Salt Lake City Immigration & Naturalization Law Blog

Farmers in some states have been forced to plant fewer crops recently as a result of labor shortages that make it impossible to harvest a full yield. This year many have chosen to cut back significantly rather than risk seeing crops rot in the field. This is a concern for many states, including Utah, that have recently enacted immigration reform laws that make it harder for undocumented immigrants to continue working. Although Utah's law is currently not being enforced, potential labor shortages in the future are an issue of concern for employers.

The labor shortage is primarily affecting Alabama and Georgia at this time, but many fear that as strict immigration laws are passed in more states, this will begin to have a significant impact on farms around the country. This phenomenon is consistent with one of the central goals of the laws, which is to encourage immigrants to self-deport for fear of being apprehended by law enforcement officials.

Advocates for victims of domestic violence are questioning a change to the Violence Against Women Act which is being proposed by some Republican lawmakers as an effort to prevent fraud. The women's advocates are saying that the program does not have a history of fraud and that there are no documented cases.

The U visa program under the Violence Against Women Act is designed to allow undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic violence to report the crime and seek shelter without fear of deportation. The program originated in 1994 and has been quite successful and has helped many women leave an unsafe home.

There has been an unexplained surge recently of unaccompanied children being caught at the United States southern border with Mexico. Many of these children are coming from Latin American countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras (among others). Those who are apprehended provide similar reasons to other people attempting to cross the border, including that they are trying to find family members that are already in the U.S., that they are seeking work, or that they are escaping violence or abuse in their home country.

However, unlike adult undocumented immigrants, children who are found at the border cannot be directly deported. When adults are apprehended at the border, they are typically detained for a hearing and then deported if the judge determines that they are not in the country lawfully. However, courts all over the country and in Utah have special rules for processing minors, and in order to complete the immigration hearing several other steps must be taken to ensure that they have a fair proceeding.

Despite all the high profile news coverage of the issue of undocumented immigrants coming from Mexico, statistics show that levels of this type of immigration are at a historic low. At the same time, the population of documented immigrants has increased, reaching 5.8 million immigrants from Mexico alone.

Experts say that the change may be partly due to the lagging U.S. economy and the low availability of jobs for people coming into the country. Undocumented immigration rose significantly during the housing boom years due in part to the easy availability of jobs. In fact, many undocumented immigrants have returned to Mexico as job prospects in the United States are less attractive. This also contributes to the net standstill of immigration rates.