03 Nov 2010

USCIS Reminder: New Fees Take Effect November 23rd

As reported to followers of the MurthyBlog in September, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will change filing fees for immigration paperwork - increasing most fees by an average of ten percent - effective November 23rd. (See USCIS: New Filing Fees Take Effect November...

02 Nov 2010

NPR: Prison Industry Involved in Drafting AZ Immigration Law

Despite ongoing litigation and political controversy over Arizona's immigration law, politicians in several states are publically proposing copycat legislation for their own states, with Georgia legislators among the latest group to consider the possibility. (See Georgia Looks West, Seeking to Stop Illegal Immigration, by Jeremy...

28 Oct 2010

New Naturalization Certificates to be More Secure

In the years since the attacks of September 11, 2001, government agencies have worked to make it harder for terrorists and other criminals to enter the United States. Airport security has been beefed up, and states have tightened their procedures for issuing drivers' licenses and...

27 Oct 2010

TRAC Statistics: Immigration Case Backlog Continues to Increase

Researchers at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a government-accountability project based at Syracuse University, announced recently that, as of the end of September, when fiscal year 2010 (FY10) came to a close, the case backlog facing U.S. immigration courts reached a record high of...

26 Oct 2010

Nonimmigrant Veterans Beware!

Thousands of non-citizens serve in the United States military each year, and serve with honor, many going on to become U.S. citizens. Some, however, mistakenly assume that their military service automatically confers American citizenship, an assumption that can cost them dearly if they get in...

25 Oct 2010

Rep. Gutierrez to Continue His Quest for CIR

Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez, one of the leading Congressional advocates for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) announced last week that he does not plan to enter the Chicago mayoral race, as had been widely predicted; instead, he plans to continue his campaign to seek a fundamental...

22 Oct 2010

Texas Woman to Become U.S. Citizen at Age 101

Amid all of the controversy along the southwestern border of the United States, there are occasional and surprising moments of uplift. CNN reported recently about a Brownsville, Texas woman - Eulalia Garcia Maturey, now 101 years old - who was brought to the United States...