You might think from the title of this article that I'm all
set to rant about the upcoming April 1 opening of the H-1B filing
season -- the period known in the trade as the time of Preparation
H. You might think I'm poised to critique the annual government
lottery that causes so much employer and foreign-worker hand
wringing as they fret about whether the quota will dry up in a day
or two, as it has in the recent past. If you thought so, you would
be wrong.
I write instead to decry two other quotas, one alleged and the
other well established, both involving the enforcement side of the
immigration house.
The first is described in an Associated Press report. It seems that last week the
U.S. Border Patrol mounted an investigation of allegations by
agents in the Riverside (CA) region. These Border Patrollers
complain that their January quota on apprehensions of unauthorized
immigrants had jumped to 150 per month from 100 in November and
December. A failure to meet the
