Publications

November, 2004

“Green Card”, New Look

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has made minor changes to the look of the Permanent Resident Card ( Form I-5551) commonly known as the “Green Card.” The Permanent Resident Card now features the DHS seal on the front and prominently mentions the “Department of Homeland Security” on the back. The changes of the card come following the exhaustion of the Department of Justice cardstock used by the old Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
USCIS has also taken this opportunity to add enhanced security features to the new cards.

USCIS began mailing the new Permanent Resident Card today to qualified immigrants approved for either card or for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. Those cards already in circulation remain valid until the expiration date listed on the card or until recalled by USCIS. Permanent Resident Cards are issued by USCIS as evidence of a lawful permanent resident’s authorization to live and work in the United States.

Labor Certification Transferred to Central U.S. Labor Department

Permanent residence labor certification applications will be transferred from state agencies to centralized federal locations to consolidate processing, and to reduce backlogs. The centralized office will first handle regional backlogs and then the delays in state processing centers.

This new operation called “Perm” should be in full service by March 1, 2005. The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) has committed itself to eliminating the backlog by these centralized offices. After January 1,2005 all permanent labor applications filed with a State Workforce Agency ( SWA) will be forwarded to central national offices.

Deportation: Drunken Driving, No Automatic Deportation

The U.S Supreme Court decided on November 9, 2004 that driving under the influence of alcohol, which may even result in serious bodily injury, is not necessarily a “crime of violence”, so as to subject a non-citizen to automatic deportation. An alien, who has been deported under this interpretation, may now apply to return to the U.S.Drunken driving had been considered an aggravated felony requiring automatic deportation, and this had been upheld by The Board of Immigration Appeals as well as by U.S Courts of Appeal. Besides intentional violence any other felony that involves a “substantial risk” of physical force was considered an aggravated felony.That a drunken driver who caused serious bodily injury with his vehicle necessarily used physical force is not a natural meaning of the word “use”, noted the decision of the Supreme Court. “While one may in theory, actively employ something in an accidental manner, it is much less natural to say that a person actively employs physical force against another by accident”, wrote the Court. The word “use” most naturally suggests a higher degree of intent than negligent or merely accidental conduct. The Court held that a substantial risk of “using “ physical force did not logically apply to drunken driving. This decision will be of importance to many immigrants who are charged with acts of violence and who may be able as a result of this decision to resist deportation, or return to the U.S. after deportation.

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New York Immigration Lawyers > Immigration Publications > November 2004