Comment Submitted By Harvey Mechanic, Attorney At Law

I have worked on many religious worker petitions for Hindu temples here in the United States and they are not denominational and do not have affiliation with temples in India that are also Hindu. I just want to make sure that the regulations do not discriminate against Hindus by using the Christian based terms "denominational" or "shared faith and worship practices". The other concern that I have is that, by listing "those who sell literature" as a "non-qualifying administrative or support position", the regulations fail to take into account that, according to U.S. Supreme Court cases, such as Murdock v Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105 (1943), sale of religious literature by religious missionaries is a traditional religious activity. To be able to discuss the content of the religious literatures requiress extensive religious training in the teachings and philosophy contained therein. A competent sales person is able to discuss the content of the literatures, especially if the sales are a part of the person's normal missionary activity. In fact, there are certain religious organizations that have, as their main missionary work, the sales of religious literature by their religious workers. I have in fact, worked on hundreds of cases where the USCIS has granted temporary religious worker status or special immigrant religious worker status to such missionary workers. The regulations appear to try to remove the eligibility of such missionary workers.