Faster immigration lines at MIA

Miami-Dade County, in conjunction with Customs and Border Protection, has built 34 new passport control booths and Homeland Security has added 105 passport control officers, which have served to alleviate the length of the waiting time at the Miami International Airport. MIA has previously been famous for it’s long immigration lines extended processing time. However, an average of nine minutes have been shaved from the waiting time.  In the past it took MIA passport control officers up to an average of 45 minutes to process a planeload of arriving passengers.

A Govern Accountability Office report last year said average MIA wait times exceeded 45 minutes, which made the immigration lines at MIA the slowest among the nation’s 20 international airports.

No Medicaid assistance for children of undocumented immigrants

Last week the Bush administration announced there would no longer be assistance under Medicaid for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants with low incomes. According to doctors and hospitals that have treated such children, the policy change would make it more difficult for the infants, who are U.S. citizens to obtain healthcare needed in the first year of their lives.

Previously, once an undocumented woman received emergency labor and delivery medical treatment under Medicaid for the birth of her child, the child was eligible for coverage as well, and states had to cover them for up to a year after the date of birth. Under the new policy, an application must be filed for the child, and the parent or parents must provide documents to prove the child’s citizenship.

Such documents can take several months to obtain in some states, doctors said, and in many cases undocumented parents are reluctant to approach a government agency to file because of their status. Although the documentation requirements took effect in July, some states have been slow to enforce them, and many doctors in other states are only just now becoming aware of the regulation and the effects on newborn children of undocumented people.

Reports are that doctors and hospitals that have delivered and treated thousands of children given birth by undocumented female have denounced the new policy change.

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Productivity has stagnated in the United States

According to the Associated Press, growth in productivity, a main ingredient for measuring rising living standards was at a standstill in the late summer of this year, while at the same time worker’s wages and benefits increased at the fastest rate in more than twenty years.

This is not a good sign for the national economy as it means that the slowing of productivity coupled with increase in wages and benefits was an indication of a future inflationary trend. Therefore the Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates in the near future, and could even raise them.

Output per hour of work, or productivity, showed no sign of growth from July to September this year, and the growth rate of 1.3 percent over the past 12 months, was the weakest productivity growth recorded in nine years. However, the cost of wages and wages per unit of output grew at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the third quarter, while the increase of 5.3 percent in employment compensation has been the fastest growth since 1990.

The increase in wages and compensation is good news to workers. However, unless this increase is matched by productivity so that employers can afford to better pay their workers, businesses have no alternative but passing on the increases to consumers in the way of increased prices.

Caribbean territories restructured 

Curacao and St. Marteen, islands of the Netherlands Antilles have been granted autonomy. The Dutch government and the Netherlands Antilles have signed a long-awaited agreement granting the Caribbean territories this autonomy, while giving the smaller islands like, Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius the status of Dutch municipalities.

The islands of the Netherlands Antilles have been a self governing territory since 1954, but the smaller territories have complained hat they have been under-funded and overlooked by the Antillean government in Curacao, while the larger territories have been claiming that they are economically viable to stand alone.

According to the Associated press, the Dutch government plans to hold a conference early next year with leaders of the Netherlands Antilles to work out full details of the new agreement. Antilles President Emily de Jongh-Elhage, speaking from The Hague, said the agreement meant that the bonds will be closer not only between the islands, but also with the European part of the kingdom.

As of July 1, 2007 Curacao and St. Maarteen will govern themselves independently, except on matters of defense, foreign policy and law enforcement, which will be responsibility of The Hague. The smaller islands will take on city status within the Netherlands.