As of October 7, 2011, USCIS has counted 41,000 cap eligible petitions under the Regular H-1B Cap and 19,100 cap eligible petitions under the Master’s Exemption H-1B Cap.

The DOJ reached a settlement agreement with Restwend LLC, the corporate owner of several Wendy’s restaurants in Maine.  The investigation alleged that at least one of its restaurants engaged in employment discrimination by refusing to hire individuals believed to be non-U.S. citizens even though they had legal work authorization.

Based on the DOJ’s findings, since at least 2009 this particular Wendy’s instituted a policy of refusing to hire work authorized individuals whom it believed to be non-U.S. citizens.  However, the Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits discrimination in hiring against authorized workers on the basis of citizenship status.

Restwend has agreed to pay $14,500 in back pay, plus interest, to a victim of its citizens-only policy, plus $3,200 in civil penalties.

As of April 25,  2011, DOL’s processing times for PERM filings are as follows:

Analyst Reviews:  March  2011

Audits:  December 2009

Reconsideration Requests to CO:  September 2008

Government Errors:  Current.

President Obama stated his opposition to a bill in Georgia, similar to the anti-immgration bill struck down in Arizona, that would allow law enforcement to investigate the immigration status of criminal suspects.

“It is a mistake for states to try to do this piecemeal. We can’t have 50 different immigration laws around the country. Arizona tried this and a federal court already struck them down,” Obama told WSB-TV in an interview taped Tuesday.

To help the Georgia bill overcome the legal challenges that halted Arizona’s bill, Georgia legislatures removed the “reasonable suspicion” aspect of the bill. In its place, Georgia police can perform an immigration check if the criminal suspect cannot produce any form of identification or give basic details that could help an officer verify their identity.

Californian authorities arrested the so-called “supreme commander” of the U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve unit and charged him with duping Chinese immigrants into thinking they had enlisted in the U.S. armed forces.

Yupeng Deng, 51, recruited 100 unwitting Chinese immigrants from Northern to Southern California and even Georgia to enlist in his Southern California group.  The scam required Chinese immigrants to pay several hundred dollars to enlist into the bogus military with the idea that it would help improve their chances of obtaining green cards and U.S. citizenship.

Deng staged an office in Temple City to mimic a real recruiting station with a rug featuring the Army seal. Recruits paid $300 to $400 to join, trained using mock weapons and were issued ID cards they were told could help them beat traffic tickets or earn airfare discounts.

There has been a host of bogus military-style groups catering to Chinese immigrants in the San Gabriel Valley northeast of Los Angeles where members pay dues, dress up in fatigues and promote American patriotism by marching in parades and attending other events.

The case highlights the vulnerability of immigrants desperately seeking to belong in a new country and naive to the norms of a society.

A immigration bill passed late Thursday night by the Republican-dominated Georgia House and Senate.  This bill, similar to the Arizona’s, authorizes law enforcement to question suspects in certain criminal investigations about their immigration status. It also authorizes long prison terms for those who use fake documents to get a job and punishes people who transport illegal immigrants during the commission of a crime. 

The new law would also require private employers to check the immigration status of newly hired workers E-Verify federal database.  The new bill exempts small businesses from the E-Verify requirements and gives the businesses required to use it a 30-day grace period to correct good-faith violations.

House Democrats on Thursday re-introduced the Uniting American Families Act, legislation that would grant same-sex couples the same rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples under U.S. immigration law.  Under current law, one member of a married couple may sponsor their partner for U.S. citizenship, but same-sex couples cannot.  

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution has been working on the issue for over a decade.  However, Democrats worry the bill is unlikely to pass the Republican-led House.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided today to uphold a preliminary injunction against Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation, SB 1070. The court denied the state’s appeal of a federal district court’s July decision that prevented segments of the law from going into effect due to U.S. Constitutional violations. 

One of the most controversial provision of SB 1070 requires state and local police to ask for proof of immigration status from every individual stopped for a traffic violation or other civil infraction if they have a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that the person is in the U.S. in violation of the immigration law.  The Ninth Circuit decision confirms the notion that the federal government has the exclusive power to regulate and enforce immigration laws.

The U.S. Department of State has released the  May 2011 Visa Bulletin.  Here are the highlights for employment-based categories:

• EB-2 for India moves up to July 1, 2006.
• EB-2 for China remains at August 1, 2006.
• Eb-2 for all other counties is current.
• EB-3 for India moves up to April 15, 2002.
• EB-3 for China moves up to April 15, 2004
• EB-3 for Mexico moves up to September 8, 2004
• EB-3 for all other countries moves up to  August 22, 2005.