US Immigration News

Immigration to the US will not be officially discussed at a meeting of North American leaders despite earlier plans, the Washington Times reports.

US President George Bush, Mexican President Vincente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin will meet in Texas today to discuss expanding free trade and improving anti-terrorist security. However, immigration has been dropped from the agenda amidst serious disagreements between the US and Mexico on this issue .

In a press release dated March 8, 2005, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated that the additional 20,000 H-1B petitions, created under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, will be available to all qualified H-1B nonimmigrant aliens and will not be limited to those aliens holding a master's degree or a higher degree from a US institution of higher learning for the current Fiscal Year 2005.

In a press release dated March 4, 2005, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) advised US Employers not to file petitions for individuals that would be eligible for the new H-1B exemption created under the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005.

The foreign-born population of the US has continued to rise in spite of tougher US immigration controls since the 2001 terrorist attacks, reports United Press International.

Accordingto US Census Bureau Data, there were 34.2 million foreign born peoplein the US in 2004, a rise of 2.3 percent compared with 2003. About 6.1million foreigners have arrived in the US after 2000. 13.1 millionforeign-born people had become US citizens, while 21.1 million have notnaturalized.

The education levels of immigrants to the US are higher this decade than in the late 1990s, the newspaper USA Today reports.

According to US Census Bureau data released on February 21, of the 3.4 million immigrants aged 25 or older who arrived between 2000 and 2004, 30.7% did not complete high school, compared with 33.2% who did not complete high school out of the 3.5 million people who settled in the country from 1995 to 2000. Also, 34.3% of those who came to the US in the later period had college degrees compared with 32.5% percent in the earlier period.

Immigration could help to solve the funding difficulties that America's strained social security system is likely to face in future, the website azcentral.com reports.