Consumer Alert from Attorney General Greg Abbott
March 9, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
CONSUMER ALERT
Parents Should Keep Children Away From New Video Chat Web Site Chatroulette.com
An increasingly popular Web site poses a threat to Texas children by giving users – including dangerous sex offenders – an opportunity to conduct live video chats with randomly selected participants.
Armed with only a Web camera and Internet access, www.chatroulette.com users are paired with a random stranger for a video chat. Neither a login nor registration is required before young users can be face-to-face with a total stranger. Worse, users who simply click “next” are shuffled to a new video chat partner.
An undercover investigation by the Cyber Crimes Unit revealed startling results. Nearly half of the randomly selected users encountered by Cyber Crimes investigators immediately exposed themselves and conducted sexually explicit acts on camera.
In light of the serious threat that children will be exposed to graphic sexual conduct, Texas parents should prohibit their children from accessing www.chatroulette.com. Although site users are supposed to be at least 16 years old, the rule is not clearly enforced – which means parents’ preventative role is particularly important.
Attorney General Abbott reminds parents to closely monitor their children’s Internet activities by using the following safety tips:
• Place the computer in a public room at home so that parents can monitor their children’s Internet use. Do not allow computers in a child’s bedroom or permit the use of Web cameras.
• Make sure children know never to agree to a face-to-face meeting with someone they meet online and never to divulge personal information to an Internet stranger.
• Stay informed. Surf the Internet with children or at least talk to them about the Web sites they are visiting.
• Establish ground rules for children’s Internet usage, including the hours they may surf and the kinds of Web sites they may visit. Post the rules near the computer.
Greg Abbott
Attorney General of Texas
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Immigration Newsletter March 2010 #5 English and Spanish
March 9, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
Click here to download newsletter in pdf version.
Change of Filing Location for Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition
February 26, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Attorneys
USCIS Update Feb. 19, 2010
Change of Filing Location for Form I-824, Application for Action on an
Approved Application or Petition
WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced revised filing
instructions and addresses for applicants filing Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved
Application or Petition. The new form is dated 12/11/09. The changes are part of an overall effort to
transition the intake of benefit forms from USCIS local offices and Service Centers to USCIS Lockbox
facilities. Centralizing form and fee intake to a Lockbox environment allows USCIS to provide
customers with more efficient and effective initial processing of applications and fees.
Beginning February 19, 2010, applicants must file Form I-824 with a USCIS Lockbox facility, based on
which Service Center or local office approved their original petition or application. Detailed guidance is
available in the updated Form I-824 instructions.
USCIS Service Centers will forward all Form I-824 applications to the Lockbox facility for the next 30
days. After March 21, 2010, the Service Centers will return any incorrectly filed Form I-824 applications
with instructions to send the application to the correct location.
When filing Form I-824 at a USCIS Lockbox facility, applicants may elect to receive an email and/or text
message notifying them that USCIS has accepted their application. To receive notification, applicants
must complete an E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance (Form G-1145), and attach it to the
first page of their application.
For more information on USCIS programs, visit www.uscis.gov or call the National Customer Service
Center at 1-800-375-5283.
– USCIS –
AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 10022261. (Posted on 2/22/10).
Immigration Services Providers in Central Texas presented by Thomas Esparza
February 22, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
Low-risk, legal immigrants being deported
February 19, 2010 by Thomas Esparza
Filed under Families
Travis County spent $1.3 million on inmates detained by federal program.
By Juan Castillo AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 6:22 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, 2010
Published: 8:21 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010
A federal program to identify and deport dangerous criminal immigrants has been routinely scooping up legal and unauthorized immigrants with little or no criminal history, according to a locally generated study released this week by the Immigration Policy Center in Washington.
According to the study, 57 percent of immigrants identified by the Criminal Alien Program in 2009 had no criminal convictions, up from 53 percent in 2008.
Written by Austin attorney Andrea Gruttin, the report, “The Criminal Alien Program: Immigration Enforcement in Travis County Texas,” covers the history of what it describes as a problematic program responsible for deporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
The program is managed in local jails by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who cull through the jail population looking for those who are in the country illegally and who are considered dangerous because of their criminal backgrounds.
The study concludes that the majority of immigrants caught up in the program had been arrested on misdemeanor charges. In 2008, 58 percent of the detainers were placed on people charged with misdemeanors — up from 38 percent in 2007 and 34 percent in 2006.
The program “does not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty, between those who are traffic violators and those who are violent felons, or between victims and aggressors,” the report says, adding that the program tends to erode trust between immigrants and local law enforcement.
It found that in 2008, Travis County spent $1.3 million after federal reimbursements to house inmates with detainers from the program. The Travis County sheriff’s office disputed that assertion and other conclusions in the report, calling them nothing new. “They just put it in writing,” spokesman Roger Wade said.
“Obviously, (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) prioritizes removing dangerous criminals from the country, and no one is going to argue with the importance of doing that,” said Michele Waslin, a senior policy analyst for the center. “However, I think this report sheds some light on the effectiveness of doing that through this program.
“Are (those being apprehended) really the worst of the worst, or is there a better way to be spending taxpayer dollars?”
In a statement, the immigration agency referred to the program as an important tool to identify and remove criminal aliens from the United States.
“ICE is committed to smart, effective immigration enforcement that focuses first on criminal aliens that pose a threat to our communities,” the statement said.
“In the first four months of fiscal year 2010, the program identified more than 70,000 aliens already present in our nation’s jails and prisons.”
According to the study, the program apprehended more deportable immigrants than any other federal program. In 2008, the immigration agency charged 221,000 noncitizens under the program.
Critics say the local-federal cooperation through the Criminal Alien Program can have dangerous consequences, which the report notes. Immigrants might be discouraged from reporting crimes or cooperating with police because they fear deportation. Jails might be more crowded, and jail costs could go up. And deportations could separate families with children who are U.S. citizens.
Wade said the jail population has gone down by about 10.7 percent as ICE detainers have gone up. Of the report’s assertion that the program erodes trust in immigrant communities, he said, “We’ve said all along we’ve never seen any evidence of that.”
Thomas Esparza Jr., an immigration lawyer in Austin and a critic of the program said, “I agree there are dangerous people who need to be apprehended, but (the program) is such a broad net that it catches people with Class B and Class C misdemeanors.”
The Immigration Policy Center recommends that federal officials prioritize immigrants who have been convicted of felony offenses rather than low-level offenders. And it recommends that jail status screenings be conducted after conviction, not after arrest.
The center is the research and policy arm of the American Immigration Council. Waslin said it supports reforms that include legalization of unauthorized immigrants who are already in the U.S. and who do not have criminal records, and the creation of legal channels that allow more workers to come to the United States.
jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635
UPDATE: In the original story, the Travis County jail said the population there has decreased by about 20 percent as federal immigration agents have increased their presence there. Sheriff’s office spokesman Roger Wade said he misspoke and that the actual decrease is 10.7 percent.
