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U Visa: How A Visa Program Meant To Assist Law Enforcement Puts Immigrant Victims At Risk

U Visa

(CTN NEWS) – Luis Melean, with unwavering recall, recounts a pivotal juncture where his compatriot abruptly halted in the midst of a thoroughfare, vocalizing a frantic exclamation, “We are ensnared by a mugging!”

Within the environs of Memphis, Tennessee, a duo was confronted by two individuals armed with firearms, beseeching them to relinquish any monetary assets in their possession. However, both Melean and his companion found their coffers bereft of currency.

“The proximity of those firearms, a hair’s breadth from our beings, infused an aura of dread, akin to the impending embrace of the night’s final shroud,” Melean reminisced.

“Yet, as they proceeded to withdraw, their parting words echoed a peculiar sentiment: ‘Fortunate are you, for we shan’t usher you into the realm of the departed this eve.'”

This occurrence was not an isolated incident within Melean’s narrative. His tenure in his land of origin, Venezuela, bore witness to his being subjected to the harrowing experience of mugging thrice within a span of but thirty days.

Longing for Redemption: The Elusive U Visa and the Unending Odyssey of Asylum Seeker

Such dire circumstances were a contributing factor propelling his familial unit to seek refuge upon the shores of the United States in the year 2017.

In contrast to the aforementioned episodes of yore, the mugging enmeshed within the urban tapestry of Memphis seemed to cast forth a glimmer of hope: a potential avenue to secure a visa affording permanence upon the soil of the United States.

In his capacity as a victim beset by criminal transgressions on American soil, an opportunity beckoned in the form of the U visa—a classification specially earmarked for immigrant victims ensnared within the clutches of specific criminal offenses, heralding a swift trajectory toward the exalted state of citizenship.

That epoch stretches back by the span of four revolutions around the sun, and yet, the chalice of deliverance remains untasted, not only by Melean, but by a congregation of fellow pilgrims along this odyssey.

NPR, the chronicler of stories, has convened with a diverse assembly of seventeen U visa aspirants, each ensnared within the quagmire of a two to seven-year sojourn, hinged upon the coveted arrival of their visas.

These narrators cast light upon a system plagued by temporal ebbs and flows, consigning them to the tides of immigration limbo, wherein they dedicate the ages to facilitating the law’s pursuit of their transgressors, whilst seeking solace in the land without the hallowed privilege of legal employ.

“The initial intent unfurled as a tapestry woven with threads of accountability—holding the malefactors answerable, whilst extending an aegis of succor and safeguard to the aggrieved,” opined Leslye Orloff, a torchbearer who played a pivotal role in birthing the U visa program during its nascent days in 2000.

She mused further, “Verily, it was not envisioned that Tempus should lay claim to such exorbitant portions.”

U Visa: Bridging Justice and Protection for Vulnerable Immigrant Victims

Conceived into existence within the annals of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, the U visa’s raison d’être lay in furnishing a conduit through which the machinations of law enforcement might probe the precincts of transgressions that find kinship under the banner of “heinous.”

This pertains to the mosaic encompassing domestic brutality, the torment of torture, and the nefarious enterprise of human trafficking.

Furthermore, this arcane talisman was forged with the dual intent of invigorating the conduits of crime reporting within enclaves bearing the burden of undocumented immigrant status, thereby nurturing the nexus betwixt law enforcement and immigrant demographics, whilst also donning the mantle of guardian over the violated and vanquished.

Legislative decree erected a bulwark, capping the annual allotment of these visas at a resolute ten thousand.

Orloff extols this visa classification as a reciprocal covenant—a rubric ventured only if the tribunals of certifying agencies, including but not limited to law enforcement, shall pronounce them to be paragons of cooperative spirit, enmeshed in the communal endeavor to ensnare those orchestrating their woes.

However, ambiguity reigns supreme, for no corpus of jurisprudence has concretized the mantle of “fully cooperative.”

Research conducted under the aegis of the University of North Carolina School of Law lays bare the disparities that govern access to the U visa, a precarious waltz whose steps are dictated by the locale of the atrocity.

The mosaic of certification criteria ebbs and flows with the currents of state, county, and municipal dominions—a heterogeneous patchwork that veers from outright refusal to merely certifying should the architect of affliction be ensnared.

And there, a legion of cases languish within the chasm, awaiting their meritorious scrutiny.

A report freshly disseminated by the custodians of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services unfurls the banner of staggering backlog, with an excess of three hundred thousand U visa entreaties languishing in the crucible of review.

Trapped in Limbo: The Plight of U Visa Applicants and the Struggle for Legitimate Livelihood

Applicants find themselves ensnared in the clutches of counsel’s wisdom, forewarned against venturing beyond the confines of the nation’s borders, a bequest that ensnares them within the bonds of temporal stasis, a purgatorial sojourn bereft of the laurels of gainful toil.

In the thriving heart of Memphis, Shelley Johnson emerges as the steward of the Survivors’ Project, ensconced within the bastion of Mid-South Immigration Advocates, a bastion dedicated to the cause of immigration jurisprudence.

She paints a vivid tapestry, detailing how her wards brave the tide, plowing fields and tending hearths, their hands enacting the labor that sustains existence.

“Thus, a multitude ensnared within the clutches of pending petitions with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services are bereft of legitimacy, toiling within the spheres of toil that offer a pittance, insufficient to kindle the warmth of sustenance or forge the bulwarks of kin,” Johnson enunciated.

“Verily, the wage reaped is a mere semblance of what one might call a life-sustaining stipend, inadequate to proffer succor to a household or kith.”

Navigating the Labyrinth: U Visa Aspirants’ Quest for Work Permits and the Lingering Shadows of Vulnerability

A progressive chapter etched its tale within the annals of 2021, wherein waiting petitioners were bestowed a glimmer of respite through the promise of a work permit.

Alas, according to the testimonies of several jurisprudential alchemists who traverse the realm of U visa aspirants with unwavering regularity, this epochal revision, while a salutary gesture, still remains inadequate in shepherding these supplicants towards the coveted shores of labor.

Forsooth, the interval to procure this document may traverse the span of over four revolutions of the cosmic dance, a gestation of temporal woes.

Orloff, akin to an oracle of empathy, raises her voice in defense of the U visa petitioners, painting a somber vista wherein the prospect of U visa latency lays bare the supplicants to the risk of becoming once more the quarry of nefarious endeavors within the precincts of their vocations.

“In the twilight realms where documents are scarce, the peril looms with heightened fervor—an undercurrent of vulnerability wherein the specters of transgression and abuse, ensnared in the labyrinth of sexual assault, harassment, and despoilment of wages, conspire to perpetuate a cycle of anguish and despair,” Orloff bemoaned.

During the interregnum as Melean awaited the boon of a work permit, his days unfurled beneath the oppressive yoke of thirteen-hour shifts within the confines of a warehouse—a monotonous symphony composed in harmony with the ticking hands of the clock.

A meager pittance, dancing at the fringes of nine dollars per hour, graced his toils.

Any entreaty for reprieve, a mere plea for fleeting respite, found itself met with a dictum: silence your presence within these walls.

Frayed Threads of Aspiration: Melean’s Odyssey through Immigration, Advocacy, and Reform

“Devoid of documents, one is ensnared within the lattice of obligation, a siren’s call compelling adherence to the yoke of labor,” Melean expounded.

“Voicelessness becomes a shroud, a compelling force that steers the helms of one’s existence towards the ephemeral shelter overhead, and the sustenance that graces one’s palate.”

As the pages of his narrative unfurled, Melean’s tale diverged, as a gossamer filament veered towards a more felicitous denouement.

His odyssey found a semblance of solace, securing the elusive aegis of a work permit through the act of seeking asylum—a narrative thread denied to most aspirants seeking the U visa’s embrace.

An archive of federal provenance, dating the year 2022, rendered a sobering verdict upon the U visa program, unearthing a paucity of effective stewardship that rendered it susceptible to the contagion of fraud.

The chorus of grievances echoed a litany of woes—an ever-mounting backlog, a paucity of mechanisms to chronicle the ebb and flow of annually dispensed visas, and a lamentable absence in the realm of fraud probes and audits.

Johnson’s clarion call resounds, a manifesto calling for legislative reformation, a clarion that resonates with the clarion of congressional augmentation, as the banners are unfurled in the campaign to elevate the ceiling of visa dispensation beyond the traditional count of ten thousand, a clarion that might yet attenuate the labyrinthine queue and hasten the dissemination of the coveted work permit.

“The very sinews of this beleaguered system manifest fractures profound in nature, an ordeal not for the faint of heart,” Johnson attested.

“Thus, an effervescent passion mingles with the specter of disillusionment, as one finds themselves petitioning the abyss, offering their entreaty to the ether, a symphony echoing through the aeons.”

Revitalizing Hope: USCIS Responds to NPR’s Plea, Unveiling a Vision for Immigration Transformation

The heralds of NPR extended their discourse towards the hallowed citadel of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, beseeching a retort, a glimpse into the temporal tapestry woven by their machinations.

In response, the agency extended a missive adorned with assurances, a vow of their unwavering fidelity towards the restoration of faith within the fabric of the immigration edifice.

It is a chronicle that proclaims an endeavor to diminish the annals of backlog, orchestrating the unveiling of a novel bastion dedicated to the processing of visas, an augury of brighter days.

For Melean, time languishes in a ceaseless waltz, each moment echoing the palpable yearning for transformation. “Languishing within the hinterlands of uncertainty is akin to being entwined within the cocoon of stasis,” he confided.

“With every aspect suspended in the ethereal expanse, the paucity of a dignified vocation taints the very essence of existence.”

In the tapestry of existence, the quest for salvation finds itself inextricably entwined with the crucible of U visa yearning.

Within the crucible of limbo, life’s tapestry unfurls in a symphony of suspended threads, and the quest for a means to subsist, though arduous, remains the fulcrum upon which existence balances.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

google

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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