This is an article from AOL Latino. Translated by Google. I didn't notice it reported in any MSM of NYC.

U.S. needs immigration reform, said USCIS Director
Published: 10/14/1910 at 7:53 am

AOL News

Reforma migratoria

NEW YORK .- The need for immigration reform in America "is extreme," said the director of immigration services in the country, who called for a broad package of changes including from new visa programs to objectives to stimulate the economy with new immigrants.

"I've been in my position just a year and see that the rhetoric around the immigration issue. However, I am optimistic about achieving comprehensive reform. The need is extreme," said Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, for its acronym in English).

Mayorkas, who spoke at a forum of The New School University in Manhattan, stayed in favor of approving a comprehensive reform covering many aspects of complex immigration laws, instead of going plugging holes "with band-aids as you go time.

But did not specify what kind of reform much approve, Mayorkas admitted that the challenges facing his agency are many and that it "intends to accept criticism and to analyze which aspects can do better. One of these aspects would be to reduce long waits to enter the country suffered foreign dependents of people with visas or U.S. resident, said.

Immigration reform filled the headlines three years ago, when he introduced a proposal to establish a path to legalization for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The proposal in Congress did not get enough support and was not even voted.

Now, however, have been introduced several bills to reform the immigration system and have not yet been analyzed, including a proposal of Democratic Sens. Robert Menendez and Patrick Leahy.

Mayorkas, who was born in Cuba, noted that despite "a very difficult job to perform" his agency does "amazing things" every day. Among them, the official stressed the many hours of dedicated employees work to ensure temporary visas to Haitians affected by the strong earthquake that shook the island earlier this year.

"Many people worked 24 hours a day to provide humanitarian aid. I was extremely proud," said Mayorkas.

USCIS is an agency with more than 10,000 full-time employees and 8,000 contract workers in over 250 offices worldwide. Although the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is what makes the deportations, from October 2009 through September of this year 392,862 people were deported from the United States, the highest recorded so far, said Mayorkas.

The official also stressed that the immigration detention centers "in need of reform" after numerous complaints about the conditions under which detainees are held. Newspapers like The New York Times reported deaths of immigrants who did not receive necessary medical treatment while in custody awaiting deportation.

Mayorkas said the government is leading the transformation of these centers and that deaths have been reduced, and became only eight this year.

"A single death is unacceptable. The problem is real and recognize that we are allocating resources to fix it. We're making progress," he said.
Categories: Main News, Immigration

Tags: AP, immigration reform

http://noticias.aol.com/2010/10/14/eeuu ... ria-uscis/