Maslink Overselling the American dream overseas

SHANGHAI/CHICAGO (Reuters) – In a conference room in an office building in downtown Shanghai, Jason Lee is literally selling the American dream.

Lee runs Maslink, a firm that connects cash-hungry American businesses with Chinese investors keen to move to the United States. His company is part of a global cottage industry that has popped up in recent years to profit from a program that allows foreigners who invest in certain small U.S. businesses to get on the fast track to U.S. residency and citizenship.
Interest in the immigration program, known as EB-5, is so high that Maslink, which already has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and Chongqing, is expanding to two more Chinese cities.
Firms like Maslink, and the U.S. companies that pay them, promote EB-5 as a quick, easy way to gain legal entry to the United States -- and to make a potential profit in the bargain.
The pitch is effective. In 2010, nearly 2,000 would-be immigrants, many from China, applied for EB-5 visas, the most ever in a single year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that oversees the program. The surge has been driven in part by a 20-fold increase in the number of U.S. companies looking to participate.
But an examination of EB-5 by Reuters suggests immigrants should think twice before investing in the limited partnerships and unregistered securities that U.S. companies and promoters like Maslink are encouraging them to buy.
Over the past two decades, thousands of immigrants have been burned by misrepresentations that EB-5 promoters make about the program, both inside and outside the United States. Many have lost not only their money but their chance at winning U.S. citizenship.
"I always tell the people who approach me that the EB-5 investment program is a risky business," said Brian Su, a Springfield, Illinois-based immigration consultant who publishes a popular blog on the program. "If you cannot bear the loss, the total loss of your investment, don't play this game."
But those risks are downplayed by almost everyone involved in the program -- including the USCIS itself. Chris Bentley, the agency's spokesman, for instance, said "the overwhelming majority" of EB-5 investors and their dependents go on to qualify for permanent resident status. An analysis of USCIS's own data, however, suggests that's not true. Nearly half the immigrant investors who won EB-5 visas during its 20-year history have failed to obtain permanent residency.
The rise in recent years of an unregulated industry paid to fill the EB-5 pipeline with rich foreigners has only added to the dangers. The U.S. businesses the immigrants are now steered to -- by firms like Maslink and by U.S. immigration attorneys -- are often the ones paying the highest commissions, not the ones offering the best investments, according to the industry insiders who spoke to Reuters.
"It's the Wild West," said Henry Liebman, a Seattle attorney and developer who has been doing EB-5 funded projects almost since the program's inception.
"You're dealing with a bunch of unregulated companies, most of them small, that aren't registered with anyone and can do whatever they want," he said. "It's definitely buyer beware."

Youth Immigration Bill Blocked by Republicans



AP – Undocumented UCLA student Leslie Perez, 22, weeps while watching a televised debate of the Dream Act.

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans on Saturday doomed an effort that would have given hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a path to legal status if they enrolled in college or joined the military.
Sponsors of the Dream Act fell five votes short of the 60 they needed to break through largely GOP opposition and win its enactment before Republicans take over the House and narrow Democrats' majority in the Senate next month.
President Barack Obama called the vote "incredibly disappointing."

"A minority of senators prevented the Senate from doing what most Americans understand is best for the country," Obama said. "There was simply no reason not to pass this important legislation."
Dozens of immigrants wearing graduation mortarboards watched from the Senate's visitors gallery, disappointment on their faces, as the 55-41 vote was announced.
"This is a dark day in America," said Jorje-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles. "The Senate has ... thrown under the bus the lives and hard work of thousands and thousands of students who love this country like their own home, and, in fact, they have no other home."
Hispanic activists and immigrant advocates had looked to the bill as a down payment on what they had hoped would be broader action by Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress to give the nation's 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants a chance at legal status.
It targeted the most sympathetic of the millions of illegal immigrants — those brought to the United States as children, who in many cases consider themselves American, speak English and have no ties to or family living in their native countries.
"They stand in the classrooms and pledge allegiance to our flag," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the bill's chief sponsor. "This is the only country they have ever known. All they're asking for is a chance to serve this nation."
Critics called the bill a backdoor grant of amnesty that would encourage more foreigners to sneak into the United States in hopes of being legalized eventually.
"Treating the symptoms of the problem might make us feel better ... but it can allow the underlying problem to metastasize," said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. "Unfortunately, that's what's happening at our border."

Rare immigration bills pass Congress

AP - NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Congress has taken the unusual step of waiving immigration restrictions for two Japanese citizens fighting to live in the United States.

The private immigration bills passed by the House on Wednesday — they had already been passed by the Senate — are the first to be approved in more than five years. The measures now go to President Barack Obama for his signature.
One bill would clear the way for the granting of legal status to the widow of a Tennessee Marine who gave birth to their son after he was killed in Iraq in 2008. Another would provide relief to a Japanese man living in California whose mother was killed in a car crash when he was a teenager and who was never legally adopted.
"I have always seen myself as part of this whole American society, and I am American, just like my friends but without the status or papers," said the man, Shigeru Yamada, now 28. "For me to finally become, or have the potential to become a permanent resident, it means a great deal to me, it really does. I can't really express how happy I am."
Congress can vote to let individual immigrants in exceptional cases live in the country legally but hasn't done so since the 108th Congress, in 2003-04. Immigrant advocates see such bills as a last resort when other efforts to obtain a green card have failed.
"The logjam has been broken open for the first time in five years," said Brent Renison, an immigration attorney who represented Hotaru Nakama Ferschke, whose husband Marine Sgt. Michael Ferschke died in Iraq in 2008.
The couple married by telephone while she was in Japan and he was in Iraq. She was already pregnant with his child. But their marriage was not considered valid under immigration law because they did not consummate it, since he died in combat before they could be reunited.
The Marine's mother, Robin Ferschke, was elated when Republican congressman John Duncan of Tennessee called her in Maryville on Wednesday morning to tell her know Congress had passed the relief measure after many legislative setbacks. Ferschke hopes the actions open the door for more private bills to be considered by Congress.
"These bills are tragedies and they shouldn't just sit there for years," she said.
A private bill is one that benefits or provides relief to specified individuals or companies, often when no other remedy is available. Subjects of private bills include immigration, taxation, public lands, medical affairs and Armed services decorations.
Anywhere from a few dozen to more than a hundred private immigration bills are introduced each session of Congress, though most don't go anywhere, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
Private immigration bills were more common until a corruption scandal involving payoffs for the sponsorship of legislation in the 1970s. Use of the bills declined further after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with only four enacted in the 108th Congress, the report said.
But immigration attorneys say that even getting a member of Congress to introduce a private bill can help an immigrant facing deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds off on deporting immigrants who have private bills pending in the Senate, or those whose cases have been vetted by the House immigration subcommittee and for whom an investigative report has been requested from ICE.
Carl Shusterman, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles, said he has four clients who have private bills pending in Congress — the only protection that keeps them from being deported.
The bills expire soon after the end of each session, and new ones are typically introduced when Congress starts up again. But most private bills don't pass.
"Some of our people are on their fourth private bills already," Shusterman said.
Lawmakers may use private bills to help individual citizens but also to gauge whether there's a need for broader changes in immigration policy.
Shigeru Yamada came to the United States on a visa with his mother from Japan when he was 10 years old. She was killed in a car crash three years later, in 1995, and he went to live with his aunt in Chula Vista, Calif., but was never formally adopted.
He finished high school and attended community college. But Yamada, known to his friends as "Shiggy," was arrested by U.S. immigration agents in 2004 while riding a bus to downtown San Diego.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Bob Filner introduced bills on behalf of Yamada, which prevented his deportation. On Wednesday, he planned to celebrate with friends after getting off work as a coordinator at a Lasik center, but noted that the president still must sign the bill into law.
Republican lawmakers have resisted passing private bills in recent years, arguing that immigration should be tackled on a policy, not an individual, level, said Gregory Chen, director of advocacy at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The Ferschke case won them over, he said, and that led to a compromise with Democrats working on Yamada's behalf.
"To break an almost six-year blockade on these cases of private bills, I think, is an example of an opportunity to work together on these," Chen said. "It certainly eliminates arguments where people have been resisting private bills, saying private bills are not, as a policy, the way such matters should be handled."
Duncan had been working for more than a year on his private bill for the Ferschke family, along with Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, a combat Marine in Vietnam and former Navy secretary. Webb was the sponsor of the version that the House passed on a voice vote Wednesday. The two measures allow the Japanese citizens to be eligible for permanent resident status upon filing an application.
"Helping people caught up in extraordinary circumstances like the Ferschkes' is one of the most basic and important jobs of Congress," Duncan said, "and I am so grateful for all the bipartisan support in the House and Senate."
Since Michael Ferschke's death, his mother has only been able to see her grandson, Mikey, during temporary visits. Nearly two years old, he's starting to look a lot like his Marine father and is speaking English and Japanese words, she said.
"Just to hold that baby means so much to me," she said. "When I hold him, I am holding my Michael."

Advocates of Immigration hope 'Secure Communities' Documents Will Slow Controversial Immigrant Deportation Program

Immigration activists are hoping internal documents a federal judge has ordered the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release will shed light on why the Department of Homeland Security abruptly announced communities could no longer opt out of a controversial immigration enforcement program this fall.

Washington state and several municipalities like Arlington, Virginia have said they want to opt out of ICE's "Secure Communities" deportation program, which scours local jails for fingerprints of illegal immigrants to deport. Critics of the program point out that about a quarter of those deported had no criminal records, since suspects are fingerprinted for minor infractions, thereby permitting ICE officials to initiate deportation proceedings against them. Detractors also say the program, which has deported 50,000 since its creation in 2008, hampers communication between immigrants and law enforcement, since immigrants fearful of deportation are unlikely to come forward as witnesses in more serious legal proceedings.
At first, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano seemed sympathetic to these concerns, writing in a September letter (pdf) to Rep. Zoe Lofgren that localities could opt out of the program if they wished. In August, ICE released a document, no longer available on its website, that also suggested there was a way for communities to opt out.
Then, on October 5, Napolitano said at a press conference that the program is mandatory for all, and will be implemented fully by 2013. So what happened?
We may be about to find out. A federal judge has ordered the DHS to release, by January 17, all internal documents related to whether Secure Communities is optional. Critics of the program hope the bevy of documents will shed light on the abrupt change in policy, and perhaps even halt the program's implementation. (The program's supporters, meanwhile, say it has produced a 70 percent increase in deportation of criminals since 2008, and that many non-criminals who get deported have lengthy rap sheets of dropped charges.)
"I think there are serious legal questions that remain about DHS's authority to mandate participation," says Chris Newman, the legal director for the National Day Laborers Organizing Network. The organization joined with two others to sue ICE to release the Secure Communities documents, and is also requesting an injunction on its enforcement. "Up until now this program that [ICE chief] John Morton said would revolutionize immigration enforcement has been rolled out in secret. I don't think any program that will revolutionize immigration enforcement should be done in a vacuum."
Margaret Huang, the executive director of civil liberties-focused Rights Working Group, says she thinks the documents may show that the agency was overwhelmed with requests from communities to opt out of the program, which is why they decided to reverse the opt-out plan. Huang worked with Arlington's city council in their attempt to opt out of Secure Communities, and she says the community is still confused about whether it can opt out because they have yet to receive a written document saying they cannot.
"I think Arlington County elected officials made a decision on this program based on hearing from their constituents, and they did it on the understanding, based on written communication, that it was an option. I think that raises a lot of questions about the appropriateness of the decision and perhaps also about the legality," she says.
The documents may also spark outrage if they show local officials were intentionally misled about the program's optionality.
"I think if the documents show that internally DHS...has intended and designed this program to be mandatory for states and localities, but that they've been giving a different impression all along, I think it will create huge uproar among states and localities," said Greg Chen, advocacy director of the American Association of Immigration Lawyers.
ICE says it has been forthright with the public in promulgating new policy directives. "We have made a very high priority of transparency and candor," Beth Gibson, ICE assistant deputy director, told The Washington Post. "We have posted all our policies online . . . we are operating openly and forthrightly."

Arizona Border Patrol Agent Shot Dead

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A U.S. Border Patrol agent was shot dead by assailants close to the Mexico border in southern Arizona and four suspects have been arrested, authorities said on Wednesday.

Agent Brian A. Terry was shot dead while on patrol near the border city of Nogales on Tuesday night, Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman Mario Escalante said.
"We have four subjects in custody and we are continuing the search for more subjects," Escalante told Reuters.
Arizona straddles a furiously trafficked corridor for human and drug smugglers from Mexico.  Escalante said the FBI was leading the investigation into the shooting and would provide further details during the day.

Men stand behind the border fence on the Mexican side as a U.S. border patrol officer walks on a path on the outskirts of San Diego, California

Democrats delay action on young immigrants bill

AP - WASHINGTON – Democrats have delayed a showdown vote on legislation carving out a path to legal status for foreign-born youngsters brought to this country illegally.

Facing GOP objections, Democrats are putting aside the so-called Dream Act. They're short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure.
Democratic officials say they'll try to move a House-passed version after the Senate acts on funding the government and extending tax cuts. Republicans have said they won't agree to consider anything else until those issues are addressed.
The bill grants hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children a chance to gain legal status if they enroll in college or join the military.

Filipinos sue CA hospital over English-only rule

LOS ANGELES – Dozens of Filipino hospital workers in California sued their employer Tuesday alleging they were the sole ethnic group targeted by a rule requiring them to speak only English.
The group of 52 nurses and medical staff filed a complaint accusing Delano Regional Medical Center of banning them from speaking Tagalog and other Filipino languages while letting other workers speak Spanish and Hindi.
The plaintiffs are seeking to join an August complaint filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Kern County federal court over the hospital's enforcement of a rule requiring workers to speak English.
Filipino workers said they were called to a special meeting in August 2006 where they were warned not to speak Tagalog and told surveillance cameras would be installed, if necessary, to monitor them. Since then, workers said they were told on a daily basis by fellow staffers to speak only English, even on breaks.
"I felt like people were always watching us," said tearful 56-year-old Elnora Cayme, who worked for the hospital from 1980 to 2008. "Even when we spoke English ... people would come and approach us and tell us, 'English only.'"
A message was left at the hospital seeking comment.
In its lawsuit, the EEOC has accused the hospital in California's San Joaquin Valley of creating a hostile working environment for Filipinos by singling them out for reprimands and for encouraging other staff to report them. The agency is seeking an injunction to protect the workers against future discrimination.
The EEOC has seen an increase in complaints alleging discrimination based on national origin amid a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, said Anna Park, a regional attorney for the EEOC. That's especially the case in California's central valley, where a greater share of the complaints the agency receives relate to such issues than in the nation as a whole.
In this case, the current and former hospital workers filed a separate complaint under state law in part because monetary damages are capped by federal law, said Julie Su, litigation director for the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which represents the plaintiffs. They want the English-only policy to be changed and for hospital staff to be trained on the new rule.
Under California law, employers may require workers to speak English if there is a business necessity, Su said.
Delano Regional Medical Center is a 156-bed hospital located about 30 miles north of Bakersfield.

Immigration - Minority - Majority

Well over a year ago, the Census Bureau released a national projection through mid-century showing that the U.S. population will be minority white in the year 2042, creating much ballyhoo, as well as speculation about what it implies for the nation’s voting patterns, labor force and generational divides. That projection assumed an immigration trajectory of up to two million each year.
Never mind that there are now four states and a slew of cities with so called “minority majority” populations. The sense that the combined minority population would outnumber whites some 40 years out led to the usual outrage among those who feel our country is changing too fast, and that immigration is the major cause.
New Census projections will probably bring some comfort to those who prefer the status quo. One Census alternative to last year’s projection assumes a lower, and constant immigration of roughly one million new Americans annually over the 2010-2050 time span. This is broadly consistent with our experience of the last two decades, after averaging variations due to economic shifts.
The new, more realistic projection pushes the “minority majority” tipping point back eight years, to 2050. This scenario also estimates that the U.S. population will not reach the 400 million benchmark until just after 2050, compared with 2039 under the earlier projection.
Census also offered projections based on other immigration scenarios, with the highest assuming a rise to 2.4 million annual immigrants by mid-decade. Not surprisingly, this moves the minority white tipping point closer to the year 2040 and shows the 400 million mark reached already in 2035.

Thus, those concerned about long-term immigration are right to note that immigration levels do have consequences for the nation’s demographic future. Yet more so than its impact on race, the projections show the significance immigration holds for the near term size of our labor force.
This is made plain in a projection that shows what would happen if immigration were eliminated between now and 2050. Under that scenario, we would see an absolute decline of more than 7 million persons in our labor force. This would begin five years from now, and occur over the 20-year period when the large baby boom generation moves into prime retirement age.

It would make our predicament similar to that in immigration-wary nations of Europe or Japan, whose working-age populations are already diminishing.
In comparison, any of the Census Bureau’s positive immigration scenarios will fill the void and add from 31 million to 64 million working-age adults over the next 40 years. It is a demographic fact that continued immigration is necessary for this country to maintain a growing vital labor force.
Census’ “no immigration” projection also sends a message to those who would eliminate immigration because of race-ethnic diversity concerns: it is already too late to return to the predominantly white population of the past. If immigration stopped this year, we will continue to become more diverse simply due to the fertility and population momentum associated with minority-majority make up of today’s population. In this case, whites will comprise only 58 percent of the population at mid-century (compared to about two thirds today) and the under 5 population will become majority minority.
There is much to consider beyond mere numbers of people when we finally get serious about implementing an enlightened immigration policy reform. Since it’s nearly certain that immigration will continue at some level, these projections make fairly obvious that newcomers from across the world will change our race, ethnic and national-origin complexion in ways, it seems, that can only improve our interconnectedness to the global economy. Yet, because immigration is so crucial to the near- and long-term growth of our working population, it is imperative that any forthcoming reform pays close attention to matching the skill levels—both high and low—of new immigrant waves, to our forthcoming labor force needs.

Whites Predicted to be in Minority over the next 40 Years

 WASHINGTON — Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.
In fact, demographers say this year could be the "tipping point" when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites.
The numbers are growing because immigration to the U.S. has boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. Minorities made up 48 percent of U.S. children born in 2008, the latest census estimates available, compared to 37 percent in 1990.
"Census projections suggest America may become a minority-majority country by the middle of the century. For America's children, the future is now," said Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire who researched many of the racial trends in a paper being released Wednesday.
Johnson explained there are now more Hispanic women of prime childbearing age who tend to have more children than women of other races. More white women are waiting until they are older to have children, but it is not yet known whether that will have a noticeable effect on the current trend of increasing minority newborns.
Broken down by race, about 52 percent of babies born in 2008 were white. That's compared to about 25 percent who were Hispanic, 15 percent black and 4 percent Asian. Another 4 percent were identified by their parents as multiracial.
The numbers highlight the nation's growing racial and age divide, seen in pockets of communities across the U.S., which could heighten tensions in current policy debates from immigration reform and education to health care and Social Security.
There are also strong implications for the 2010 population count, which begins in earnest next week, when more than 120 million U.S. households receive their census forms in the mail. The Census Bureau is running public service announcements this week to improve its tally of young children, particularly minorities, who are most often missed in the once-a-decade head count. The campaign features Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer, the English- and Spanish-speaking cartoon character who helps "mommy fill out our census form."
The population figures are used to distribute federal aid and redraw legislative boundaries with racial and ethnic balance, as required by federal law.
The adults among themselves sometimes forget the census is about everyone, and kids should be counted," said Census Bureau director Robert Groves. "If we fail to count a newborn that is born this month, that newborn misses all the benefits of the census for 10 years."

Whites currently make up two-thirds of the total U.S. population, and recent census estimates suggest the number of minorities may not overtake the number of whites until 2050.
Right now, roughly 1 in 10 of the nation's 3,142 counties already have minority populations greater than 50 percent. But 1 in 4 communities have more minority children than white children or are nearing that point, according to the study, which Johnson co-published.
That is because Hispanic women on average have three children, while other women on average have two. The numbers are 2.99 children for Hispanics, 1.87 for whites, 2.13 for blacks and 2.04 for Asians in the U.S. And the number of white women of prime childbearing age is on the decline, dropping 19 percent from 1990.
For example:
In Gwinnett County, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, the population has shifted from 16 percent minority in 1990 to 58 percent minority in 2008. The number of blacks and Hispanics nearly doubled, while the number of white young people stayed roughly the same.
The population of Dakota County, Neb., increased from 15 percent minority in 1990 to 54 percent in 2008, due largely to an influx of Hispanics who came looking for work in meatpacking and other labor.
In Lake County, Ind., a suburb of Chicago, the minority population grew from 43 percent in 1990 to 53 percent in 2008 as the number of white children declined, the number of blacks stayed stable and the number of Hispanics increased.
The 2008 census estimates used local records of births and deaths, tax records of people moving within the U.S., and census statistics on immigrants. The figures for "white" refer to those whites who are not of Hispanic ethnicity.