MIT has sent a memo to faculty and staff notifying them that they should expect a visit from federal authorities to assess the immigration status of researchers, postdoctoral students, and visiting scholars.
The Boston Globe acquired the message, sent faculty-wide, entitled “Potential Homeland Security Visits.”
The Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement began visiting employers of post-graduate students last August, focusing at least initially on students holding academic visas in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The visits actually began during the Bush administration and procedures were updated during the Obama administration, but haven’t occurred very often..
The memo sent from Penny Rosser, director of MIT’s international scholars office, urged cooperation with immigration officials.
According to the federal register, immigration officials will generally give 48 hours notice of any visit, but “may conduct an unannounced site visit if it is triggered by a complaint or other evidence of noncompliance with regulations.”
ICE officials verify visa documents are up to date and authentic, and will also check worksites and potentially ask about how the university funds or decides upon the students’ salaries.
In December, the Boston Herald reported Chinese cancer researcher Zaosong Zheng had made false statements on his Harvard University-sponsored visa. He was working at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which fired him and revoked his visa after the FBI said he stole vials from a lab and tried to smuggle them to China.
Yossi Sheffi, director of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, told the Globe that the visit could be a good way to make sure students were in a workplace with fair labor standards. “One can interpret it as a good idea — checking that these people are not being exploited,” Sheffi said. “Alternatively, who knows?”
Employers must properly pay students with visas, ensure that the student will not replace a full or part-time US citizen worker, and have trained personnel to help the student with ultimate work goals.
President Trump has been cracking down on visa fraud, often through questionable means. Last year, the Detroit Free Press uncovered that ICE in 2015 created a fake University of Farmington to track visa fraud. About 250 students were arrested, but some of the students who were not deported are suing ICE, saying they were duped and lured to the program.
SARAH BETANCOURT
BEACON HILL
Gov. Charlie Baker’s push for a transportation climate initiative is threatened by state defections, as New Hampshire is out and the governors of Vermont and Connecticut are raising concerns. (State House News)
Records indicate a company called Guidewire, which serves people with developmental disabilities, encouraged residents to fight each other in 2011. While the fighting was halted, problems are continuing at the company, with a high number of complaints on file. (MassLive)
An audit of the Department of Correction covering the 2016-2018 period indicates the agency wasn’t providing health care in a timely fashion. Shortly after the audit period, the DOC changed health care providers. (MassLive)
The new list of top state earners is filled with eye-popping salaries, but columnist Shirley Leung says the real outrage is how underrepresented women are among the top 100 salaries. (Boston Globe)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh made a lot of big promises in his State of the City address on Tuesday night, but several of them require the blessings of the Legislature to happen. (Boston Globe) Boston is not alone when it comes to the real estate transfer tax the city is seeking. (CommonWealth)
Former Boston city councilor Chuck Turner was remembered as fierce fighter for justice at a memorial service at Roxbury Community College. (WBUR)
WGBH has a wrap up of what mayors across the Commonwealth said in their state of the city addresses.
A man has been found dead near a dumpster in Lowell. State police are investigating. (Lowell Sun)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Alex Beam has some fun with Megxit, but his description of Prince Harry’s “less conventional spouse” as “a divorced American actress” omits the elephant in the royal reception room — that Meghan Markle’s mother is black. (Boston Globe) British journalist Afua Hirsch, who teaches at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, says Harry and Meghan were driven to ditch their royal duties by the racism in Britain that Markle couldn’t escape no matter how high she married. (New York Times)
ELECTIONS
If it comes down to Biden versus Bernie, it will be a test of whether Democratic voters want someone to restore America or lead a new revolution to make it whole, writes the Globe’s Liz Goodwin.
EDUCATION
At a Framingham School Committee that was inadvertently recorded, Superintendent Robert Tremblay suggests union activity in the district is identical to what’s going on in many other areas and may be related to broad union nefforts to push for higher salaries after passage of state legislation funneling more money to districts. (MetroWest Daily News)
Some Harvard Law School students are reluctant to seek clerkships with federal judges appointed by President Trump. (Boston Globe)
The University of Massachusetts Boston and six smaller area colleges are forming a consortium that will allow students at the smaller schools to earn graduate credits in their senior year and then apply them toward master’s degree programs at UMass. (Boston Globe)
A Babson College professor and administrator who posted on Facebook that Iran’s leader should tweet out 52 American cultural sites he might target in response to President Trump’s threat to hit Iranian sites has been fired. Deposed prof Asheen Phansey says it was “a bad attempt at humor.” (Washington Post)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
The regulatory approval process for a major $180 million expansion of Cape Cod Hospital is underway. (Cape Cod Times)
TRANSPORTATION
Amy Dain says the Route 128 region needs a better land use plan in order to promote more housing construction and smoother transportation connections. (CommonWealth)
CASINOS/MARIJUANA
Encore Boston Harbor is replacing some human drink mixers with machines to try to speed up the delivery of booze to gamblers on its casino floor. (Boston Globe)
The state’s casinos, including Encore, are battling underage gamblers with sophisticated fake IDs. (State House News)
For the second time, protesters disrupted a Cannabis Control Commission meeting in Worcester as they pressed for quicker action on the issuance of economic empowerment licenses. (Telegram & Gazette)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
An accountant who helped one-time state senator Brian Joyce evade thousands of dollars in taxes was sentenced to 18 months in prison. (Boston Globe)
A federal judge who sentenced a Dorchester man to life in prison under a Reagan-era drug law drastically reduced the sentence after new laws readjusted penalties retroactively. (Dorchester Reporter)
A man charged with kidnapping and rape after posing as an Uber driver is the brother of Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell. (Boston Globe) Adrian Walker has a poignant take on cycles of trouble in Campbell’s family that she managed to escape. (Boston Globe) She talked about all that last year on this episode of The Codcast.
The owners of DKW Builders, David and Karen Welch, pleaded not guilty in their latest criminal case, which involves embezzling $80,000 from a Brockton couple. They were released without bail. (The Enterprise)
MEDIA
Shira Schoenberg, who spent the last seven years at The Republican/MassLive, is joining CommonWealth.
A long-planned co-op for news in Haverhill ran into funding problems and is folding. (Media Nation)
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