Musings on Immigration

A medida que los inmigrantes pasan por el largo viaje de obtener un estatus legal en los Estados Unidos, van a llenar  formularios innumerables, cuestionarios, solicitudes y peticiones. Los inmigrantes pasan a través de entrevistas e incluso las visitas judiciales. En todo momento, toda la información presentada de un inmigrante debe ser verdadera y correcta. La ley establece que durante cualquier parte del proceso, si se encuentra a un inmigrante, falsificando un documento, o presenta información a sabiendas incorrectas para adquirir una visa u otra documentación, la admisión en los Estados Unidos, o cualquier otro beneficio, él o ella no serán elegible para el estatus legal en los Estados Unidos. En otras palabras, cualquier tipo de fraude, si se trata de mentir sobre una fecha o el uso de documentos falsos, en el proceso de obtención de visa u otra documentación, la admisión en los Estados Unidos, o cualquier otro beneficio, hará al inmigrante no elegible para un estatus legal....

As immigrants go through the long journey of obtaining legal status in the United States, they will fill out innumerous forms, questionnaires, applications, and petitions. Immigrants will go through interviews and even court hearings. At all times, all of the information an immigrant presents must be true and correct. The law states that during any part of the process, if an immigrant lies, falsifies a document, or presents knowingly incorrect information to procure a visa or other documentation, admission into the United States, or any other benefit, he or she will be ineligible for lawful status in the United States. In other words, any type of fraud, whether it’s lying about a date or using fake document, in the process of getting visa or other documentation, admission into the United States, or any other benefit, will make the immigrant ineligible for lawful status. Sometimes immigration grants a visa or lawful permanent residency without knowing that the immigrant committed f...

As many of our members know, the USCIS is like a Jekyll and Hyde creation. With one face, USCIS happily grants benefits, issues approvals, and welcomes people as citizens. With the other face UCSIS distrusts everyone, believes there is a lie on every application, and looks for ways to disqualify clearly qualified applicants. As you all know, this is not an exaggeration. It is true of an agency still steeped in the “Culture of No.” Many of you remember the Religious Worker “Benefit Fraud Assessment Teams” that went out to make sure that the Catholic Church was actually still in business. The ability of the USCIS to conduct effective program reviews, rather than just sticking with its core strength of adjudications is rather dubious, to say the least. Recently AILA shared some information about a “new” benefit fraud assessment program in which USCIS is beginning to use the millions of dollars it has received over the last decade from the “fraud fee” in the H-1B program. This new program...