Short News

NEW IMMIGRATION FEES: At the end of last year, the INS got permission to ask for higher fees for faster application processing. First of all, only employment-based applications are affected by this, i.e. applications for a green card based on employment. The INS may now ask for an extra $1,000 to process applications within two weeks.

The new fees will probably introduced for the first time between early April and late June 2001. If you pay this fee, you can expect an answer from INS within 15 days. If it doesn't work, you will be reimbursed for the additional fees.

Many immigration lawyers fear that due to this new procedure the processing of applications from those who were not ready to pay the additional fees will be even slower. Others hope that the additional money that will come in with those applications will benefit all applicants in the future, by improving the infrastructure and shortening processing times in general.

MORE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN THE US: A new study of the Northeastern University in Boston has shown that currently 11 million people without the necessary documents are living in the US, illegally. Up to now, official estimates had been stating ca. 5 million.

The authors of the study claim that most of these illegal immigrants do have work and had contributed largely to the economic boom of the 90s. Representatives of the official US census committee find the study credible. More jobs had been created over the past 30 years than would have been possible based on the actually counted population. It could have been partly explained with workers who are holding more than one job. It is possible that more illegal immigrants have been employed than it had been thought in the past.

NO PUNISHMENT FOR MURDER OF AFRICAN: The US Department of Justice has announced recently that the four policemen who had shot and killed an immigrant from Guinea, Amadou Diallo, two years ago, will no longer be investigated. According to the attorney from New York, where the shots were being fired, there was no proof that the policemen had been using too much force deliberately. Diallo was shot 19 times when he reached for his wallet in the lobby of his apartment building.

The policemen had been cleared already by a New York court one year ago. At present, there is still a civil action of the Diallo family against the city of New York.