Here’s the story of 4 year-old Carlos Jamison Moser, one many undocumented children separated from their parents.

In May 2007, federal immigration agents raided the poultry processing plant where Encarnacion Bail Romero was working.  Rather than removing her back to Guatemala the government charged her with aggravated identity fraud for working under a stolen Social Security number and imprisoned her.   While in prison Bail Romero’s brother and sister cared for her infant son Carlos.  Eventually they sought help from a clergy couple who offered baby-sitting services.  The clergy couple asked to adopt the boy, but Bail Romero said no.  The clergy couple then introduced the boy to the Mosers and eventually put the boy up for adoption.

The Mosers asked a judge for temporary custody.  After a judge granted the Mosers temporary custody, they waited a year, more than the six-month minimum stipulated by Missouri law, before asking the court’s permission to adopt the boy.  In October 2008, a judge approved the adoption, ruling that Bail Romero had abandoned her child by not trying to contact the Mosers for a year.  After the adoption the Mosers legally changed the boy’s name to Carlos Jamison Moser.

In February 2009, Bail Romero was released from prison and started fighting to re-gain custody. An appeals court sided with her in July, concluding the adoption was invalid. The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments in this case in November and could makes its decision any day.

The federal government plans to remove Bail Romero back to Guatemala, where her two other children live, however her removal has been stayed until the courts resolve the question of her son’s custody.

University of South Carolina law professor, Marcia Zug, estimates there may be hundreds or thousands of cases in the United States where immigrant children are taken from their biological parents.  She adds because records of many similar cases are sealed, and many immigrants cannot afford to hire lawyers, this case is likely the tip of the iceberg.

For the full story: Heart-wrenching Fight for Immigrant’s Son

The DREAM Act was scheduled to go before the Senate  today but Senate Democrats conceded they do not have the votes needed to pass the bill and voted to pull the measure from consideration.

However, the bill still needs to go before the Senate.  The Senate plans to vote today but as mentioned in yesterday’s blog post the outcome is uncertain as some Democrats are predicted to defect thus requiring Republican votes.  The last time the bill went before the Senate it received 52 of the 60 votes needed.  If the bill is not passed through Congress it will be sent back to the House and tabled until 2011 at the earliest.

If passed, individuals who are under 30 and high school graduates and have lived in the US illegally and continuously for the last five years may apply for conditional non-immigrant status.  They can then earn legal immigrant status after ten years as a conditional non-immigrant with either two years of military service or two years in a four-year institution of higher education.

The candidates will have to prove good moral character and that they arrived in the US before they were 16 years old.  If they meet these requirements they will be eligible to apply for permanent residency.  Those who do not meet the requirements after ten years would lose their conditional nonimmigrant status and would be subject to immigration action including removal.

The DREAM Act is scheduled for cloture vote around 4 p.m. today.  The DREAM Act would give hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants a chance at becoming legal residents. Eligible individuals must meet a variety of requirements, such as, earned a high school diploma and attending college, or enrolled in military service.

It is predicted the odds of passage in House are better than in the Senate, but the outcome remains unclear because some Democrats are expected to defect on the measure, requiring Republican votes.  Republicans have referred to the bill as “a mass amnesty” rewarding illegal immigrants and oppose it on a variety of grounds, including national security.

Please check back for updates.

The J-1 Summer Work and Travel program, allows college students to come and work in the U.S. for up to four months and is one of the State Department’s most popular visas. Participation has boomed from about 20,000 in 1996 to a peak of more than 150,000 in 2008.

Some of the 100,000s of foreign college students who came to the U.S. on J-1 visas to participate in a summer work programs have been forced to work in strip clubs instead of restaurants.  Others unfortunate students earned $1 an hour or less. These students recounted tales of living in apartments so crowded that they had to “hotbunk” or sleep in shifts because there were not enough beds. These unlucky students were routinely threatened with deportation or eviction if they quit.

It has been noted the J-1 is the ideal visa to exploit because the workers usually leave the country within a few months

Businesses that hire students can save 8 percent by using a foreign worker over an American employee because they do not have to pay Medicare, Social Security and unemployment taxes. The students are required to have health insurance before they arrive in the U.S., another cost that employers don’t have to bear.  Many businesses say they need the seasonal work force to meet the demand of tourist season.   Strip clubs and adult entertainment companies openly solicit J-1 workers, even though government regulations ban students from taking jobs “that might bring the Department of State into notoriety or disrepute.”

Hotels, restaurants and other businesses often hire third-party labor recruiters to supply the J-1 workers. Many of those brokers are people from the students’ native countries.  These middlemen commonly dock students’ pay so heavily for lodging, transportation and other necessities that the wages work out to $1 an hour or less, according to George Collins, an inspector at the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Department in the Florida Panhandle who has worked cases involving J-1 students since 2001.

Last month, the department said it had finally created a database of complaints.

“It turns out that until this year, we did NOT keep a record of complaints. Now, we do,” says Marthena Cowart, a senior adviser for the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

To read more please visit International Students in U.S. on J-1 Visas forced to Work in Strip Clubs, Earn Low Wages, Probe Finds

Applications or petitions postmarked or otherwise filed on or after today’s date, November 23, 2010, must include the new fee, or they will be rejected.

The Orlando Immigration Court resumed operations this morning. The phone system is now functioning and the new phone number is 407-722-8900.

The relocation has not been completed as of this morning (November 22, 2010) and the Orlando Immigration Court has not yet reopened its doors.  Please check back for updates.

The residents of Brookline, Massachusetts approved a proposal that would allow legal immigrants who are at least 18 years the opportunity to vote in matters that are specific to the town of Brookline.

It is estimated that one in eight Brookline residents is foreign born, and about half of Brookline’s residents are non-citizens. Proposal supporters feel non-citizen residents should have the right to vote on local matters that affect their lives.

Before this measure is effective it needs to pass through the state legislature, which has not been favorable to similar proposals in the past. Previously, Cambridge and Amherst passed similar measures and the state legislature turned them down.