Texas jury awards $750,000 lottery to illegal immigrant

A jury recently awarded a $750,000 lottery ticket to an illegal immigrant currently jailed in Georgia. The story began when Jose Antonio "Tony" Cua-Toc, a native of Guatemala who entered the country illegally in 2000, bought a winning lottery ticket in November 2010. As a day laborer without legal immigration status, he asked business owner Erick Cervantes to cash in the ticket. Cervantes however kept the money for himself, claiming that he gave Cua-Toc $20 to buy the ticket for him. Jurors however determined that the owner of a lottery ticket is not who pays for it, but who actually purchases it. Cua-Toc won his $517,500 prize, in addition to $207,000 in legal fees and $25,000 in punitive damages awarded by the jury. Cua-Toc however is currently in jail in Georgia on a DUI charge and will likely be deported after completing his sentence.

Record number of criminal immigrants deported for 2011

According to recent data, the U.S. deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year, with an increasing number of convicted criminals. Under the Obama administration, Homeland Security issued new priorities to focus deportations on convicted criminals as people who pose threats to national security. Last year, 55 percent of those deported were convicted criminals, the highest percent in nearly a decade.

New policy grants longer stay for R-1 religious workers

The USCIS has recently increased the time R-1 religious workers can stay in the U.S. Under the new policy, the USCIS now allows the "recapture" of time R-1 workers spent outside the U.S. during their R-1 visa stay. The new policy also allows spouses and minor children to increase their R-2 Visa stay for the same period. To request this extension, R-1 workers need to provide evidence clearly establishing their time spent outside the U.S., including copies of I-94 arrival/departure cards, passport entry stamps and airline tickets. For more information about extending your R-1 Visa, call us at: (954) 382-5378. You can read more about R-1 religious visas by visiting our website at: www.ImmigrateToday.com, clicking on the link to our Weekly Immigration Newsletter.

Supreme Court rules on controversial immigration law in Arizona, likely to effect similar laws in Alabama and Georgia

After hearing arguments about the controversial Georgia and Alabama immigration laws recently, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta decided to wait until the Supreme Court issues its decision on Arizona's restrictive immigration law before making its own ruling. Following Arizona's controversial immigration reform, Alabama and Georgia passed two of the nation's toughest immigration laws last year. These laws required police to verify the immigration status of individuals who failed to immediately produce valid identification, whether or not they are suspected of a crime, and also criminalized the transportion or housing of undocumented immigrants. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision by June. You can read more about the immigration law controversy by visiting our website at: ImmigrateToday.com, clicking on the link to our Weekly Immigration Newsletter.