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| Promoting awareness of problems and solutions in U.S. immigration policies |
 AMNESTY TRUTH SHEET
The Truth About Amnesty
U.S. Senate
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007
The Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration
GAO Testimony
Prospects For Biometric US-VISIT Exit Capability Remain Unclear
CBO Testimony
Budgetary Impact of Current and
Proposed Border Security and Immigration Policies |
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Our Laws Can be Enforced Lack of Resources Hampers Success  July 23,2007 -- I came across an article in The Washington Times that conveys a success story because it shows how the laws can be effectively enforced to punish those who would enter into various schemes in order to enable aliens to circumvent our nation's immigration laws. This is a prime example of how it is not the laws that are broken but rather a lack of resources available for the enforcement of the critical immigration laws that will accomplish a number of goals. First of all, this prosecution has the immediate impact of identifying and punishing individuals who are involved in a fraud scheme that had, as its alleged goal, the securing of visas for aliens who would not otherwise be able to enter our country. Often when the average person thinks about illegal immigration, the obvious image of aliens running our nation's borders comes to mind. Indeed, aliens who run our nation's borders without being inspected by our CBP inspectors do enter our country on a regular and routine basis. However, aliens also enter our country by committing visa fraud. Visa fraud simply means that an alien lies on an application for a visa. It should also be understood that there are two broad categories of visas that aliens apply for in order to enter the United States. Immigrant visas provide an alien who is the recipient of such a visa with a "Green Card." Such an alien is said to be Lawfully Admitted for Permanent Residence. Immigrant visas are issued for a number of reasons including family relationships, professions or the so-called Diversity Visas that are issued in the "Visa Lottery." Regardless of how an alien qualifies for an immigrant visa, such resident aliens are on the path to United States citizenship. Aliens who are married to United States citizen spouses may file for United States citizenship in as little as three years after acquiring their Green Cards while all other such resident aliens need to wait a minimum ob five years. The second category of visas, the non-immigrant visas, are issued for many reasons. The most common is for tourists who simply want to visit the United States for vacation, to attend a family event or for some other such non-working situation. Other aliens can apply for visas in order to attend school, work within a company as an intra-company transferee, participate in an exchange program, work as a journalist, etc., etc. Aliens who enter the United States are not on the path to United States citizenship and must return to their home countries when their authorized period of stay expires unless they apply for an receive permission to extend their authorized period of stay in the United States. Generally aliens who apply for entry into the United States with an immigrant visa are virtually automatically admitted into the United States while aliens who seek to enter the United States as non-immigrants may be denied entry by the CBP inspectors if the inspector has reasons that can be articulated that show that the alien in question is likely to violate the terms of his (her) admission. One of the most common reasons is that the alien is an intending immigrant. This is to say that the alien has no intentions of leaving the United States when his authorized period of stay has expired. The problem with this whole process is that there are so few ICE special agents who could be called upon to seek out those aliens who are lawfully admitted but then manage to lose themselves in our country playing a game of "Hide and Seek." These aliens hide but ICE is unable to seek because of an extreme lack of resources. In the story I have attached below, the allegation concerns aliens who are applying for resident alien status. This represents a true "Home run" for such an alien who manages to acquire a Green Card. This alien is on the path to citizenship and has the right to file applications for his immediate family members to join him in the United States as resident aliens in their own right. It should be pointed out that this case is a relatively rare one. All too many instances of visa fraud are never investigated and consequently remain unknown to our government. Such aliens are able to begin their lives anew in the United States and, in the case of terrorists, can easily embed themselves in our country. That is why these cases are so critical. I believe it is also important to make another point. This week, the Congress is taking up the issue of expanding the Visa Waiver Program. I have written extensively about this program and I am absolutely and implacably opposed to it. Aliens who are citizens of the 27 countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program do not need to apply for a visa to simply temporarily visit the United States. They simply provide our inspectors at a port of entry, with a valid passport and are then able to apply for admission. This makes it simple for an alien who is determined to work in the United States to enter the United States and hide in plain sight. US VISIT was supposed to track the entry and departure of aliens who enter our country for temporary periods of time. However, after the expenditure of more than one billion dollars, US VISIT is still unable to determine whether or not a non-immigrant alien ever left the United States. It is now estimated that as many as 40% of the illegal aliens population in the United States did not run our nation's borders but rather were admitted through the inspections process and then, in one way or another, violated the terms of their admission. I started out by describing the report of the prosecution below as a success story. If there were many more like it, the deterrence it would offer those who would contemplate entering into a scheme to commit visa fraud would be significant. The problem is the lack of resources With all of the talk about the need for fixing the broken immigration system, there has been scant attention paid to the need to hire thousands of special agents at ICE and provide them with the essential training and leadership to make such success stories commonplace. Communities around the United States are reacting to their constituents' demands that the immigration laws be enforced. They are attempting to enact ordinances that make it illegal to provide housing or jobs to illegal aliens. Visa fraud is one area that only the federal government can really make the difference. As communities around the United States do more to legislate and enforce laws against providing housing and jobs for illegal aliens, the more their will be an incentive for aliens to seek to commit visa fraud. The first time I was called before a Congressional hearing was in May 1997 and the topic of the hearing was "Immigration Benefit Fraud and Visa Fraud." At that hearing I compared immigration to a balloon. I said that if you squeeze one end of a balloon it will bulge at the other end. If you make it harder for illegal aliens to obtain work, they will seek to commit fraud to be entitled to get a job and send money back home. Immigration is a system and must be dealt with as a system. Just sealing one of the holes in the bottom of a boat will not keep it from winding up at the bottom of the lake, we must plug all of the holes if we are to be successful. We the People must contact our elected representatives and tell them that they must not support the dangerous Visa Waiver Program. We must tell them that we will no longer accept an illusion of enforcement where the immigration laws are concerned! When we go to a restaurant we tell the waiter what we want and how we want it. We should do no less where our elected representatives are concerned! Democracy is not a spectator sport! Lead, follow or get out of the way!
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