Now Where Do We Go?

Under a arrangement achieved Thursday between the Prince George’s County school district and the U.S. Department of Labor, 161 teachers employed from overseas will lose their own jobs any time their visas end within just two months, and hundreds far more terminations are most likely to observe in the next two years.

Prince George’s will be expected to shell out $4.2 million in back wages to far more than 1,000 teachers recruited from foreign countries underneath the contract with the Department of Labor.

The federal investigation was brought about when a educator reported in 2007 that the institution program was illegally asking teachers for their visa applications and other charges. The educators, recruited mainly from the Philippines, generally utilized their very own own funds to pay a $500 anti scams fee to the Department of Homeland Security, as well as a $1,000 lawyer's fee and a $3,500 placement fee, among other costs, the investigation found in April. Under federal law, the school district should have paid those fees.

Ariston was among initial to be chosen in 2005 from the Philippines. She was fascinated to the job, she said, in large part because she was informed that the H-1B work visa could lead to a green card. But whenever her visa finishes next year, the school system may do absolutely nothing to support her stay and function. The school district’s faults in hiring have “cost us so much,” she said. “Now where do we go?” she said. “Where do we go?”