Monday, April 6, 2020

Vast Majority Of Crime Victim Visa Applicants Are Illegal Aliens, Internal Study Finds

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) discovered that nearly all U visa applicants are living in the country illegally, drawing further accusations that the program is poorly designed and attracts fraud.
USCIS, the agency tasked with managing the country’s legal immigration system, released a demographic study on its U visa program. The program was established as a way to encourage foreign nationals to approach law enforcement about criminal activity, but its promise of legal status has spawned numerous stories of illegal aliens concocting false stories in an attempt to score U visas for themselves and others.
Ninety-three percent of foreign nationals did not have legal status at the time of their U visa application — 79% of them had entered the country illegally, and another 14% had entered the U.S. legally but overstayed their visa at the time of their application.
The agency’s study also found that a sizable number applicants had a history of immigration fraud prior to their U visa application.
Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images
Roughly 10% of approved petitioners required a waiver for fraud or willful misrepresentation — which includes submitting bogus immigration documents or falsely claiming to have an immigration status to a government official. Eight percent of approved petitioners had been previously deported, and 6% received a waiver for a past smuggling attempt.
The data has prompted concern among immigration experts about how the U visa program is being utilized.
“The demographic information presented in the USCIS study, together with the statistics showing the expanding number of U visa applications and anecdotal information from expert observers, indicate that there are valid reasons for concern that the U visa program may not be operating as Congress intended and may be vulnerable to fraud and abuse,” said Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
Read the rest of the story HERE.

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