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Uber Freight has laid off 150 employees, or about 3% of the segment's total headcount. The layoffs impact the division's Digital Brokerage team, Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron said in a Monday message viewed by CNBC. Uber launched its freight unit in 2017 with a belief that trucking companies and laden goods could be matched using the same concept that underpinned the company's ride-hailing technology. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he isn't planning companywide layoffs. In Nov. 2022, delivery service DoorDash laid off 1,250 workers, or 6% of its headcount, weeks after ride-sharing platform Lyft cut 13% of its headcount.

☆ Venezuelans describe dangers and desperation amid U.S. asylum changes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Albinson Linares | Noticias Telemundo | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

MEXICO CITY — Mariantonela Orellana spent nine days in the dangerous Darien Gap jungle in the Colombia-Panama border, and she described her nightmarish ordeal. Now back in Mexico, migrants wrestle with whether to try to stay in Mexico, keep trying to seek asylum in the U.S. or return to Venezuela. According to Department of Homeland Security data, the flow of Venezuelan migrants to the U.S. increased by almost four times compared to the year prior. Mexican authorities approved 61% of asylum applications from January to November, including at least 90% of approvals for Hondurans and Venezuelans. “I left Venezuela because the discrimination against the LGBT community is terrible; we are trampled on and attacked every day.

☆ Former Russian mercenary commander flees to Norway and seeks asylum
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Mithil Aggarwal | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Caroline-Radnofsky-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A former member of an infamous Russian mercenary group who fought in Ukraine says he staged a dramatic escape to Norway, where he is seeking asylum and offering to cooperate with international war crimes probes. Medvedev said he had crossed into Norway and surrendered to local police before claiming asylum in the country, which shares an Arctic border with Russia. The former mercenary recounted his defection from his former employer, which he joined last year on a four-month contract after serving time in prison. Medvedev said he climbed through barbed-wire fences, evaded border patrol dogs, ran away from guards' bullets and ran through a forest and over an icy lake to make it into Norway. Norwegian soldiers patrol the border with Russia near Korpfjells, Norway.

☆ A proposed H-1B visa fee increase threatens to kneecap Silicon Valley's ability to hire the foreign talent it needs to compete
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The tech industry relies on skilled-work visas for foreign hires in a system critics say is broken. Now the USCIS is proposing fee hikes for visa applications, at a time when it's already challenging. It would be another hurdle on top of recent tech layoffs and scarce visa availability, experts say. While the proposed fee hikes are presented as a solution to end backlogs and address bureaucratic headaches, experts say they would make it more difficult to hire foreign talent. Are you an H-1B visa holder and have a story to share?

☆ Biden on immigration: We will continue efforts to address root causes of migration
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBiden on immigration: We will continue efforts to address root causes of migrationPresident Joe Biden joins Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, at a press conference in Mexico and discusses U.S. efforts to improve immigration services.

☆ Canada and the U.S. both face labor shortages. One country is increasing immigration.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Julia-Ainsley-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Julia Ainsley | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

In as little as a decade, there will be one retiree for every two workers in Canada. How outdated U.S. immigration policies push top talent to other countries,” Lofgren said, “The last major overhaul of our legal immigration system occurred in 1990. University Health Network began a program this year to bring in more internationally educated nurses and help them get the additional training they need in Canada. New immigrants to Canada and new Canadians take part in the 5th Annual Newcomer Day at Nathan Philips Square in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 16, 2019. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it "is committed to fairly and efficiently administering the lawful immigration system, increasing access to eligible immigration benefits, restoring faith and trust with immigrant communities and breaking down barriers in the immigration system, and the agency will continue to uphold America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve."

☆ Advocates Urge Congress to Pass Permanent Residency Status for Afghans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesConvincing Republican senatorsThe House version of the Afghan Adjustment Act has 143 co-sponsors, including 10 Republicans. Demonstrators gather to support Afghan evacuees outside the Capitol on Nov. 16, 2022. At the moment, one prospect to advance the Afghan Adjustment Act is by attaching it to that larger spending bill, advocates say. But negotiations on the omnibus are ongoing, and whether the Afghan Adjustment Act will be included is up in the air. Yet without a deal by then, passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act appears doomed, advocates say, keeping Afghan evacuees in perpetual legal limbo.

The number of people granted asylum in immigration courts hit a historic high this fiscal year under the Biden administration's adjustments to the asylum process, a recent data analysis shows. The TRAC report, released in late November, said the 2022 number was the largest number of individuals granted asylum in any year in the courts' history. However, the analysis also showed that grants of asylum have slowed, with 50% of cases granted asylum in June falling to 41% of cases in September. Also, those released from detention had better asylum grant rates, 54% this fiscal year, compared to those who were detained, 15% of whom were granted asylum. Just 23% of people from Ecuador, or 3,380, were granted asylum, placing the country near the bottom.

☆ First on CNN: Biden administration to pilot new portions of citizenship test next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Priscilla Alvarez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The naturalization exam is a crucial step to an immigrant’s path toward US citizenship, potentially impacting hundreds of thousands of immigrants who seek citizenship annually. The trial civics portion is expected to be redesigned in a multiple-choice format, instead of it being fill in the blank. Currently, applicants study 100 civics test items and are required to answer six of 10 civics questions correctly to pass. The citizenship test was a target of the Trump administration, which tried to curtail legal immigration and doubled down on citizenship. Last year, the Biden administration rolled back the controversial Trump-era naturalization civics test, reverting to a prior version of the exam.

☆ How one family’s struggle illustrates problems with the program meant to help Afghans who helped the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Jim Sciutto | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —For more than a year, I have been trying to help a family leave Afghanistan for safety and a new life abroad. However, SIV approval does not equal freedom for him and other Afghans with similar status – far from it. And last week, Congress removed language from the National Defense Authorization Act that would have extended the program for another year. To get to one of those countries, Afghans need passports – a relative luxury for many. The State Department tells CNN it had been managing to get only about 250 Afghans and their family members out of the country per week.

☆ Tech firms sponsored 45,000 H-1B workers in the past 3 years, report says. Many are now laid-off and struggling to stay in the US.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Major tech firms sponsored 45,000 H-1B workers in the past three years, Bloomberg reported. Some H-1B workers are staying at Twitter out of fear of being "forced out of the country," per CNN. The US allows 65,000 H-1B workers per year who are permitted to stay between three to six years. USCIS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about H-1B workers being laid off by tech firms, made outside normal working hours. "You have to spend months preparing for some of these jobs," he told Bloomberg over the phone.

☆ Foreign workers laid off from Big Tech face a deadline: Find a job ASAP, or leave the country
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Brahmjot Kaur | Sakshi Venkatraman | Sakshi Venkatraman Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

Under the umbrella of a tech giant, not only would he have job security, he thought, but visa security as well. Originally from China, he needed the sponsorship of an H-1B work visa to stay in the U.S.A year went by in his new role and everything seemed to be going well. immigration policy has amplified the uncertainty for immigrant workers in times like this. “It’s definitely harder trying to find a job or trying to find a company that’s willing to sponsor you. “This really helped drive the tech boom in the U.S. and made the U.S. the big tech hub,” Khanna said.

☆ Hot machine learning firms like Hugging Face, Snowflake, and Databricks are still hiring as the AI market heats up. Here are the skills and certifications needed to land a job in the field.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Data scientists and other roles can make upward of $160,000. That includes several different roles, like data scientists that analyze massive datasets for trends to inform company decisions. Data scientists for production models earn $143,960, according to the H-1B data. Advanced data scientists generally build machine-learning models that work within products, like personalization algorithms. These employees often have extensive experience, education, or both, and they earn $161,944, according to H-1B data.

☆ Ugandan leader says anti-Ebola efforts starting to succeed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KAMPALA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Uganda's efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak were starting to succeed and the country has tightened restrictions in the outbreak's epicentre to further slow the rate of infections, President Yoweri Museveni said on Tuesday. "Bunyangabo and Kagadi districts have been dropped from the follow up list. He said authorities had handed names of all contacts of Ebola cases to immigration services at borders to prevent them from potentially travelling and exporting cases in other countries. The outbreak was declared in the country on Sept. 20. Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. extends protected migrant status to mid-2024 for six nationalities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The United States has extended a protected status program that prevents migrants from being deported to mid-2024 for citizens of six countries, including Haiti and three Central American nations, its immigration service said on Thursday. The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be extended to June 30, 2024, for citizens of Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras, and Nepal, according to a document filed by the U.S. The TPS program provides recipients work permits and can protect them from deportation if their home countries go through extraordinary events such as natural disaster or armed conflict. The extension will affect about 392,000 people, of whom some 242,000 are citizens of El Salvador, according to USCIS data. "Thanks be to God," said Salvadoran Ambassador to the United States Milena Mayorga, tweeting a link to the document.

☆ Hundreds of Twitter employees on H-1B visas fear being deported if Elon Musk fires them
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hundreds of Twitter employees on special visas could be deported after Elon Musk's job cuts. A Forbes report suggests nearly 700 Twitter employees were on H-1B employment-tied visas. According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Twitter has given "initial approval" to 168 H-1B visas since 2020. It is unclear what departments visa-tied Twitter employees work for, or how susceptible their positions are to layoffs. He previously reprimanded Donald Trump in 2017 for the then-President's decision to suspend the special work visas.

☆ Resentment is mounting as some employees are forced back to the office and some are allowed to work from home
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Samantha Delouya | Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Some workers are being forced to return to the office while others are allowed to stay home. "If you're offering two different types of employees different access to work, you potentially create an issue of equity," said Thomas Roulet, an associate professor of organizational theory at the University of Cambridge. To be sure, not all workplaces unevenly apply in-person work requirements: Some allow workers the choice of returning to the office and, if so, how often. Why are some employees allowed to work from home while others are required to come into the office? "Companies are experimenting to see if something works, and many employees need to be just as flexible in giving it a shot," she said.

☆ Venezuelans stranded in Panama by U.S. policy change return home
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The policy change shut the door on Venezuelan asylum seekers, many of whom previously were being paroled into the United States. We began to call relatives in the United States, in Chile and they us yes, it was true. We all lost the little that we had.”Some 900 Venezuelans have returned on charter flights from Panama since the U.S. policy change, according to Panama’s National Immigration Service. The U.S. policy change was driven by a surge in Venezuelans arriving at the U.S. border that put them second only to Mexicans this year. The program, which requires pre-registration online and that applicants have a sponsor in the United States, is similar to one set up for Ukrainians earlier this year.

☆ A record number of Americans now have bank accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The number of Americans who do not have a bank account fell to a record low last year, as the proliferation of online-only banks and an improving economy is bringing more Americans into the traditional financial system. The benefit programs largely needed a bank account to send the funds quickly to those impacted. The benefit programs largely needed a bank account to send the funds quickly to those impacted. While Americans kept their bank accounts through the coronavirus recession, there is a chance the number of unbanked Americans could rise in the future if inflation continues to damage the economy and unemployment increases. Cash checking services, utility payment services, rent payments without a bank account often come with fees, money that a person with a bank account would not be subject to.

Among all Cuban Americans polled, 32% gave Biden a positive job approval. His numbers were higher among Cuban American Democrats (73%) and newest arrivals (64%), as well as to a lesser extent older Cuban Americans. “Cuban Americans are willing to put out a carrot for the Cuban government in hopes that it will change," Grenier said. “You have an ambivalence.”Ahead of the midterms, Cuban Americans identified the economy, health care, immigration, and Cuba policy as top issues. The FIU Cuba poll surveyed 1,000 Cuban Americans in Miami Dade County from July 27 to September 11.

☆ Rich Russians offered a Caribbean shortcut to US visas by paying their way to a Grenadian passport
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Joshua Zitser | Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

"Grenada is called 'little Switzerland,'" United Passport wrote in a Telegram message on September 25. Screenshot of United Passport Telegram. In the Telegram channel, United Passport advertised the possibility of getting to the US on an E-2 visa. In multiple exchanges on WhatsApp, United Passport told Insider Wednesday that one business opportunity would get us a Grenadian passport and, in turn, a US visa. The total cost, therefore, realistically starts at $200,000 for Russians when the $150,000 United Passport fee is factored in.

☆ Malawi police find more bodies near mass grave that contained 25 Ethiopians
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Nimi Princewill | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Four more bodies of suspected illegal migrants from Ethiopia have been found near the site of a mass grave in northern Malawi that contained the remains of 25 Ethiopian nationals, according to police in the southern African country. The four bodies were discovered a day after the corpses of 25 Ethiopian migrants were exhumed from a mass grave in northern Malawi’s Mzimba district. The 25 victims were males aged between 25 and 40 years, police found. Malawi's Minister of Homeland Security, Jean Sendeza visited Mtangatanga forest where villagers discovered a mass grave with 25 bodies, and five more bodies were found after further search around the forest. More than 200 illegal migrants were intercepted in the last eight months, he stated, adding that 186 of them were Ethiopian nationals.

☆ Google and Amazon ignore employee protests and plow ahead with deals involving the US military, ICE, and CBP
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Caroline Haskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google and Amazon used third parties for contracts with DHS and DOD agencies in the past year. Their dissent has been largely ignored, according to an Insider review of contracts involving Google and Amazon. In the same time frame, Amazon used third parties to work with DHS agencies at least 28 times, including at least 14 contracts with CBP. As Insider previously reported, these companies have used third parties to work with CBP as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Google and Amazon employees have a history of speaking out against their companies' work with the military and immigration enforcement.

☆ Florida officials made fake 'official-looking' brochure advertising refugee benefits for migrants, lawsuit against Ron DeSantis says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Migrants who were flown to Martha's Vineyard filed a lawsuit against Gov. Migrants were made to believe that they would receive refugee benefits upon arrival, lawsuit says. For example, just before they arrived on the island, migrants were given a "shiny, red folder" filled with "official-looking materials," including a brochure titled "Massachusetts Refugee Benefits." Lawyers for Civil Rights says migrants bound for Martha's Vineyard received this brochure promising cash, job placement and more. According to the lawsuit, the brochure also took language from an existing state program, the Massachusetts Refugee Resettlement Program, which none of the migrants were eligible for.

☆ Donald Trump would 'probably not' pass this Florida civic literacy exam, academics say
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-07 | by ( Kayla Gallagher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Florida high schoolers attending a public college are required to meet civic literacy requirements. Academics in the Sunshine State are unsure if Donald Trump could pass the exam. Insider asked four college professors whether they think Trump could pass the test. Rick Bowmer/AP'Real history and civic responsibility'Since 2019, many future college students in Florida are required to take the Florida Civic Literacy Examination — a test modeled after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Test to encourage civic literacy in the Sunshine State. To pass the Florida Civic Literacy Examination specifically, students must answer 48 out of 80 questions correctly — 60% or higher.

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