Immigration has been quite a debate in the United States with the immigration bill introduced in Arizona. But now, another debate has emerged in the form of immigrant babies. No wonder it is the time for elections and so, targets are formed from all sides.

Some of the lawmakers from the Republican side are suggesting changing a part of the 14th Amendment which permits natural citizenship to all those born in the United States. According to Sen. Lindsey Graham, many immigrant women cross the borders illegally just to deliver a child who would then be an American citizen. This has been termed as “Drop and Leave”.

In 2008, an estimated number of 340,000 babies were born in the United States. These babies were born to illegal migrants. This is as per the study conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. It has been claimed that the more than eighty percent of the children born were born to mothers who have been residing in the nation for a minimum of a year.

Keeping the above aside, it can also be said that the Republican lawmakers are trying to bring out terms and conditions to procreate in the nation. But then, how would such a plan is implemented? This would simply mean deploying immigration agents at every corner of the nation or may be turning the nurses and the doctors into immigration officials. In other words, a category called undocumented babies would come into picture.

On the other hand, there was no such concept as illegal immigration in 188 when the 14th Amendment was sanctioned. This was because all the immigrants were permitted to reside in the nation. More so, no immigration laws or policies were created then. Walking into the nation was free and people used to come in boats or even cross the borders from Mexico or Canada.

So, simply removing the concept of birthright for these children is not the answer. Above all, it is not a child’s fault to have illegal migrants as parents.

The new visa requirements for Mexicans intending to visit Canada have been made tougher. This has directly left an impact on the number of tourists arriving in Canada, thanks to the stringent visa requirements.

For instance, daughter of a teacher (who was working on work permit and was employed in Houston, Tax) was intending to mark her visit to Montreal with her siblings and meet their parents. But when she applied for the visa, the officials informed her that she has to visit Los Angeles or Washington, D.C. in order to get the visas which are granted to residents of Mexico intending to visit Canada.

Therefore, the daughter had to cancel her plans and the parents had to fly back to Houston to meet their kids. It has been more than a year now that the daughter now managed to get her Travel Visa to enter the country while she was on her vacation back to her homeland.

This is the dilemma faced by all the Mexicans who are intending to visit Canada. They have to go through rigid visa regulations and travel here and there in order to get their visas. And above all, there is no surety as to how much time would be taken to get the visas.

If this is the case of known Mexican residents, imagine the case of unknown Mexican residents intending to visit their parents or relatives in Canada. How much they would have to suffer when they would be asked to show their documents and travel here and there in an attempt to get their visas.

Best would be to take advise from an expert Immigration and Visa expert (www.abhinav.com) and go about the process.

In an attempt to attract tourists from India, Mexico is intending to ease out the visa process for the tourists who are intending to visit Latin American country; the same has been confirmed by Mexican Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara.

He further said that they are planning to attract the potential tourists from India. Also, they have held talks with various local tour operators so that they can work on some exclusive tour packages to lure and ease out processes for Indian tourists.

As far as the statistics are concerned, Guevara confirmed that almost 14,000 Indian visitors visited Mexico in the year 2009, while the same year witnessed 10,000 Mexicans coming to India.

Guevara was an integral part of the delegation which visited India under the leadership of Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa. She even held a meeting with Indian Tourism Minister Kumari Selja and confirmed that tourism sector is decked with great opportunities to explore. She also said that both the nations should enhance relationships and programs in various facets like tourism, educations as well as hospitality.

Mexico has completed 60 years of diplomatic relations with India and on this occasion, the country is focusing on enhancing the ties between both the nations by attracting more number of Indian tourists to the country and offering those suitable packages.

This step could be seen as a indirect boost for Mexican tourism too.

Famous personalities from all over the world have always used their celebrity status to create awareness amongst people about some or the other sensitive issue .Recently, a renowned Hollywood personality Lady Gaga in her musical concert urged her fans to protest against the Arizona law for the welfare of many immigrants residing in the United States. Lady Gaga is quite famous for raising sensitive issues such as gay rights for the awareness of the people.

Like her, there are many celebrities such as Cypress Hill and Shakira who have protested against the controversial Arizona law. They believe that this new law will encourage racial discrimination amongst the citizens of the United States. To tell the world around her that she is against this law, Lady Gaga wrote “STOP SB 1070” on her left arm. Unlike other musicians who boycotted their concerts to show their anger for the new law, she went ahead with the show and used it to speak to her audience directly and urged them to boycott the Arizona Law.

She refused to wait for the courts and government to act and decided to do something from her side on her own for her country people. She was really touched by the real life incident of a boy she met who told her that how his house has been raided and his brother has been deported from the nation and is now living in Mexico. She even dedicated a song ‘You and I’ to that young boy she met. Not resting even for a moment, she is going all out to lend her support in boycotting the Arizona law and even addressed her fans on Twitter and encouraged them to continue with their battle against this new law. It seems that this new immigration law has surely taken away the sleep of many people of the United States including the famous celebrities as well.

Recently, a gang of criminals were arrested in Northern Virginia by the US Immigration Authorities. It was a group of about thirty members and associates carrying out their illegal criminal activities in Northern Virginia. All the members of the group were foreign nationals according to the information revealed by the federal officials.

Amongst all these thirty gang members, twenty nine of them were men and one was a woman. Only one of them belonged to the US and the rest of them are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico. The gang members were targeted by the US immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during the three-day operation. The crime of illegal immigration is on the rise and this operation was targeting the Latino gangs as MS-13, Mexican Pride and Southside men.

Those who got arrested were deported from the country previously but they again entered the nation illegally. Various charges have been pressed against them including assault, possessing a concealed weapon, destruction of property and illegal migration. They will be deported from the United States after receiving their persecution for their criminal activities.

To reduce the criminal activities in the country, especially the ones being committed by foreign illegal immigrants, ICE will now be working closely with the law enforcement partners. This has been said by Scott Rittenberg, an official from the ICE’s Office of Homeland Security Investigation. These gangs are known for carrying out criminal activities catering to drugs and violence in the province. Their arrest is surely going to save the community from further troubles and inconveniences caused by their doings.

As we all know that there are millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States. This has gone to such an extent that there has been an increase in the Federal Prosecution of illegal migrants which is being found tedious by the courts to keep up with the process.

As per the new figures released, it projects that the months of March and April turned out to be the busiest for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The federal prosecutors were referred to a total of 4,145 cases. This was the highest in the last two months after the ICE came into existence five years back.

With this, the courts at the borders of US and Mexico are flooded with such cases. This is to such an extent that the officials have to work twelve hours a day as well as on weekends to ensure progress on the cases.

According to the figures brought out by the Department of Homeland Security, there has been a drop in the total number of illegal immigrants in the nation in the last few years. The figures project an estimation of 10.8 million illegal migrants which is a less by a million when compared to the numbers in 2007 which was the highest.

On the other hand, there has been a rise in the number of deportations which reached to 387,790 in the previous year compared to 185,944 in 2007. With Arizona’s new immigration law in place, the authorities feel that their work would simply increase provided the law delivers what it’s meant for.

As per the law, the police officials in Arizona have the authority to check the immigration status of the migrants or people under suspicion. This law would be implemented from 29th July 2010.

Sports craze is something which does not leave anybody especially when it is football. Football lovers go to any extent to enjoy their favorite sport. The fun of watching live game inside the stadium can not be matched with watching the same game on small screen. So, during sports season, commuting of sports lovers becomes increasingly high leading to heavy traffic of immigrants inside the host country.

The most recent example is of increasing migration in South Africa in the month of June as the football world cup is going on. The home affairs department of South Africa has claimed that immigration in South Africa is 32 percent more in comparison to the immigration in the same month last year. The reason for sudden increase of foreigners applying for visa is due to World Cup fever.

On an average, around 744,520 foreign nationals have commuted to South Africa starting from first week of June only. Amongst all the countries, the major five nationalities who entered the territory of South Africa are Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique and Lesotho.

Other than these, other countries are United States, Germany, Australia, France, Zambia, Argentina, Netherlands, Mexico and Britain from where people are migrating. Except Zambia, all other countries have their teams competing in the world cup. Recent data by the home minister department has revealed that around 13,638 immigrants have violated the rules of South African immigration. Amongst these people, there are many who stayed after the expiry of their visa or made the illegal use of temporary resident visa. Around 140 candidates has been stopped at airport only who were about to take the flight for South Africa because their passports and visas were declined.

Mexico has decided to fight a legal battle against the Arizona law of immigration in US. The Mexican government says that the law passed is against the laws of constitution and this would affect the relations of Arizona with other states of the country. The law has provoked quite a controversy and opponents of the law are protesting to express their anger and disgust.

The law will be implemented from July 29 onwards – according to the law, residing in Arizona as an illegal immigrant is a crime which means deportation from the country and other severe punishment. It also gives the legal authority to police to question anyone whom they suspect can be an illegal immigrant. So, it becomes very important for Americans to always carry their citizenship papers wherever they go. But this will create a problem for those citizens who do not look like Americans and can be questioned on the basis of their looks by police.

This measure by Mexico is receiving its support from various organizations such as Civil Rights Organizations including Mexican American, Legal defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Law Center. They have requested the federal government to announce that the law is not constitutional and should prevent its implementation. Mexico government is worried about its citizens living in Arizona who may come into the category of suspects owing to their native look.

But the supporters of the law in Arizona are quite large in numbers who are facing many problems caused by massive influx of illegal migrants in the state. Also, the border of Arizona is not very secure; hence, it becomes all the more urgent to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. Arizona has to pass such strict law because of the failure of federal government to resolve the issue of illegal immigration. In fact, other sates are also considering joining Arizona and adopting the new policy to check the crime of illegal immigration.

Of late, the Supreme Court in the United States declared that Jose angel Carachuri-Rosendo, an immigrant from Mexico, who was found guilty of a drug crime, which could be termed as secondary drug case, is not entitled to be sent back to Mexico. He was condemned of bearing a capsule of Xanax without the recommendation of a medico. The drug is used to treat anxiety. Now, the court has decided that he is not subject to automatic deportation from the US.

The convicted is a legal resident in the US since the year 1993. He was entitled to deportation earlier for two crime instances who he had committed in Texas. In the year 2004, Carachuri-Rosendo pleaded guilty to the possession of more than one pound of marijuana, for which he was awarded with a jail sentence up to 20 days. The following year, he was again founded guilty of possessing one anti-anxiety drug tablet, Xanax without a prescription. For this offense, he had already served a jail sentence of up to 10 days.

According to the US federal administration, the second instance of bearing a Xanax should be regarded as a major crime under federal law, for which he should be subjected to deportation. But the Justice John Paul Stevens disapproved the federal administration’s opinion saying that even though the conviction could have been regarded as federal crime, however, that should not be entitled to automatic deportation. Stevens also asserted that the prosecutor of the Carachuri-Rosendo case did not alleged the latter as a repeat offender. This is one of the reasons why the court did not consider the conviction as a drug crime that should be subjected to automatic deportation.

As per the new private figures, Indians make up for third largest immigrant community in the United States, net to immigrants from Mexico and Philippines. The US houses about 1.6 million India-origin people in present day. The figure has outdone the number of immigrants from China and Hong Kong between 2007 and 2008. According to the Migration Policy Institute, Indian-origin immigrants beat the immigrants from China and Hong Kong for the first time since 1960.

The level of immigration from India to the United States grew up in the 1990s and 2000s. Moreover, Indian-origin immigrants from many other countries like Canada, East Africa, Caribbean and UK contributed significantly to the figure.

The American states of California, New York, Texas and New Jersey happen to be the place where most Indian-origin people find their habitat. In the year 2008, California hosted the largest immigrant community from the sub-continent in the US with 303,497 individuals.187,732 Indians found their base in New Jersey, while a total of 141,738 inhabited in New York.

Besides, these facets the report also showed that when it comes to literacy, overseas born Indians are the people who are highly acclaimed in the United States, as compared to rest of the foreign born communities. The report also pointed revealed that a considerable percentage of Indian immigrants is engaged in the IT sector.

In the year 2008, the metropolitan area of New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA had the largest number of Indian-origin immigrant at 277,40. The second slot occupied by Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI with 116,395, followed by San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA with 78,001; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV with 67,340; and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA with 66,125.