A national association of immigration lawyers is suing the federal immigration agency for refusing to accept thousands of applications for work-based permanent visas from highly skilled immigrants who were encouraged by the government to apply.
According to accounts yesterday by officials and lawyers, the immigrants were caught in a confrontation between the two federal bodies that control the immigration system, the State Department and the Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The hopes of thousands of foreigners who have been working legally in the United States were unexpectedly raised and then abruptly dashed as a result of the disagreement. They had responded last month to an announcement that permanent residency visas would be available, but on Monday learned there were none.
The immigration lawyers said the about-face by the immigration system had no precedent in at least three decades of legal practice, and said that it violated the immigration agency’s regulations. The American Immigration Lawyers Association’s legal action arm was preparing the lawsuit, said Crystal Williams, deputy director.
Federal officials said a misunderstanding had arisen from an effort by both agencies to reduce huge backlogs of applications for permanent residence visas, known as green cards. Immigration officials acknowledged that the effort was poorly handled.
nytimes
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A national association of immigration lawyers is suing the federal immigration agency for refusing to accept thousands of applications for work-based permanent visas from highly skilled immigrants who were encouraged by the government to apply.
According to accounts yesterday by officials and lawyers, the immigrants were caught in a confrontation between the two federal bodies that control the immigration system, the State Department and the Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The hopes of thousands of foreigners who have been working legally in the United States were unexpectedly raised and then abruptly dashed as a result of the disagreement. They had responded last month to an announcement that permanent residency visas would be available, but on Monday learned there were none.
The immigration lawyers said the about-face by the immigration system had no precedent in at least three decades of legal practice, and said that it violated the immigration agency’s regulations. The American Immigration Lawyers Association’s legal action arm was preparing the lawsuit, said Crystal Williams, deputy director.
Federal officials said a misunderstanding had arisen from an effort by both agencies to reduce huge backlogs of applications for permanent residence visas, known as green cards. Immigration officials acknowledged that the effort was poorly handled.
nytimes
Stumble it!
This entry was posted
on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 at 10:15 am and is filed under main, big business, the rest of the world, civil rights, latin america, mexico.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.