Illegals Today

"Traditionally confined to Latin America, Chagas disease is becoming an important health issue in the United States and Europe. First, due to the continuous influx of immigrants from disease-endemic countries in Latin America, a proportion of whom are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, an increasing number of infected subjects are seen in clinical practice, whether, for example, through routine screening of US blood and organ banks [3] or physicians' offices in Europe [4]. The appearance of T. cruzi in US blood banks led to the implementation of the first Food and Drug Administration–approved diagnostic blood screening test for Chagas disease earlier this year [5]. Second, an increasing number of autochthonous Chagas disease cases have been reported in the US [6,7], which may mirror the increased reporting of T. cruzi infection in domestic animals and wildlife. Recognizing that Chagas disease can no longer be considered an “exotic” disease in the US, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene held a clinical course in Chagas disease prior to its 2007 annual meeting (http://www.astmh.org/meetings/premeeting.cfm#clinical)."

Challenges of Chagas Disease, Rick L. Tarleton*, Richard Reithinger, Julio A. Urbina, Uriel Kitron, Ricardo E. Gürtler, PLoS Medicine, 4(12): e332, December 27, 2007.

Labels: Chagas Disease

According to a story in Crane Communications [Access My Library], "an immigration form with which every U.S. employer must be familiar has just been revised after functioning substantially unchanged for almost 16 years.

On Nov. 7, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services released the most recent version of the "Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification."

While the revised I-9 is available at www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-9.pdf and it should be used now, it will not become required until Dec. 26, according to the Federal Register."

You can download a pdf copy of the 47 p. Handbook for Employers at
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/m-274.pdf

I would challenge anyone who is not an expert in employment law or IRCA to read the government's instructions on the I-9 form and understand it or comply! For instance, the "green card" apparently isn't green, but it is permanent, but the proof can expire!

"The terms Resident Alien Card, Permanent Resident Card, Alien Registration Receipt Card, and Form I-551 all refer to documentation issued to an alien who has been granted permanent residence in the U.S.. Once granted, this status is permanent. However, the document that an alien carries as proof of this status may expire. Starting with the “pink” version of the Resident Alien Card (the “white” version does not bear an expiration date), and including the new technology Permanent Resident Cards, these documents are valid for either two years (conditional residents) or ten years (permanent residents). When these cards expire, the alien cardholders must obtain new cards. An expired card cannot be used to satisfy Form I-9 requirements for new employment. Expiration dates do not affect current employment, since employers are neither required nor permitted to re-verify the employment authorization of aliens who have presented one of these cards to satisfy I-9 requirements (this is true for conditional residents as well as permanent residents). Note: Even if unexpired, “green cards” must appear genuine and establish identity of the cardholder."

Labels: employment, I-9. employers

UPI (Dec 29) reports that "increasing numbers of immigrants in the United States are helping push up the nation's population by one person every 13 seconds.

The U.S. Census Bureau said that based on the growing influx of other countries' citizens, in addition to domestic births, the U.S. population should reach 303,146,284 on New Year's Day, The Washington Times reported Saturday. That would represent an increase of 0.9 percent from the same date in 2007."

Labels: Census Bureau, population

When we were in Ireland in September we noticed 1) the booming economy, and 2) the booming immigration. We visited a Catholic church and the newsletter was in Polish and Portuguese. William over at Atlantic Blog is an American living in Ireland, and he comments that they are undercounted in the Census (although obviously, it's a lot harder to sneak into Ireland than Texas or Arizona).

The other night, my wife and I went out to dinner with another couple we know. Here is how the nationalities stacked up. We, an American born couple, got a French born babysitter for our Vietnamese born daughter to go out with a Polish born couple who left their two Polish born children with their Polish born au pair. We went to a Spanish restaurant, where the waitress was Polish and the only other group in the restaurant were English. We did not encounter one Irish born person that evening.

Labels: economy, immigration, Ireland