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Certain people are “inadmissible” for purposes of entry into the United States, either as an immigrant or as a visitor. There are many reasons why a person could be considered inadmissible to receive a visa and enter the United States, including that there were problems with the person’s labor certification.

General rules

In general, both skilled and unskilled laborers seeking to enter the United States to perform work are inadmissible unless there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to perform the same work and the employment of such laborer will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States who are similarly employed. In order to obtain work as either a skilled or unskilled laborer in the United States, an alien must first obtain a “certification” from the U.S. Secretary of Labor stating these facts.

Without the labor certification, an alien wishing to work in the U.S. is inadmissible. In addition, if the alien obtains the labor certification on the basis of fraud, the alien is inadmissible.

Generally, waivers are not available for this ground of inadmissibility. This category of inadmissibility may be subject to waiver, however, upon the meeting of certain requirements specific to the category as determined by the Immigration and Naturalization Act, the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service, and applicable immigration regulations.

Specific Labor Situations Noted in the INA

Professional Athletes

A labor certificate issued to a professional athlete remains in effect if the athlete changes employers if the new employer is a team in the same sport as the team which employed the athlete when the athlete first applied for certification.

Healthcare Professionals

Aliens who are graduates of medical schools in foreign countries are inadmissible to perform medical services in the United States unless they pass a special medical skills examination given by the National Board of Medical Examiners Examination and are competent in oral and written English.

Aliens in the healthcare field (not including physicians) are inadmissible unless they present certification from the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools or an equivalent independent credentialing organization approved by the USCIS verifying the alien’s education, training, license, and competency in English.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a settlement agreement with Debt Solutions, Inc.; DSI Financial, Inc.; DSI Direct, Inc.; Pacific Consolidation Services, Inc.. The settlement also includes the owners of the four companies, Kenneth Schwartz and Jennifer Whalen, and two of their managers.

The FTC allegations are simple, and all-too familiar. The companies apparently represented to debtors that they had special relationships with credit card companies and other creditors that would lower interest rates and reduce overall payments. Customers were “guaranteed” to save a certain amount of money, but no time frame was specified, so that the debtors might have to make payments for decades to realize the savings. The savings they did see typically came only from increasing monthly payments and not from any actual reduction in interest rates or fees.

Schwartz and Whalen agreed to a permanent ban on engaging in the debt negotiation or debt elimination business.

Two down…how many to go?

Katie’s Question: My ex husband and I have 50/50 joint custody, but my kids primary residence is his home. He is mad at me because I wont get intimate with him, so now he won’t let me see my kids unless he is there. Their grandmother watches them during the day. If I go pick them up at there grandmas, can he turn me in for kidnapping?

Brette’s Answer: If he is interfering with your right to visitation, then you should file a violation in court. Doing this is called custodial interference and can be the grounds for a change in custody. If you pick them from his mother’s house, he cannot say you kidnapped them if you are exercising your court ordered visitation rights. I think you need to go back to court to get this straightened out.

Eric Palmer reports for the Kansas City Star

The MD-80 that took off Friday from Kansas City International Airport carried about 120 passengers. Some were headed for Mexico, others to Central and South America.Once off the ground, food and beverages would be served.

The flight was one of up to 180 flights flown each month by Kansas City’s only locally based airline. While most are to Central and South America, others are to such exotic locales as Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Palestine.

Yet most Kansas Citians will never get a seat on one of the flights — nor would want to.

The little-known Flight Operations Unit was established by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2006 to handle the repatriation of the surging number of illegal immigrants caught up in tougher enforcement.

The U.S. Department of Education launched U.S.A. Learns, a free Web site to help immigrants learn English. The Web site, which is located at www.USALearns.org, provides approximately 11 million adults who have low levels of English proficiency with accessible free English language training.

Measures like this to foster immigrant integration make a lot of sense, much more sense than efforts to build fences and what not.

Kingsley Guy writes for the South Florida Sentinel Sun:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist had some savvy advice for his Republican colleagues during the recent Republican Governors Association conference in Miami.

“You have to be inclusive,” Crist said. “You have to work for a big tent. That’s about as obvious as the nose on your face.”

Yet, it’s amazing how many Republicans can’t tell their noses from their tightly shut eyes. Unless GOP leaders, across the board, open their eyes and work to broaden the GOP base, the party could find itself relegated to permanent minority status.

Among those whom the GOP must welcome into the tent are Hispanic voters. George W. Bush and his brother Jeb recognized this. Strong support among Hispanics, the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, helped them win the governorships of Texas and Florida respectively, and for George W., the presidency.

Exit polls indicate that in the 2004 presidential race, President Bush may have won as much as 44 percent of the Hispanic vote. In 2008, the Hispanic vote for GOP candidate John McCain nose-dived to about 31 percent.

The GOP should find the Hispanic defection in Florida particularly troubling. Historically, Republican presidential candidates have carried the Hispanic electorate, for years dominated by Cuban-Americans who supported the GOP’s tough-on-Castro policies. Attitudes are changing, however.

In the 2004 presidential election, 56 percent of Florida’s Hispanic voters chose Bush. This year, 57 percent went for Barack Obama.

The divisive immigration debate, more than anything, soured Hispanic voters on the GOP. Near the end of his first term, President Bush presented a plan for immigration reform that offered a road to legalized status for immigrants living illegally in the United States. Bush’s plan recognized the legitimate labor needs of the country.