 |
 |
 |
|
|
American and Israeli flags (file)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Israel Insider staff August 17, 2007 |
|
| |
 Bookmark to del.icio.us |
| |
The US government has proposed amending a special visa program that allows hundreds of Israelis to come to the US for religious jobs. The American Jewish community is worried that these changes could prevent hundreds of religious workers from coming to the United States, leaving crucial religious jobs unfilled.
US Homeland Security has cited high rates of fraud as one of the leading factors in changing the program.
"If you have a 33-percent fraud rate in some program, that's serious," said a spokeswoman from Homeland Security's United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. "You could have a threat of one sort or another" from a lax program that could be exploited by terrorists and other dangerous people who want to enter the country, she said.
"We want to maintain the integrity of that program," she said of the rationale for the new regulations, according to Haaretz. "It's important, and we want to make sure it remains that way."
Jewish community leaders are worried about the future of religious institutions that rely on Israelis and other Jews from abroad. Most religious workers who come to America on the program work in synagogues, kosher slaughter houses and Jewish schools. In America, there are generally not enough US citizens in these fields and many are unwilling to relocate to small Jewish communities outside of the big cities.
"We want to make sure the Jewish community can continue to use this program, because in many ways we rely on it," said Melanie Nezer, the immigration policy counsel at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in Washington. "We're concerned that what many of these proposed regulations do is close the door."
The new requirements and definitions make applications "so complex and onerous, it's going to be difficult for anyone to use the program," she said. "Delays have already started. It seems like the program is frozen already." |
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
