Archive for December, 2009
Monday, December 28th, 2009
Stewart Rabinowitz, of the Dallas-based law firm Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, offers informed commentary about the estimates of the 2008 U.S. legal permanent resident population.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released information regarding the legal permanent resident (LPR) population living in the United States as of January 1, 2008, and has estimated that 12.6 million LPRs lived in the United States on that date. The LPR population includes persons granted lawful permanent residence, but not those who have become U.S. citizens. One-half obtained LPR status in 2000 or later; one-quarter became LPRs during 2005-07.
Data on the size and characteristics of the foreign-born population are needed to assess the impact of immigration and integration of immigrants into U.S. society. Stewart Rabinowitz, an immigration lawyer from the Dallas-based law firm Rabinowitz and Rabinowitz, explains how the estimates are compiled. “The decennial census and monthly household surveys of the Census Bureau include questions on place of birth, citizenship, and year of entry into the United States. This data provides information on the total foreign-born population, naturalized citizens, and non-citizens. National population data on the major subcategories of non-citizens, including LPRs, students, temporary workers, and unauthorized immigrants, however, are not readily available from any source and must be estimated.”In 1981, Congress discontinued an alien registration program which required all legal resident aliens to report their status annually to the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service making direct calculations since then more difficult.Immigration data collected by DHS measures administrative events such as the number of aliens granted lawful permanent residence or the number approved for asylum, but not the population of legal permanent residents or the population as of asylees living in the United States at a point in time. Estimates of the LPR population have been derived primarily from Census and DHS data by estimating a base population as of a certain date and adding subsequent components of population change. Adds Rabinowitz, “A variant of this approach has been used by DHS to estimate the resident LPR population since 2002.”
Separate population estimates were developed for LPRs who entered the United States before 1980 and during the interval between 1980 and 2007. Two sets of estimates were added together to obtain the overall estimated population as of January 1, 2008.
To contact a Dallas immigration lawyer or Dallas immigration attorney visit Rabinowitzrabinowitz.com.
Tags: Dallas immigration, Dallas Immigration attorney, Dallas Immigration lawyer
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Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Stewart Rabinowitz, of the Dallas-based law firm Rabinowitz and Rabinowitz, weighs in on the recent ICE decision to educate the public about modern day victims of human trafficking.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a media initiative to inform the public about the horrors and prevalence of human trafficking, which is modern-day slavery.
A public service announcement campaign, “Hidden in Plain Sight,” is intended to draw the American public’s attention to the plight of human-trafficking victims in the United States. Victims of human trafficking are often sexually exploited and forced to work against their will.
“Hidden in Plain Sight” was rolled out last month on posters, billboards and transit shelter signs in major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, Newark, New Orleans, New York, St. Paul, San Antonio, San Francisco, and Tampa. Asserts Stewart Rabinowitz of the Dallas-based law firm Rabinowitz and Rabinowitz, “The goal is to raise public awareness about the existence of human trafficking in communities nationwide and ask members of the public to take action if they encounter possible victims. ICE is hoping that by going directly to the American public they can root out the criminals associated with human trafficking. “
“It would shock the majority of Americans,” states Rabinowitz, “that slavery still exists today in communities throughout our country. This heinous crime is well hidden, which means that the public has to be educated about human trafficking and encouraged to stay alert for possible victims.”
Current estimates are that 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked around the world every year. These victims are trafficked into the commercial sex trade and into forced-labor situations. Many of these victims are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs; instead, they are coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, farm or factory labor, or other types of forced labor.
The greatest challenge in combating human trafficking is victim identification. These victims end up in a foreign country, often unable to speak the language and without anyone to advocate for them.
“Traffickers often take the victims’ travel and identity documents. They tell their victims that if they attempt to escape, their families back home will be either physically or financially harmed,” concludes Rabinowitz.
To contact a Dallas immigration lawyer or Dallas immigration attorney visit Rabinowitzrabinowitz.com.
Tags: Dallas immigration, Dallas Immigration attorney, Dallas Immigration lawyer
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The bar to residency in the U.S. based upon the foreign national being a public charge has been part of U.S. immigration law for more than 100 years. An individual who is likely to become a public charge is inadmissible to the United States and ineligible to become a legal permanent resident. Receiving public benefits, however, does not automatically make an individual a public charge.
Immigration laws have generated some concern about whether a foreign national may face adverse immigration consequences for having received federal, state, or local public benefits. Some foreign nationals and their families are eligible for public benefits – including disaster relief, treatment of communicable diseases, immunization, and children’s nutrition and health care programs – without being found to be a public charge.
Benefits not subject to public charge consideration are those that involve non-cash benefits and that are not intended for income maintenance. Additional benefits include:
Medicaid and other health insurance and health services (including public assistance for immunizations, and for testing and treatment of symptoms of communicable diseases), use of health clinics, short term rehabilitation services, prenatal care, and emergency medical services other than support for long-term institutional care
While some of the above programs might provide cash benefits, the purpose of such benefits is not for income maintenance, but rather to avoid the need for ongoing cash assistance for income maintenance, and do not adversely impact foreign nationals’ admissibility on the issue of public charge.
