Based on the 2010 Census data approximately 11.2 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S.  Of this 11.2 million at least half paid income taxes. Undocumented immigrants also pay property taxes and everyone, regardless of lawful status, pays sales tax.  All together undocumented immigrants provide a valuable source of revenue to the government.

The Institution for Taxation and Economic Policy has estimated the state and local taxes paid in 2010 by undocumented immigrants, who are heads of households, collectively amount to $11.2 billion dollars in state and local taxes.  This figure includes $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.

Florida receives about $806.8 million in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants.

Other states that receive large revenues from undocumented immigrants include:

-California $2.7 billion

-Texas $1.6 billion

-New York 662.4 million

-Illinois $499.2 million

To read the full report or to find out how much your state generates from undocumented immigrant revenue please read:

UNAUTHORIZED IMMIGRANTS PAY TAXES, TOO

President Obama has marshaled former California Governor Schwarzenegger, New York Mayor Bloomberg, San Antonio Mayor Castro and Philadelphia Police Commissioner Ramsey, who also served as Washington, D.C., police chief, and others in an attempt to show wide and varied support for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws.

The invitees are among a bipartisan group expected to meet with Obama at the White House on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the importance of fixing the nation’s “broken immigration system” to meet the country’s 21st century economic and national security needs.

President Obama has been under fire from immigration activists and Spanish-language media for failing to take up immigration in his first term. He has been consistently reminded of his campaign promise to address immigration early in his administration.  President Obama has repeatedly said he is committed to an immigration overhaul but the deportation of a record 393,000 immigrants in the last year and other enforcement tactics during his administration have left his supports questioning the sincerity of his promise.

To read the original article please visit the Miami Herald.

In February an Arizona jury convicted Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 50, of one count of second-degree murder in the death of Noor Faleh Almaleki. He was also found guilty of aggravated assault for causing serious injuries to Amal Edan Khalaf, the mother of Noor’s fiancé, as well as two counts of leaving the scene.

On Friday, April 15, 2011 Judge Roland Steinle sentenced Almaleki to a total of 34½ years in the Arizona Department of Corrections for his crimes.

Committees in the Florida House and Senate are set to take up controversial immigration bills this week. The tougher of the two, which is being carried through the House by Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, is now on Thursday’s Economic Affairs Committee agenda.

Snyder’s measure faces resistance and could be open to the same constitutional challenge surrounding Arizona’s controversial bill because it creates new state-level crimes for immigration.

Snyder has acknowledged that some portions of the bill may be preempted by federal law. Two weeks ago, he said he was still working through concerns various groups have raised about the measure before moving ahead with it.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s immigration bill has been routed around the Criminal Justice Committee and is now headed straight to the budget panel, which is set to discuss the measure this week.

The binding portions of the Senate’s bill focus on requiring employers to verify the eligibility of new hires to work in the country.   A newly proposed amendment would ease those requirements, requiring employers to ask new hires for visas or other forms of identification.

Check back for updates…

On April 8, 2011, the United States Department of State released the 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.  These reports provide encyclopedic detail on human rights conditions in over 190 countries for the year 2010. According to the reports, in 2010, governments around the world continued to commit severe human rights violations and abuses.

To find out more information regarding the reports in general please visit:

2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

This link can also be used to read each of the detailed country reports.

Cap Type                       Amount               Cap Eligible Petitions               Date of Last Count

H-1B Regular Cap       65,000                     5,900                                            4/7/2011

H-1B Master’s Cap     20,000                     4,500                                             4/7/2011

These numbers reflect the number of petitions that USCIS has accepted under these particular types of caps. The number reflects cases that have been approved or are still pending. It does not include petitions that have been denied.

USCUS began accepting H-1B petitions that are subject to the FY 2012 cap on April 1, 2011. H-1B petitions may be filed no more than 6-months in advance of the requested start date.

If you have questions about sponsoring an employee for an H-1B visa please contact a licensed immigration attorney today.

The following two articles were featured in the Chicago Tribune.  I found them to be interesting critiques on the immigration court system I will reserve my own judgments but urge you to read them as I believe these articles raise some valid issues.

Immigration court: Troubled system, long waits

How to fix ‘massive crisis’ in immigration courts

Franklin Ibeabuchi, 36, a Nigerian citizen, came to the United States when he was 10 years old.  His family left Nigeria for Jacksonville after years of trying to hide Ibeabuchi in rural towns and special schools.  Ibeabuchi is albino and his family worked tirelessly to protect and hide him from witch doctors.

In sub-Saharan Africa witch doctors believe the bones of albinos can bring wealth to their patients and that their potions are strongest when the sacrifice is pure.  A pure sacrifice means the witch doctors severs the limbs of the living, often children, and leave them to bleed to death.  These body parts sell for thousands of dollars per limb under the belief they possess special powers.  These types of killings have occurred for generations.  Since 2007, in Tanzania alone, there have been 59 documented albino killings.

More than 20 years after coming to the United States Ibeabuchi was threatened with removal to Nigeria following an arrest in 2003.  The charge was later dropped but since Ibeabuchi’s student visa had expired he was placed in removal proceedings.  Ibeabuchi’s son also suffers from albinism and if removed Ibeabuchi’s family would not accompany him back to Nigeria.  With no family to serve as a support system and to help him hide Ibeabuchi would have been an easy target.  Ibeabuchi told the immigration judge returning to Nigeria was unimaginable.  In February 2011 an Orlando Immigration judge agreed that Ibeabuchi would be at risk if sent back to Nigeria and granted Ibeabuchi’s withholding of removal.

To date there has not been a similar case in United States and while the case was not precedent setting in a legal sense it does provide a foundation for other attorneys who want to pursue similar cases.  The Florida Coastal School of Law’s immigration rights clinic and legal fellow Mr. Carlos J. Martin represented Ibeabuchi.

Withholding of removal does not provide a long-term solution but Ibeabuchi will soon be authorized to work again and can begin exploring his options for permanent residency.

To read the original news story please visit Jacksonville man fights deportation with his albinism as a defense.

You can also visit Under The Same Sun’s website for more information.

Tomorrow April 1, 2011 marks the first day USCIS will begin accepting H-1B petitions for Year 2012.  Remember these visas are numerically capped and if you are interested in filing paperwork on behalf of a potential employee it is best to file early!

E-Verify is an online tool that allows workers to check their own employment eligibility status before formally seeking employment.  Beginning March 21, 2011 the E-Verify Self Check service will be available to users who maintain an address and are physically located in Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Mississippi, Virginia or the District of Columbia.  In the coming months, USCIS will continue to expand the E-Verify Self Check service to additional eligible users on a rolling basis.

E-Verify Self Check, a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), is the first online E-Verify program offered directly to workers and job seekers.  This voluntary, free, fast and secure service gives users the opportunity to submit corrections of any inaccuracies in their DHS and SSA records before applying for jobs—allowing workers to better protect themselves from potential workplace discrimination that could result from an employer’s abuse of the E-Verify system. The E-Verify program compares information from the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) against federal government databases to verify workers’ employment eligibility. The E-Verify Self Check system allows each user to identify data inaccuracies—which often range from typographical errors to unreported name changes—that would result in a mismatch before he or she seeks employment.

The E-Verify Self Check process consists of four steps:

• Users enter identifying information online (such as name, date of birth and address)
• Users confirm their identity by answering demographic and/or financial questions generated by a third-party identity assurance service
• Users enter work eligibility information such as a Social Security number and, depending on citizenship status, an Alien Registration number
• E-Verify Self Check checks users’ information against relevant SSA and DHS databases and returns information on users’ employment eligibility status

Every aspect of the E-Verify Self Check process is designed to secure users’ personally identifiable information and to prevent misuse of the service. Additionally, information that users provide to E-Verify Self Check and the results of an E-Verify Self Check are not shared with users’ employers or prospective employers. The results of a Self Check query do not replace the results of an employer E-Verify query.

For more information on E-Verify Self Check, visit www.uscis.gov/everify