According to the prognosis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it will be difficult for foreign students to find a seasonal job. "J-1 visa holders will have to compete with many unemployed Americans and undocumented immigrants for work in diners and hotels," said Greg Chinarski. more>

According to immigration activists, tens of thousands of applicants for political asylum receive residence permits fraudulently, by telling fictional stories of harassment and discrimination in their home countries. more>

Russian parents' dreams and desires for their children are well-intentioned, but are often both physically and psychologically harmful to their children. This situation is aggravated by immigration: the sacrifices and the hardships endured make it difficult for children to satisfy their parents and more difficult for parents to be satisfied. more>

New York is in an absurd situation. New Yorkers are desperately in need of affordable housing while huge spaces are standing empty.

VIDEO :: In July, Speaker Christine C. Quinn announced a $20 million commitment to fund a pilot program that will turn unsold condominiums, market-rate rental buildings and stalled construction sites into affordable housing opportunities for moderate and middle-income families.

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The number of New Yorkers forced to spend the night in homeless shelters has reached 39,000, the highest number in 25 years. The main reasons for this are the economic crisis, unemployment, and Mayor Bloomberg's nonchalant attitude towards the problem. more>

The author opines that the enthusiasm at the recent signing by Governor Paterson of the bill that will make all election materials available in Russian may be misplaced. By embracing the bill, he says, Russian-speaking voters – U.S. citizens with a minimum of five or six years in the country – have admitted to their own illiteracy. more>

According to the Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America (HCROA), the majority of police officers adhere to the long-standing stereotype that "all blacks and Hispanics are potential criminals."  more>

The prominent case of the up-scale Lemongrass Restaurant in Manhattan, whose owner owes over $1 million in wages to his employees, is just one of many complaints filed daily with city agencies by people who have been exploited and cheated by their employers.

AUDIO :: In May NPR's "All Things Considered" reported on New York State's efforts to tackle wage theft against immigrants.

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"We can only guess at the number of immigrants who enter the United States by crossing the Bering Strait in fishing schooners, inflatable rafts, and motor boats," said Charles Kosick from the Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII).

VIDEO :: Crossing the Bering Strait overland is a grueling endeavor.  However, an international team attempts the journey. more>

VIDEO :: Last year the NYPD decided to send new rookie police officers to high crime areas of the city dubbed "impact zones." more>

The conservative-leaning population of the United States that relentlessly criticizes undocumented immigrants often defends itself with arguments that have absolutely no basis in reality. more>

In my opinion, a J-1 visa holder convicted of attempting to falsely claim refugee status is just as "dangerous a criminal to society" as Jean Valjean, the hero of Les Miserables, who was sentenced to 19 years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread for hungry children.  more>

"Even a small thing like buying a new shirt became something of a holiday for everyone in my family," recalled 33-year-old undocumented immigrant Alfredo Rames, a former resident of Irapuato. more>


Chasing the American Dream - A brief look at Mexicans who risk everything for the chance of a better life in the United States.

The growing number of American families dependent on food stamps is having an effect on the most varied branches of the economy, as well as the health of all who survive on the high-calorie, low-quality food the stamps buy. more>

Early Feb. was marked by large demonstrations in support of immigration reform, the main participants, not Mexican laborers, but small business owners. more>

This week, dozens of Catholic dioceses across the United States stood up for the rights of undocumented immigrants. more>

“The country is going through an economic crisis and the appearance of legal workers that do not need to be deported is a very good beginning,” Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano said this week. more>

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the U.S. legal system is overflowing with all sorts of paradoxes. Using green cards as the main way of rewarding cooperation with the authorities has been a practice with district attorneys and criminal investigators for over 10 years. more>

According to Amnesty International, 70 percent of those arrested because of their immigration status await deportation in real prisons, where their cellmates are real criminals, like rapists, murders, and robbers. Unwieldy machine that it is, ICE works so unpredictably that a Mexican dishwasher at a restaurant in New York could be sent to Pelican Bay – one of the most terrible prisons in California. A resident of Los Angeles could end up at a prison in Florida, several thousand kilometers from his residence. more>

Human rights advocates have uncovered the shocking truth about the inhuman conditions in which immigrant detainees are held and the hundreds of crimes, ranging from bribery to sexual violence, inflicted upon them. more>

It is estimated that undocumented immigrants purchase 5 to 10 percent of all lottery tickets sold in the United States; however, lottery companies and government officials neglect to advertise that only legal residents are permitted to claim their winnings. more>

“The chorus of voices opposed to the immigration reform bill is growing stronger by the day,” writes Yevgeny Novitsky. Hailed as a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, the proposed bill is said to make the prospect of citizenship for the undocumented even more unfeasible. more>

Is it possible for undocumented immigrants to take domestic flights in the United States without risking arrest by immigration authorities? According to specialists I interviewed, “Some are lucky and others are not. There’s about a 50 percent chance of being arrested.” more>

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez expressed doubt that all undocumented immigrants want to become permanent residents. "Since they have no intention of becoming Americans, they don't need green cards or passports." more>

“Undocumented workers represent a nice chunk of business for banks," commented Chane Peterson, executive vice-president at the Banco Popular. more>

Anderson and other senior officials at the New York Building Congress admit that they have already experienced a shortage of workers. They are nervously following events on Capitol Hill, where the issue of comprehensive immigration reform is being debated. more>

America’s ambiguous, paradoxical immigration policy received special attention at the National Immigration Forum briefing. “Our president is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” said Marshall Fritz, who represented the American Immigration Association. “He wants to create a working program for foreigners, but at the same time he allows these workers to be hunted down and deported. more>

New York politicians and even its mayor take pride in the ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity of our city. However, leaders of immigrant communities like David Chan are not optimistic, believing that the city government and immigrants themselves must put forth more effort into Americanizing the latter. more>

The tragedy that occurred this past November 25 in Queens (when police officers unloaded 50 bullets into three unarmed men) was entirely predictable to the community, despite government efforts to conceal the numbers of casualties of such incidence. more>

In 2001, U.S. Border Patrol officers detained 98,000 undocumented minors. Last year that number reached 115,000. One can only guess how many children slipped through their hands more>

An interview with an immigration judge has always been akin to Judgment Day for political asylum applicants. The 218 U.S. immigration judges handle almost 350,000 cases annually – over half of these concern political asylum more>

"Every day people who despise illegal immigrants with all their hearts treat me with contempt and abhorrence. And many of these same people have themselves had problems with their documents,” said Aleks, 29, who has been undocumented for six years now. more>

Now that the Abramoff scandal has exposed the enormous influence of lobbyists in Washington, there is finally talk on Capitol Hill about the need to carry out fundamental reforms to limit the power of the Fifth Estate. But, asks the author, will congressmen and senators really use their own hands to slaughter the goose that lays the golden egg? more>

“All Americans should be drowned in the Neva. They are encroaching on our national identity. We want to remain Russian,” said a Leningrad teenager to an American of Russian descent. more>

Advertisements for work in massage parlors, night clubs and spas in immigrant papers often target vulnerable newly arrived immigrants, who find out, after being hired, that they will be working as modern-day sex slaves. more>

Critics of the recent crackdown policy point out that not only are considerable funds needed to run immigration detention centers, but that laws regulating prisoner care are imperfect. more>

“What is the point of these grand, twenty-first century feats of engineering if millions of potential illegal immigrants will reach us if not through the back door, then through the front?” asks the author. more>

Politicians usually collect a wad of donations during “crackdown” campaigns. After an avalanche of loud proclamations and frenetic chest beating – “Now we’ll show them!” – inactivity returns fairly quickly. more>

Why should tenants pay the superintendent or workers to do work that the landlords are required by law to do for free? A new agreement by city agencies and banks now hold landlords accountable. more>

New York City’s legislation Local Law 1 mandates the removal of wall coverings and window frames containing lead; however, if the residents did not make the request, then landlords are able to wash their hands of their responsibility. more>

In the United States, a federal government-funded system of child care centers has gotten little chance to take root. This is why child care centers in our country are largely privately-owned. Their monopoly is a result of policies put in place more than half a century ago by conservative groups. more>

There are up to 150 different fraudulent insurance plans and discount cards disguised as medical insurance, deceiving hundreds of thousands of people into paying for phony insurance. But legitimate insurance companies are now beginning to take on the phoneys. more>

The campaign in the United States against prostitution has grown so much that, at the end of last year, the House of Representatives amended a law directed at intensifying the fight against this social evil. According to the author, however, prosecution is uneven, leaving women most vulnerable. more>

The Deficit Reduction Act will certainly spoil the mood of millions of Americans, especially the access to medical care for poor, low-income people and senior citizens. But it seems that Republicans have taken it too far, and this will return to haunt them in the 2006 elections, because the elderly electorate, as noted in the past, does not forgive a wrong. more>

Undocumented female immigrants frequently portray themselves as victims of domestic violence in order to legalize their stay in the United States. Yet, female immigrants living in the country legally and who are victims of domestic violence do not always receive the benefits to which they are entitled by law. A new lawsuit filed against the Human Resources Administration in Manhattan seeks to address this situation. more>

The findings of the Center for Immigration Studies, which were corroborated by the 9/11 Commission, show that out of 94 terrorists, 20 were able to become U.S. citizens. more>

To date, only a small fraction of employers have been tried for violating U.S. immigration laws; most have escaped with paltry fines. But Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff says the U.S. government will no longer tolerate such employers. more>

Every time that I read articles in this column, I catch myself thinking: "How do these communities feel about us, immigrants from the former Soviet Union? Are we, ourselves, good or bad neighbors?" more>

Was it possible to avoid the scale of the current destruction or minimize the number of Katrina’s victims? Were the efforts to rescue victims, provide aid and restore order to the region adequate? What measures must be taken so as not to repeat what happened? The Russian Bazaar speaks with our leaders. more>

In a recent suit filed against New York State, the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of elderly immigrants who lost their Supplemental Security Income due to the bureaucratic sluggishness of immigration authorities to process their citizenship papers. more>

Those who support the measure charge that opponents lack self-preservation instincts, not to mention common sense. Supporters of civil liberties, on their side, charge those in favor of the searches with ignorance of history, claiming similar “innocent” security measures heralded many a totalitarian regime. What do our city politicians think? more>

In this era of personal and professional electronic communication, many of us ask the same question: do we maintain our personal privacy rights when we go to work? more>

New York is a multi-ethnic city after all, and a substantial part of its population gets their news not from English language media, but from their respective ethnic publications. But, Mayor Bloomberg's press office does not read and ignores ethnic journalism; even when translated into English. more>

Reliability, less costly training and willingness to stick to the job is making elderly workers a sought-after commodity for big corporations. Not bad for a group that cannot make ends meet alone on Social Security benefits and can’t afford to retire. more>

In the past year, 16 million documents have been classified as secret by the federal goverment. This is a 75 percent increase from 2001. Vital activities of the federal, state and local governments have overstepped all reasonable bounds of secrecy. more>

Fear of filing a tax return if you are undocumented may be unfounded. Here is why. Although nobody knows the exact annual dollar amount undocumented workers pay in taxes, experts calculate that they are in the billions of dollars. The IRS is not about to let immigration trump them. more>

With identity theft at an all-time high, paper shredding companies stand to profit from a new law mandating that all employers destroy any confidential information – written or electronic – before throwing it out. more>

In spite of the myths existing about Russians, and in spite of their own Soviet-born complexes, Russian immigrants actively contribute to charitable organizations. Contributions are made not only by the young Americanized community members, but also by the elderly and the poor. more>

The welfare reform signed into federal law on August 22, 1996 hurt elderly refugees, who arrived in the United States after that date. It gives the elderly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for seven years; however, thereafter, to continue getting assistance they must be U.S. citizens. No one took into account the application processing delays at immigration services. more>

It is obvious to many service men and women that the so-called "Bush Doctrine,” of inflicting preventive strikes on presumed enemies, will require considerably more troops than the Pentagon currently has at their disposal. The President’s assertions to the contrary are, to put it mildly, incongruous with reality. How will he make up the shortfall? more>

City Council officials are seriously considering a proposal to install surveillance video cameras in all 1200 city schools as a measure against terrorism in our educational institutions and rising school crime. more>

A recent study conducted by the Center for the Study of Labor Market Issues at Northeastern University highlights several times the positive effects immigrants have on the job market. The data gathered, however, has the potential of becoming a dangerous weapon in the hands of those who not only oppose amnesty measures but even limited legalization of undocumented workers. more>

Information gathered by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights points to irregularities beyond Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Thousands of minority students and ex-offenders were caught in the web of supression. more>

Although the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and early studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute claim that there is no danger posed by ambient radiation surrounding nuclear plants, a growing number of scientists categorically disagree. Through the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), these scientists’ alarming findings indicate something very different. more>

Can citizens be forced to answer a law enforcement officers’ questions against their will? For example, providing the police with your first and last name if an officer asks for it? The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing a case. more>

Despite the fact that we conducted quickie-interviews in the wet snow, people nonetheless stopped and eagerly discussed their views on charity. We learned that charity, in some way or another, touched all of our respondents. more>

We asked people on the streets of New York what they thought of the recent increase in the cost of living. more>

We frequently receive letters from readers complaining of noisy neighbors. “What to do?” they inquire. I admit that for years I was under the impression that neighbors can lawfully play the TV or stereo at full volume until 11 p.m. Not so, according to laws that protect us from noise pollution. more>

The recent attacks on New York City car service drivers―in which two people were killed―caused the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers to warn city authorities that they will sharply reduce service to areas with high crime rates. “We do not have any other choice,” declared Fernando Mateo, president of the federation. “Drivers should not have to risk their lives.” more>

After the creation of the state of Israel, a new stage of mutual relations―-diplomatic, economic and cultural-―between these two ancient peoples began. In the 1970s, ties developed through military sales and cultural programs. Now that the United States has demanded Israel stop selling military equipment to China, the relationship is beginning to deterioriate. more>

After last week’s “rescue” operation, which killed 120 hostages and 50 Cechen terrorists, there are too many questions and too few answers from the government. One thing is clear: Putin is using the Chechen war to stay in the Kremlin more>