Undocumented immigrants are often referred to as “illegal aliens,” and many, if not most, Americans believe it is a crime to live in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. But the law is much more complex. Currently, it is a civil matter to bypass a visa, a crime to enter the country illegally and a crime to enter the country after being illegally caught here and deported. While many people refer to the process of deporting people from the United States as “deportations,” the legal term is “deportation.” The Supreme Court ruled in 1893 in Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698 (1893) that “ordering deportation is not punishment for a crime.” Therefore, undocumented immigrants who are deported do not have “criminal” trials, but “administrative hearings,” and they do not benefit from the protections of U.S. criminal law: the right to counsel, the right to a warrant before police can search them, or other aspects of due process. The U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Supreme Court have concluded that the intention to renounce U.S.
citizenship required to determine loss of citizenship under section 349(a) of the INA does not exist if a renouncer asserts a right to continue to reside in the United States unless the renouncer proves that: that residence as an alien is properly documented under U.S. law. Q8. In what other ways is the U.S. government trying to inform foreign fiancés and spouses of their rights and protect them and their children from abuse? A8. As mentioned above, the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA) is a law in the United States that changed the marriage-based immigration process to help foreign fiancés and spouses. IMBRA requires the U.S. government to provide immigrant foreign fiancés and spouses with information and self-help tools to protect them from violence from partners who sponsor their visas. Immigrant fiancés and spouses often are unaware of U.S. laws and are not supported by family or friends to escape violence at home.
The United States has a variety of temporary work visas with no clear regulatory pathway to lawful permanent residence. Although users of these visas may adapt their status to other categories and the existence of these categories indicates an economic need for these workers, applicants for these visas are not allowed to express to initiate an asylum proceeding, your attorney must file Form I-589, Claim for Asylum and Denial of Deportation, with evidence to support your claim. Typically, there is a selection interview to ensure that an applicant`s case is justified. For this reason, it is very important to work with a reputable organization (non-profit or law firm) that has experience in asylum cases. As discussed in Chapter 2, various presidential administrations have created legal statutes at the discretion of the executive branch since 1990. Since these statutes are not created by law, they are at the discretion of the executive, making them inherently unstable, as programs can be cancelled at any time. Nor do they provide an established regulatory pathway to lawful permanent residence. However, they do offer the right to work legally in the United States and some protection from deportation. The newest and largest status (in terms of eligible population) in this category is DACA.11 Below, the panel describes the demographics of people in the United States with this status and the tools and barriers to their integration. Legal status affects immigrants` opportunities for integration into various social dimensions.
As discussed in detail in Chapter 4, only naturalized citizens are allowed to vote and participate fully in the American political system. Legal status also defines access to social services (Capps et al., 2007; Hagan et al., 2003) and health care (Cummings & Kreiss, 2008; Kandula et al., 2004; Viladich, 2012). Undocumented immigrants and those with fewer permanent residents are not eligible for medical care, with the exception of emergency care and obstetrics. Immigrants with undocumented or temporary status, such as those covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), are not eligible for health care under the Affordable Care Act2 (see Chapter 9). The barriers immigrants face in accessing health care affect their children (Balcazar et al., 2015). Legal status also affects housing, including ownership (McConnell 2013, 2015), which affects immigrant neighbourhoods and schools attended, as well as housing conditions and overcrowding (Drever & Blue 2011; McConnell, 2013; McConnell and Marcelli, 2007). The number of LPRs in the United States has generally increased since World War II, with some annual fluctuations and a huge increase in the 1990s, a direct result of the unique possibility of legalization offered under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (see Chapter 2). These days, the change of government poses big questions about citizenship, naturalization, and family immigration, such as “How can an undocumented immigrant become legal?” and “Can an undocumented immigrant become legal by marrying a citizen?”