependant visa status and
its consequences,’’ says Aishwarya.
In
the late ’90s, Georgia-based lawyer Paddy Sharma converted her house in
Atlanta into an asylum for divorced women of South Asian descent called
Raksha. Now she has a difficult time coping with calls pouring in from
the US and India. ‘‘Every single day, I get calls. I cannot believe
there are so many women all over the US who are ignorant about their
status as immigrants in this country,’’ she says.
Back
in India, Sindhu visits her lawyer, urging her to stop Kannan from
going ahead with the divorce proceedings. Nisha is almost on the verge
of getting custody of her son after fighting legal battles for almost
two years. Meanwhile, many prospective brides are waiting have their go
at a 21-day wedding.
(Some of the names have been changed on request)