San Diego’s immigration group has been rattled by new studies that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is arresting people with no felony historical past throughout routine inexperienced card interviews at USCIS places of work—a apply that’s traditionally unprecedented and deeply alarming.
What’s Occurring
Beginning in early November, immigration attorneys started reporting that ICE brokers had been detaining inexperienced card candidates at routine interviews performed at USCIS subject places of work.
In “at the least six” documented circumstances, ICE brokers made these arrests instantly after candidates admitted to overstaying their visas.
Attorneys have confirmed lots of these arrested had no felony document, and their visa overstay was one thing they believed can be forgiven or resolved throughout the inexperienced card course of.
These people got here to america via authorized pathways and have been in search of to acquire everlasting residence after marrying U.S. Residents.
One case concerned a U.Ok. nationwide who initially deliberate to return residence, however she and her husband determined to pursue her inexperienced card within the U.S. after studying she was pregnant. Docs warned it might be a high-risk being pregnant, they usually selected to stay within the U.S., counting on the long-established rule {that a} visa overstay is forgiven when making use of for residency via marriage to a U.S. citizen. However their hopes for stability shortly unraveled when ICE brokers arrested her throughout the interview, shattering their imaginative and prescient of the American dream.
In all reported circumstances, candidates perceived their interviews to be progressing usually earlier than ICE unexpectedly entered and detained them.
In a more moderen incident, an active-duty sailor introduced his spouse to what ought to have been a simple inexperienced card interview. As a substitute, ICE brokers stormed in—simply as that they had in earlier circumstances—and detained her for nothing greater than a visa overstay.
Talking to ABC 10 Information, legal professional Jacob Sapochnick condemned these techniques, stating that the people arrested will in the end be launched including, “It’s a waste of assets. It creates nervousness for the spouses and trauma that may final a very long time.”
For these with upcoming inexperienced card interviews, these developments have launched new concern and uncertainty — a course of as soon as seen as a hopeful remaining step now comes with very actual danger.
Lawyer Illustration Is Now a Necessity — Not a Choice
Given the latest surge in detentions, anybody with a visa overstay, prior elimination order, felony historical past, or any immigration issues ought to not attend a inexperienced card interview with out the help of an skilled immigration legal professional.
Candidates ought to seek the advice of an legal professional as quickly as potential to evaluate the danger of attending their interview by working FOIA (Freedom of Data Act) requests, checking for elimination orders, and evaluating whether or not ICE has an lively curiosity within the applicant.
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