ACP-100 answers - Jira Administrator Updated: 2023

Below is information about requesting a certificate of eligibility (Form I-20 or DS-2019) from the Reves Center for a student visa. The Reves Center's goal is to issue the I-20 or DS-2019 within 3 business days of receipt of complete request.

Deadlines

Fall Admits: June 15

Spring Admits: December 5

Summer  Admits: April 15

I-20s and DS-2019s

An I-20 or DS-2019 is a document issued by the Reves Center to enable an international student to obtain an F-1 or J-1 student visa.

• I-20s are primarily issued for degree-seeking students.
• DS-2019s are primarily issued for international exchange students, but degree-seeking students can qualify if a substantial portion (at least 33%) of their funding comes from sources other than personal/family funds.

New process: Starting March 2015, I-20s and DS-2019s will be requested and issued through our online system iStart. Here is how it will work:

1. The system will email the student to complete an online biographic form and upload a copy of his/her passport identity page and financial documentation.
2. Once he/she completes that, the request will be routed electronically to the respective admissions officer or department administrator. The admissions officer/department administrator will confirm the following:
   1. Date that the student needs to be on-campus (if earlier than the standard arrival date).
   2. How English proficiency was assessed (i.e. TOEFL score, attended a English speaking high school or university, etc)
   3. How the I-20 or DS-2019 should be sent (UPS, US airmail, etc)
   4. If the student will be employed by W&M (e.g. as a graduate assistantship)
3. Once the admissions officer/department administrator answers those 4 questions, the request will automatically route to the Reves Center for issuance and mailing of the I-20 or DS-2019.

Summer Admits

Students can arrive in the U.S. up to 30 days before the start date listed on their I-20 or DS-2019.  If program activities will begin before this time, we can issue an I-20 or DS-2019 with an earlier start date, as long as the student will be enrolled full time (in at least 6 credits). If you have questions about this, contact our office.

SEVIS Transfer Students

Students already attending a school in the U.S. on an F-1 or J-1 visa may need to have their SEVIS record transferred to us. When we receive the request from the department, we will determine if a SEVIS transfer is needed; if so, we will contact the student.

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

After two-and-half years of raising the alarm on the wide-open southern border and continually saying that things will get worse, the truth is far worse than even we imagined. The fiscal year 2023 numbers under President Joe Biden have been released and the numbers are astonishing and the failure to secure our nation frightening. 

As expected, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), once again, released the numbers at the end of the work week in an attempt to bury the news. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tried to escape scrutiny by releasing the numbers on a Saturday.  

The administration has never done this before. Mayorkas' attempts to put his head in the sand expose the fact that the administration is well aware that their policy is failing the American people.  

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH ‘SERIOUS CRIMINAL HISTORIES’ ARE TRYING TO CROSS BORDER DAILY: BORDER PATROL CHIEF

It is a policy that began during Biden’s first year in office. That year, the administration had a historic record of illegal immigration. Biden overturned the majority of then-President Donald Trump's policies within weeks after taking office and within a matter of months, the administration took the most secure border in our lifetime (illegal immigration at a 45-year low), and created a historic, never-been-seen crisis on our border.  

A review of total nationwide encounters (TNWE) proves what we have been saying all along: that the administration’s policy is to allow for the flow of illegal migration into our great nation. Let us explain, and for this we are using the TNWE rather than just the southwest border numbers for an obvious reason.  

Why? The Biden administration is attempting to hide the massive failure they have allowed to occur at the border. This administration started running massive amounts of illegal aliens through numerous ports of entry, calling these mass migration movements "legal pathways."   

These movements, however, are not legal. The administration’s failures are not just southern border related but Biden officials have also allowed thousands of people to be brought in the U.S. through our nation's biggest airports. We will not let them hide from the truth so here are the numbers.

In FY20 the Trump administration saw a total of 646,822 total encounters.  This number may seem to be high but remember, we ended catch and release, therefore the vast majority were immediately removed. 

The first year under Biden we saw more than a 200% increase with 1,956,519 encounters, a historic record. The second year we saw 2,766,582, a new historic record. The latest number released today shows 3,201,144, an even newer historic record, 400% higher than the last year under Trump. 

On top of that we also saw a total of 169 aliens arrested who were on the FBI's terror watch list, also a historic record. The 169 number was higher than the previous six years combined.  

The historic records continue in other areas as well. On top of historic illegal immigration and historic number of known or suspected terrorists at the border, we have nearly 1.7 million "known gotaways" since Biden has taken office.   

This September 2023 was the highest monthly total of any month ever recorded. In summary, FY21-23 total nationwide encounters stand at approximately 7.9 million and if you add the 1.7 million known gotaways, you are at 9.6 million aliens entering this country under the Biden administration with over a year to go.   

There are unknown gotaway numbers, too, which need to be added since not all areas of the border have the technology to capture the image. The number of unknown gotaways could be higher than another million.   

The consequences of our nation’s failed border system put every American’s life at risk. It’s a dangerous game that has allowed our adversaries to penetrate our weak border security.  

We strongly believe that these numbers are no accident.  This crisis is not because of mismanagement or incompetence. It is by design.   

The administration’s open borders policy has caused a tsunami of unintended consequences. The growing number of people crossing illegally into the nation has overwhelmed the Border Patrol and it has caused a majority of Border Agents, somewhere between 70-90%, to be pulled off patrol to deal with the humanitarian crisis. 

We’ve seen the examples of the Biden administration’s epic failure over the past three years. Anyone who goes to the border can see it if they travel to the major illegal alien crossing points.   

It begins in the early morning hours as smugglers move in hundreds of people forcing Border Patrol agents to be pulled from the front lines. They are then moved to process the overcrowded stations, leaving hundreds of miles without a single agent on patrol.  

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The criminal cartels of Mexico have operational control of our borders, and they decide what crosses and when. They send large groups to overwhelm agents. The lack of security along these major gaps opens the gateway for fentanyl and other narco-trafficking.   

These failures are also known to terrorist organizations and adversarial nations. There is a high probability that terrorists have slipped through without being encountered by Border Patrol or other law enforcement agencies.   

The consequences of our nation’s failed border system put every American’s life at risk. It’s a dangerous game that has allowed our adversaries to penetrate our weak border security.  

There are thousands upon thousands of criminals who will not surrender to the patrol and many times evade arrest. The border becomes a sieve for these criminal networks, using the border as a gateway for illegal activity.   

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There is nothing redeeming about Biden’s open-border policy. The American people are the losers in his scheme of lies. The numbers tell the truth and the stories of victims on both sides of the border should be sufficient to return to Trump era policies.   

This should be a bi-partisan issue, so the question remains, what is the purpose for leaving our national security exposed? We need to demand that the Biden administration answer these questions and be held responsible if, or more likely when, our enemies use the border to target the American people.  

Thomas Homan formerly served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Trump administration. He has devoted nearly 34 years of his life to immigration and law enforcement positions. He is one of the founders of Border911.com.

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Carlisle United's close financial ties to Edinburgh Woollen Mill are back under the spotlight as Philip Day's company prepare to call in administrators.

Following my revelations that President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security has intentionally approved thousands of questionably vetted terror-country immigrants over the southern border, influential Sen. Chuck Grassley has fired off a scathing oversight letter demanding detailed explanations.

The letter Grassley (R-Iowa) sent Thursday to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his top border lieutenants, released to the public Monday, prominently cites my Center for Immigration Studies reports showing the administration cleared far more inadmissible immigrants to use the CBP One app to schedule escorted walkovers through eight land ports, for far longer and from a far wider spectrum of countries — just shy of 100 — than ever disclosed.

And some come from countries threatening America on a daily basis as the Hamas-Israel war reaches a new stage.

Under the CBP One scheme, foreign nationals with an appointment can cross “legally” to meet US Customs and Border Protection officials, who have approved 99.7% of them for quick releases into America with eligibility for two-year renewable work permits.

Among the more than 249,000 DHS-approved walkover entries from May 2021 through August 2023 were more than 7,300 immigrants from dozens of nations the United States has long tagged as “countries of national security concern” whose immigrants required enhanced terrorism security screening — “special-interest aliens,” or SIAs.

People approved for walkovers include individuals from Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, with some of the largest numbers coming from Muslim-majority former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Grassley, ranking member of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, doubts that required terrorism screening is occurring.

He demands a full accounting as to what extent approved walkover immigrants from higher-risk nations have undergone any effective terrorism screening.

He also wants information on the tens of thousands more from these countries who have crossed illegally between the ports and won quick personal-recognizance releases into the nation’s interior.

It “appears CBP One is being used to intentionally invite SIAs into the United States without undergoing previously required national security vetting procedures,” Grassley wrote.

“Simply put the Biden Administration is allowing people to enter the country without knowing who they are.”

Some of these countries, of course, “do not share intelligence information.”

The Grassley inquiry goes out as Israel’s fight against Hamas heightens concern that Biden’s mass-migration crisis has rendered the collapsed American southwest border even more vulnerable to crossings by organized Islamic extremists or individuals predisposed to impulsively attack the United States for militarily and diplomatically siding with Israel.

A record-breaking 270 apprehended SIAs on the FBI’s terrorism watch list were among the estimated more than 1.8 million “gotaways” who the Border Patrol says entered the US interior undetected since Biden took office in 2021.

Signaling a sense of urgency, Grassley’s office demands answers by Nov. 10, the first time any member of Congress has demanded any public accounting about SIAs.

Grassley’s intercession cites my congressional testimony and exact reports revealing Biden’s app program is choosing to funnel in thousands of SIAs from Muslim-majority countries with likely no effective security vetting.

Recent cases of administration mishandling of FBI watchlisted SIAs strongly indicate post-9/11 counterterrorism border programs have crumbled under the human onslaught Biden policies triggered on Inauguration Day.

After announcing this scheme as the cornerstone of its border policy in January 2023 and mainly for just four nationalities — Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans — the administration shrouded it in secrecy, deflecting all records requests and inquiries by other members of Congress.

Records I finally obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, however, show the Biden administration actually began this program 19 months earlier, in May 2021, and brought through 249,000-plus foreign nationals through August from 93 more countries than just the four publicly emphasized.

Yes, there were surprisingly high numbers of SIAs from 24 countries of terrorism concern such as 3,852 Kyrgyzstanis, 1,843 Uzbekistanis, 780 Tajikistanis and 339 Kazakhstanis, not to mention many more from terror-plagued African countries such as Egypt, Senegal and Mauritania.

News of this unique American scheme allowing aliens to schedule their illegal immigration and get work permits has reached the farthest corners of the planet.

The administration approved 1,086 Armenians, 888 from Belarus, 244 from Azerbaijan and dozens from mainland China and Mongolia.

In mysterious decisions that have never been questioned because no one knew of them, Biden’s DHS brought in at land ports nearly 24,000 Russians.

Some cases are so strange as to demand public explanation.

Small numbers of so-called asylum seekers were let in from France, Spain, Greece, Poland and Hungary, democracies not known as hotbeds of political persecution.

One even came in from Canada, another from the United Kingdom and yet another from “British Indian Ocean Territory.”

This is hard to explain since many of these countries have visa-waiver agreements with America, and their citizens can enter at will through normal travel channels.

Perhaps most mysterious of the CBP One decisions was bringing in through the land ports on humanitarian-protection grounds more than 57,000 Mexican nationals, representing the largest single nationality in the program.

Mexican citizens almost never qualify for US protections and are rejected for asylum at a rate of 96%.

Grassley demands the Biden team describe all of its security-vetting processes for the SIAs, pointing to my reporting that key, all-important face-to-face interviews with them have gone by the wayside in the crush of mass migration.

The senator also questions whether the few database checks the administration relies on for SIAs and all other nationalities it is letting through would ever show anything for those from nations diplomatically hostile to the United States.

And Grassley’s letter asks the Biden administration about another unexplored public interest issue related to SIAs released into the nation: “Upon release, it is practically impossible to track all immigrants,” he notes.

Todd Bensman is senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

The Biden administration is asking middle and high school children whether they question their gender in the National Youth Tobacco Survey.

While a 2020 change to the survey included asking children if they identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or "something else," the 2023 version asks directly about identifying as "transgender."

NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER: VIRGINIA ELECTIONS COULD LAUNCH YOUNGKIN NATIONAL RUN

"Some people describe themselves as transgender and/or nonbinary when the way they think or feel about their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth," the question reads, according to an Office of Management and Budget document. "Do you identify as transgender and/or nonbinary?"

One possible answer to the question is, "I am not sure yet or questioning if I am transgender and/or nonbinary."

The survey is distributed every year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health, which is designed to track tobacco usage, beliefs, and corporate influence on tobacco use among middle and high school students.

"This appears to be yet another case of science taking a back seat to an agenda driven by special interests, which has become far too common in exact years," Michael Chamberlain, the director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Washington Examiner. "While federal health officials decry the public's loss of trust in their actions and decisions, they don't seem very keen on looking in the mirror."

Another question in the survey defines "sexual orientation" as "a person’s emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction to another person. There are many ways a person can describe their sexual orientation and many labels a person can use."

The survey finally asks, "Which of these options best describes your sexual orientation?", for which possible answers include "straight or heterosexual," "gay or lesbian," "bisexual, pansexual, or queer," and "asexual."

The new lines of questioning come after the CDC asked OMB to make "non-substantive" changes to the survey, which were approved by the White House on Nov. 1, 2022. The CDC did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner. OMB referred the Washington Examiner to the CDC.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The questions also come amid a larger effort from the Biden administration to gather such data, including the Census Bureau seeking permission to ask Americans 15 years old and above about sexual orientation and gender identity on the American Community Survey.

In its Federal Register notice, the census said it was interested in the data to track civil rights and equal employment enforcement.

It’s been over a month since Pamela Darring says she filed a police report alleging she was unlawfully detained by Glenwood village administrator Brian Mitchell.

Darring says she’s still waiting to hear back.

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“What he did was an abuse of power,” she claimed.

Darring said she was driving on 183rd Street Aug. 25 when a black SUV tried to cut her off as they passed Halsted Street, where multilane 183rd turns into single-laned Arquilla Drive.

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When she did not slow to allow the SUV in, the driver of the SUV got behind her and turned on the blue emergency lights pasted to the top of the front windshield, Darring said.

The car did not look like a regular law enforcement or emergency vehicle, but Darring still pulled over.

“My dad was a retired police officer, so I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, period,” she said.

That’s when the SUV, instead of pulling up behind Darring, pulled to the left of her, rolled down his window and told her “slow down,” Darring said.

After a short interaction in which Darring said she told the man she was not speeding, the man told her to have a nice day and pulled away.

Darring, 53, said she immediately recognized the man driving the SUV was village administrator Brian Mitchell.

“I was kind of shocked like, ‘Brian Mitchell? Really?’” she said, later confirming her identification when she looked up his photo. “The nerve of you.”

Darring went to the police to file a report alleging Mitchell abused his powers by using his lights to unlawfully detain her.

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“Why is he putting his lights on me?” she said she asked herself. “I didn’t do anything illegal. I wasn’t speeding, I know my plates and everything are good.”

Mitchell declined to comment when reached by phone, and referred all questions to the Glenwood Police Department.

Detective Paul Schmidt declined to comment and referred all questions to the department chief and deputy chief. Neither could be reached after multiple attempts to make contact over the phone. Village Trustee Dion Lynch also declined to comment until the “investigation is concluded.”

A Freedom of Information Act request for the police report was still pending .

In Chapter 12 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, cars are only allowed to have blue warning lights if they are “rescue squad vehicles” or police vehicles of large cities. Vehicles can have blue and red oscillating lights, but those also are reserved for special circumstances, such as when an authorized vehicle is being used to transport organs or assist in mine explosives, the code states.

Local or county emergency vehicles may use blue and red oscillating lights, but according to Glenwood’s Code of Ordinances, emergency work is not outlined as one of the duties of the city administrator.

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The law also states that “Any person violating the provisions ... of this section who without lawful authority stops or detains or attempts to stop or detain another person shall be guilty of a Class 2 felony.”

Darring says she wants answers as to how this happened and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“As a Black person in America, there are too many times when a simple stop with police can turn into something more tragic,” she said, acknowledging Mitchell is also Black. “Someone needs to be brave enough to stand up say something.”

hsanders@chicagotribune.com

It’s been over a month since Pamela Darring says she filed a police report alleging she was unlawfully detained by Glenwood village administrator Brian Mitchell.

Darring says she’s still waiting to hear back.

“What he did was an abuse of power,” she claimed.

Darring said she was driving on 183rd Street Aug. 25 when a black SUV tried to cut her off as they passed Halsted Street, where multilane 183rd turns into single-laned Arquilla Drive.

When she did not slow to allow the SUV in, the driver of the SUV got behind her and turned on the blue emergency lights pasted to the top of the front windshield, Darring said.

The car did not look like a regular law enforcement or emergency vehicle, but Darring still pulled over.

“My dad was a retired police officer, so I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, period,” she said.

That’s when the SUV, instead of pulling up behind Darring, pulled to the left of her, rolled down his window and told her “slow down,” Darring said.

After a short interaction in which Darring said she told the man she was not speeding, the man told her to have a nice day and pulled away.

Darring, 53, said she immediately recognized the man driving the SUV was village administrator Brian Mitchell.

“I was kind of shocked like, ‘Brian Mitchell? Really?’” she said, later confirming her identification when she looked up his photo. “The nerve of you.”

Darring went to the police to file a report alleging Mitchell abused his powers by using his lights to unlawfully detain her.

“Why is he putting his lights on me?” she said she asked herself. “I didn’t do anything illegal. I wasn’t speeding, I know my plates and everything are good.”

Mitchell declined to comment when reached by phone, and referred all questions to the Glenwood Police Department.

Detective Paul Schmidt declined to comment and referred all questions to the department chief and deputy chief. Neither could be reached afyer multiple attempts to make contact over the phone. Village Trustee Dion Lynch also declined to comment until the “investigation is concluded.”

A Freedom of Information Act request for the police report was still pending .

In Chapter 12 of the Illinois Vehicle Code, cars are only allowed to have blue warning lights if they are “rescue squad vehicles” or police vehicles of large cities. Vehicles can have blue and red oscillating lights, but those also are reserved for special circumstances, such as when an authorized vehicle is being used to transport organs or assist in mine explosives, the code states.

Local or county emergency vehicles may use blue and red oscillating lights, but according to Glenwood’s Code of Ordinances, emergency work is not outlined as one of the duties of the city administrator.

The law also states that “Any person violating the provisions ... of this section who without lawful authority stops or detains or attempts to stop or detain another person shall be guilty of a Class 2 felony.”

Darring says she wants answers as to how this happened and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“As a Black person in America, there are too many times when a simple stop with police can turn into something more tragic,” she said, acknowledging Mitchell is also Black. “Someone needs to be brave enough to stand up say something.”

hsanders@chicagotribune.com