Lawmakers push to make it illegal for undocumented Mass. license holders to drive in N.H.
January 02, 2024
Gabriela Lozada, Report for America Corps Member, NHPR
Several Republican state legislators are proposing bills that would limit undocumented immigrants’ access to work and mobility in New Hampshire.
The first bill comes from seven state senators who are pushing to prohibit the use of out-of-state driver’s licenses issued specifically for undocumented immigrants. Senate Bill 358 aims to push back on a law passed in Massachusetts earlier this year that allows undocumented immigrants to drive lawfully in that state, issuing them licenses that don’t show their immigration status.
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Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut have also passed similar legislation.
If the New Hampshire bill were to pass, it would be unlawful for an undocumented immigrant who lives in Massachusetts or Vermont to drive in New Hampshire, and that person would face a class B misdemeanor. The proposal would require the Division of Motor Vehicles to keep an updated list on their website of out-of-state class licenses that are invalid in New Hampshire. A state employee would be paid up to $66,000 to do that work.
Republican representatives want to revive the use of E-verify
In New Hampshire when a new employee is hired, the employer has no obligation to report that person’s immigration status to any government agency. A group of representatives aims to change that with a bill similar to one that failed to pass two years ago.
House Bill 1110 is supported by six Republican legislators. The bill says employers with 25 or more employees will have to use E-verify, a system that serves to match a person’s identity with the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Service database.
E-verify is used in at least 22 states and prevents employers from hiring people who are not eligible to work lawfully in the U.S without a resident card, citizenship, or a working visa.
A similar bill, also sponsored by Republican representatives, was tabled in the 2022 legislative session. At the time, advocates said the bill was discriminatory and questioned the accuracy of the system, noting it could throw false results that could wrongfully mark a worker as undocumented.
White House and congressional negotiators are discussing steps that officials say could potentially fill detention centers and halt the apprehension of migrants at the border.
We need everyone to Tell Senators: Do NOT trade asylum for emergency funding. Currently, a bipartisan group of Senators are negotiating a deal to pass funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan in exchange for extreme, permanent changes to U.S. immigration and asylum law. This tradeoff would destroy refugee protections for people seeking safety and increase chaos at the US-Mexico border. We need your help to urge Senators to reject bad-faith deals meant to make it impossible to seek safety in the U.S. and deport people back to danger. Here is a call-in script that you can use to contact your senators to reject bad-faith deals meant to make it impossible to seek safety in the U.S. and deport people back to danger.
USCIS Expands myProgress to Form I-485 and Form I-821
On Nov. 21, we announced the availability of myProgress (formerly known as personalized processing times) for Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, and Form I-821, Application for Temporary Protected Status. myProgress will initially only be available for family-based or Afghan special immigrant Form I-485 applicants.
Applicants with a pending Form I-485 or Form I-821 can now log in to their USCIS online account to view confirmation of completed steps and estimated wait times until the next step in their case processing is completed, including:
Confirmation that the application was received;
Movement of the application through preprocessing and adjudicative steps; and
The case decision.
This is an important step in our efforts to improve the experience of the people we serve, increase transparency in adjudications, and reduce Contact Center wait times.
myProgress updates will be available for applications filed online or for paper-filed cases later linked to a USCIS online account using an online access code. Visit our How to Create a USCIS Online Account webpage for instructions on linking a paper-filed form to a USCIS online account.
All applicants and petitioners must still use the Check Case Processing Times webpage to determine eligibility to file an Outside of Normal Processing Times service request.
For more information on myProgress, see the full announcement. We will hold outreach activities to ensure applicants, petitioners, and interested parties are familiar with myProgress.
The BEAD Plan is for the physical extension of Broadband into every house, we heard from Dr McLaughlin regarding the Digital Equity Plan which is focused on 8 marginalized communities’ in NH and on Language, Culture, Wealth etc.
You can find the draft BEAD Plan here along with how to submit your comments:
You are subscribed to the announcements from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC). See the latest updates here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor
November 17, 2023. The Departments of Labor and Homeland Security Publish Rule Increasing the Number of H-2B Visas Available in Fiscal Year 2024
The U.S. Departments of Labor and Homeland Security (DHS) have published a temporary final rule (TFR) increasing the numerical limitation on H-2B nonimmigrant visas to authorize the issuance of no more than 64,716 additional visas for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 positions to employers that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all of the H-2B workers requested under the cap increase. Of the 64,716 visas available, up to 44,716 are limited to H-2B returning workers, and up to 20,000 are reserved for nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, or Costa Rica. The TFR provides additional protections for U.S. workers, flexibility for foreign workers, and additional recruitment requirements for certain employers.
In support of this rule, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has posted the new Form ETA-9142-B-CAA-8 and the accompanying instructions. The TFR requires an employer to attest, among other things, to the fact that it is suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all of the H-2B workers requested under the cap increase. This attestation must be submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) along with Form I-129, in support of an H-2B application subject to the H-2B cap. DHS will not accept any H-2B petitions under provisions related to the FY 2024 supplemental numerical allocations after September 16, 2024, and will not approve any such H-2B petitions after September 30, 2024. The attestation is also available on the Forms page of the OFLC website at: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/forms.
PLEASE NOTE: The TFR requires employers with a certified start date which is 30 or more days prior to the submission of their visa petition to USCIS to engage in additional recruitment of U.S. workers. Employers required to conduct additional recruitment must provide OFLC with the case number for each temporary certification which will be used in support of a visa petition to USCIS concurrently with their placement of new job orders with the State Workforce Agency. Employers who must conduct this concurrent notification requirement are encouraged to notify OFLC National Processing Center by sending an email to H2Bsupplementalvisas@dol.gov, and including the words “H-2B TFR 2024 Recruitment” followed by the unique temporary labor certification case number in the subject line of the email.
