Florida, District 25

After Coming as a Cuban Refugee, This Entrepreneur Built a $50 Million Business
When the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, Cuban-born entrepreneur José Prendes watched the ensuing chaos carefully. He was trying to determine which e-businesses would survive and why. One that continued advertising with television commercials, he noticed, was 1-800-Pet-Meds. “I thought that it had to be a good business, since amid… Read More

Language Diversity and the Workforce: The Growing Need for Bilingual Workers in Georgia’s Economy
Gov. Nathan Deal signed H.B. 879 into law, establishing a Seal of Biliteracy program to recognize high school graduates who have attained proficiency in at least one language in addition to English. The bill’s passage coincides with the release of a New American Economy research brief, “Language Diversity and… Read More

Declaration from Paromita Shah
The court had not posted any information about the Artesia docket. The courtrooms were locked. Judge Hladylowycz was holding master calendar hearings and bond hearings. After watching those hearings, I asked Judge Hladylowycz if I could attend the review of negative credible fear hearings. Judy Hladylowycz told me that those… Read More

Successful Tech CEO Wants to Hire American Workers, but U.S. Immigration Won’t Let Him Stay in the Country
Peteris Krumins has been fascinated by computers for as long as he can remember. “As a child, I would spend literally all my time tinkering with hardware and software,” he says. By the time he was 15, he’d already been hired as a professional computer programmer in his native Latvia. Read More

Immigrants in Wisconsin
Nearly 5 percent of Wisconsin residents are immigrants, while over 6 percent of residents are native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent. Read More

This Week’s Immigration Proposals: Old News, Old Ideas
If you follow immigration, but are returning from a month-long, news-free vacation, there’s only one conclusion you would draw from the legislation Republicans offered up this week in Congress: Mitt Romney must have won the presidential election. After all, the ACHIEVE Act, introduced yesterday by retiring Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), which offers temporary legal status but no path to citizenship to DREAMers, is surely the bill they were preparing to offer in the event that a Romney Administration was in the wings. And on the House side, a slightly revised version of the STEM Jobs Act—which failed on the suspension calendar before the election—is back on the floor at the end of this week without changing any of the problems that led to its defeat before. Surely, this suggests that the predictions that immigration would play a decisive role in the presidential election didn’t pan out and that self-deportation as an immigration reform strategy worked. Except, none of this is true. Read More

Tracking the Immigration Agencies’ Actions Amidst Hurricane Sandy
Update (11/2): USCIS has posted this reminder of special services and temporary relief that may be available to individuals affected by Hurricane Sandy, including expedited processing of employment authorization documents and extensions of certain non-immigrant status designations. In its discretion, USCIS will also take it into account requests from individuals who were unable submit evidence or attend an appointment due to the impact of the hurricane. USCIS is also extending the deadline by thirty days for submission of materials for persons who have received Requests For Evidence (RFEs) or Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs) with deadlines between October 26th and November 26th. Except for appointments that were automatically rescheduled as a result of USCIS office closures or the automatic extension of certain deadlines, it’s important to note that the burden remains on the applicant to establish that the hurricane affected the need for special services or the inability to meet application requirements. Up and down the East Coast, the impact of Hurricane Sandy is still being felt and its aftermath will continue to affect people and businesses for days. In the past, in some of the most severe storms, such as Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration agencies have issued widespread information on dealing with the immigration consequences of the storm. Thus far, basic information is available regarding U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) plans; virtually nothing has been said about Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Read More
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