Newsletter January - February 2004

GOBERNADOR MATA LEY DE LICENCIAS DE MANEJAR

En nuestra ltima hoja informativa, nosotros informamos en la nueva ley que habra dado las licencias para manejar a los inmigrantes indocumentados. Desgraciadamente, el Gobernador Schwarzenegger firm una factura para impedir a la nueva ley de tomar efecto. Por consiguiente, las leyes de licencia de chfer permanecen a lo mismo: usted debe poseer prueba de " residencia legal". El website estatal lista muchos documentos como prueba de residencia legal, incluso lo siguiente,: tarjeta verde, certificado de naturalizacin, una Forma I?797 aprovada (la peticin aceptado), un vlido I?94, pasaporte con la estampa indicando el proceso para una tarjeta verde u otro estado residental. Vea, http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/dl_info.htm. Usted tambin necesita un Nmero del Seguro Social; sveaee,. http://www.ssa.gov/immigration/

BOTH PRESIDENT BUSH AND CONGRESS IN FAVOR OF PROMISING NEW IMMIGRATION LAWS

The political climate seems to be turning in favor of immigrants lately. In a recent speech, President Bush recognized the contribution that undocumented workers make to America, both economically and spiritually. He called upon Congress to enact new immigration laws that would help temporary workers here in the U.S. And legislation has been introduced in Congress that seeks to protect and legalize temporary agricultural workers (the AgJobs Act), allow undocumented immigrant students who have grown up in this country to go to college and legalize their immigration status (DREAM/Student Adjustment Act), and more quickly unify families and allow workers to enter the U.S. (Immigration Reform Act of 2004).

The President does not have power to enact laws dealing with immigration, but his policies and attitudes reflect upon the decisionmakers in Congress, who draft and vote on legislation. President Bush's recent speech did not create any new laws, but merely indicated the administration's more favorable position on immigration. Listen for news about the AgJobs, DREAM and Immigration Reform Acts making their way through Congress.

USVISIT: THE PHOTOGRAPH AND FINGERPRINTING PROGRAM AT AIRPORTS AND SEAPORTS

The USVISIT Program has been implemented at many major ports of entry into the U.S. This program requires any person with a nonimmigrant visa to submit to photographing and fingerprinting, and eventually they will have to go through a "check-out" when they leave the U.S. The purpose of the "check-out" is to record whether the visaholder left the U.S. before the authorized stay expired. The visaholder must exit from the port he/she designates. At this time, only the Baltimore airport is set up for the "check-out" program, but persons leaving from other ports should keep copies of their airline tickets, etc. to prove they exited from a port other than Baltimore and were not subject to the "check-out" procedure. Note that U.S. permanent residents and citizens are not required to comply with USVISIT. For more information see http://www.dhs. gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0333.xml.