10/7/2007 8:09 AM

web@kent.lwvvmd.org

The Howard League is sponsoring weekly ‘Conversations’ on Immigration throughout the Fall.   Use this link to see their current Newsletter: Current LWVHC Voter

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LAWS and Rules:

USCIS Publishes New Rule for Nonimmigrant Victims of Criminal Activity (33KB PDF)  September 5, 2007 - USCIS announces it will publish an interim rule that grants temporary immigration benefits to certain victims of crimes who assist government officials in investigating or prosecuting the criminal activity.  This relates to what we learned in our meeting at Kent Family Center and the referring to migrant employers as ‘walking ATMs’.

Also, from the USCIS History page:  

Historical Immigration and Naturalization Legislation

The following compilation of federal immigration and naturalization statutes in the United States provides an overview of the legislative history of immigration to the United States. It is not exhaustive either for the number of bills enacted or for the specific points of law within each bill. This review of the federal legislative process fosters a general understanding of the major issues as they developed in the area of immigration and naturalization in the United States. The dates of enactment and Statutes-at-Large reference numbers are presented in chronological order; they provide a basis for further inquiry for more detailed information.

·                     Legislation from 1901-1940 (76KB PDF)

·                     Legislation from 1941-1960 (85KB PDF)

·                     Legislation from 1961-1980 (87KB PDF)

·                     Legislation from 1981-1996 (91KB PDF)

·                     Sources for Legislation (11KB PDF)

·                     Legislation from 1790-1900 (61KB PDF)

More from the USCIS site:

Public Laws Amending the INA

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) has been amended many times. When Congress enacts a law, it generally does not re-write the entire body of law, or even entire sections of a law, but instead adds to or changes specific words within a section. These changes are then reflected within the larger body of law.

The language changing the larger body of law is generally referred to as the "amendatory" language. Here you will find laws "amending" both the INA and the U.S. Code.

·                     Public Laws Amending the INA

·                     United States Code

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In a recent issue of the Kent County News there was an entry in the “Remember When” section on an Immigration Bust in Chestertown in 1997.  I was living in Illinois and cruising the Med in 1997-2000, so all of this INS news in Chestertown went past me. I quickly fell into Cyberspace as I began to research the question of the 10 year old INS busts in Chestertown.  My question was, “I know that undocumented workers were rounded up, but what happened to them?”  What follows are my research notes.  [You too can keep your research in HTML.  Simply start an e-mail in HTML format.  Cut and paste links and embellish.  Next, save as a Web page or cut and paste in an existing Web Page.  It is that easy to contribute to the Kent.lwvmd.org subdomain!]

 

 

Check out this link dated April 1999:

http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=365_0_4_0

   The pertinent passage is:

There continue to be workplace raids. A workplace raid in Delmarva, in

March 1999 removed 46 poultry workers from Chestertown Foods Inc.--the workers

were provided to Chestertown Foods by a labor contractor, Chester Labor

Servicing Corp.--34 of the unauthorized workers were Mexican and 12 were

Indonesian.

 

 

Also from Rural Migration News:  AP reporters discovered an unauthorized 15-year old Guatemalan girl working
in a chicken processing plant; she paid $500 to be smuggled into the US, and
used false documents to get a job at Chestertown Foods in Maryland. Five of
the 40 unauthorized workers apprehended at the plant in September 1997 were
under 16. Several employers told the AP that "My job isn't to police for the
INS."    http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=247_0_3_0 in a 1998 article about child labor.

 

Check out the Data page on RMN:  http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/data_rmn.php

 

 

Here is an article in the Baltimore Sun:  Greg Garland, Federal Officers Arrest 46 Workers in Raid at Eastern Shore Plant,

BALT. SUN, Mar. 20, 1999, at 2B.

I found this source in:

The Feudal Lord in the Kingdom of Big Chicken: Contracting and ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
workers under the age of 16 were arrested during an INS raid at Chestertown Foods in March. 1999. 15. at a Missouri Tyson plant seriously injured both legs ...
www.nelp.org/docUploads/eisenberg.pdf - Similar pages

 

 

The Changing Face of Rural America: Focus on the Mid-Atlantic and ...

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
approach from the INS investigators from Baltimore. In September 1997, Chestertown. Foods in MD was searched by the INS, and 40 unauthorized workers, ...
www.farmfoundation.org/martin/delaware.pdf - Similar pages

 

Here is a good orientation to the poultry industry, migration, and the environment with references to Chestertown Foods:   (when you get to slide 20, keep going, it gets better—don’t save any changes!!!… This was a student project for a 500 level course in Environmental Justice at SFSU.)

IMPACTS OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY FOR THE DELMARVA REGION: by Paul ...

File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTML
Chicken workers waiting for jobs. A migrant worker searches for a poultry job. ... At Chestertown Foods, a poultry processing plant, six undocumented ...
bss.sfsu.edu/raquelrp/projects/515_ej/DELMARVA_Poultry.ppt - Similar pages

 

Here are other interesting leads:

All Immigration Votes of Representative Wayne Gilchrest

Cosponsoring legislation to increase H-2B workers who are present in the U.S. at any one ...... Chestertown, MD 21620 (410) 778-9407 (V), (410) 778-9560 (F) ...
profiles.numbersusa.com/improfile.php3?DistSend=MD&VIPID=380 - 103k - Cached - Similar pages

 

BILLS SPONSORED BY-WALKUP-1997 Regular Session

Entitled, Creation of a State Debt - Kent County - Town of Chestertown ... Entitled, Task Force on the Verification of the Documentation of Migrant Workers ...
www.mlis.state.md.us/1997rs/sponsors/walkup.htm - 92k - Cached - Similar pages

 

another local personality:  Women & Girls Fund

Dr. Maria Boria, who lives in Chestertown, came to the Eastern Shore over two ... Currently Dr. Boria provides medical care for migrant workers at the ...
www.womenandgirlsfund.org/awards.html - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

 

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10/7/2007