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48 Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2016
From the Americas
The State Department on 9th September ramped up
the number of people who would be permitted to apply
for green cards in October, prompting a rush by thousands
of people from India, China, Mexico and the Philippines who
had been waiting years for their turn to apply.
Many potential applicants readied their extensive
paperwork – some of it requiring to be translated into
English – only to learn on 25th September that the
department had reversed itself. A lawsuit challenging
the about-face asserts that this thwarted up to 30,000
immigrants.
Apparently an ordinary bureaucratic mix-up, with officials
citing a communications failure between the departments
of State and Homeland Security, the glitch is emblematic
of the problems attendant on President Barack Obama’s
efforts to streamline the deeply flawed USA immigration
system.
Even applicants in favoured categories can be kept waiting
decades for a green card. According to an immigration
lawyer consulted by Ms Bhattacharya, the new rules
announced – and then revoked – in September would
have enabled Indians holding H-1B visas to apply for
their green cards up to six months earlier than under the
present system. (“How Are H-1B Holders Affected by the
US Green Card Application Flip Flop?,” 6 th October)
 Frustration and anger at the government’s reversal were
not confined to those prevented from submitting their
green-card paperwork. Writing in the Washington-based
political newspaper The Hill (10th October), Mario Trujillo
quoted from a 5th October letter from several large
technology companies to the State Department, the
Homeland Security Department, and the White House:
“This is a truly unfortunate example of poorly-conceived
execution by your respective departments, one
that furthers, rather than mitigates, an ever-growing
impairment to our country’s ability to attract and retain
the best talent in the world.”
The letter was signed by officials of Microsoft, Google,
Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Cisco, as well as a
number of trade groups.
Telecom
In the latest fallout from the Snowden
leaks, Europe’s highest court strikes down
a data-transfer accord between the EU
and the USA
“What we need now is to work closely with the Americans
to find a solution to get a safe, safe harbour, which is in the
interest of both Europeans and Americans.”
No doubt Andrus Ansip, the vice president in charge of
digital affairs for the European Commission, was making
a particular point when he used the word “safe” twice.
Only days before, on 6th October, the Court of Justice of
the European Union had declared invalid a long-standing
data-transfer agreement between the European Union and
the United States on suspicions that transmissions from
Europe are insufficiently protected in the USA. The title of
the agreement: Safe Harbor.
The court in its ruling declared that an EU-level agreement
with a third country may be overridden if national
data-protection authorities find cause for concern about the
privacy of data originating in Europe.
Given the 2013 revelations by Edward Snowden, an
American sub-contractor with the National Security Agency,
about surveillance of electronic correspondence on the
part of the NSA, it was clear which secret sharer the EU’s
highest court had in mind.
As noted by Natalia Drozdiak, a Brussels-based blogger
for the Wall Street Journal, the ruling will likely hit
European small businesses especially hard, imposing
costs for switching over to “more bureaucratic methods of
transferring data.”
Ms Drozdiak also pointed out that it creates uncharted
legal terrain: the regulator in one country may now block a
company’s data transfers to the USA while the regulator in
another might allow them.
“I’m afraid small and medium-sized companies will
face difficulties,” acknowledged Mr Ansip, who said he
would be meeting with businesses to discuss practical
concerns.
But his priority was clearly to keep the EU and the USA
beavering away at a new transatlantic deal that would keep
the data flowing between two of the world’s largest trading
partners.
“We have to create a fruitful environment that will encourage
free data flows from Europe with the US,” he declared. “The
free flow of data is a main aim of the digital single market.”
(“After Court Ruling, EU Digital Chief Urges Rapid Data
Accord,” 9th October)
 Since the Snowden leaks of classified information, the
EU and USA had been working to reform Safe Harbor
and address European concerns, with limited success.
When the high court announced its invalidation of the
original framework, EU Justice Commissioner Vera
Jourova – whose department is negotiating with the USA
on a new agreement – said that more time was needed
to overcome disagreements.
 For his part, Mr Ansip on 9th October expressed
optimism that the two sides were inching closer, telling
Ms Drozdiak: “Before the European Court of Justice
decision we were making good progress towards an
agreement with the Americans.”
Then the man charged with coordinating plans to unify
the EU bloc’s fragmented digital market reverted to an
earlier theme, giving it even greater emphasis: “So there
should be a way to ensure that this new safer Safe
Harbor is really safe.”
Dorothy Fabian
Features Editor