Posted on 09/15/2007 6:35:14 AM PDT by AlaDude
Better late than never - even when it's seven years late.
In 2000, Congress passed a law authorizing visas for illegal immigrant crime victims. Seven years later, federal immigration officials say they're finally ready to start issuing "U-visas" to certain victims who cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes.
Federal immigration officials attribute the delay to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the resulting mass reorganization of government agencies in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"We realize it took a long amount of time," U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Chris Bentley told the Los Angeles Times. "We just wanted to get it right."
(Note to anyone employed in the private sector: Try putting off a project for seven months, much less seven years, and then telling your boss, "I realize it took a long amount of time. I just wanted to get it right.")
Despite this inconceivable delay, the publication of guidelines for the new visas is welcome. It bucks the enforcement-only trend that has gripped the federal government since the collapse of comprehensive immigration reform in Congress earlier this year. And it comes in the midst of a Bush administration crackdown on illegal immigrants, including an ill-conceived Social Security purge that will result in the massive firing of illegal immigrants and the disruption of businesses across the nation.
Immigrants qualify for the new visas if they are victims of heinous crimes such as rape, kidnapping or false imprisonment. The visas enable them to work and live in the United States and to apply for permanent residency after three years. The federal government is authorized to issue up to 10,000 U-visas each year, along with visas for family members.
The program is necessary because illegal immigrants are particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of violent crimes. Victims are routinely reluctant to contact or cooperate with law enforcement authorities for fear of deportation. That fear is often justified as increasing numbers of local law enforcement officials across the country have begun cooperating with federal immigration officials.
In the seven years since Congress overwhelmingly passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, nearly 7,000 immigrants have applied for U-visas. To date, not a single visa has been issued, but immigration officials say an unspecified number of crime victims were offered "interim relief" including travel and work authorization.
Federal officials say eligible immigrants will be able to seek the visas retroactively if they can provide documentation from law enforcement agencies verifying that they were victims of rape, kidnapping, extortion or other qualifying crimes.
It's helpful that victims can apply for the U-visas retroactively. But the move fails to address the plight of the many illegal immigrants who did not report crimes because there was no visa program in place to ease their fear of deportation.
That's because the federal government took seven years "to get it right."
Disgusting... any illegal alien that sets foot in any government building for any reason should be deported on the spot. Allowing an out for victims of crime only gives them another excuse to stay.
Welcome to FR.
Disagree. Capturing violent criminals is important.
This is hardly an amnesty.
“We need to be calling/writing our Congressmen about this one, too. What do American Citizen Victims get if they are victims of an Illegal Alien? This program is so wrong, it’s sickening.”
We need to closely examine the number of visas we issue and who we issue them too, I’m thinking mainly of “clerics” and “students”. We need to cut H1b’s in half at least. We need to stop legal immigration for 10 years so we can clear up the immigration mess. When we start it back up it needs to be dropped to 250,000 per year with preference given to developed countries. We need to start sending illegals and their anchor babies back to their home countries immediately. We’ve been suckers for too long.
ping
ping
In other words, if a criminal illegal alien paid more than ordinary cab fare to cross the border illegally they can get a visa.
Lets all take a good hard look at this again.
In other words, if a criminal illegal alien paid more than ordinary cab fare to cross the border illegally they get a visa.
Immigrants qualify for the new visas if they are victims of heinous crimes such as rape, kidnapping or false imprisonment. The visas enable them to work and live in the United States and to apply for permanent residency after three years. The federal government is authorized to issue up to 10,000 U-visas each year, along with visas for family members....It's helpful that victims can apply for the U-visas retroactively.
OMG! This is INSANITY!!
If you were illegal and wanted a U-visa, what would prevent you from faking a crime? (which would of course then go unsolved)
This program is from the Twilight Zone. Anyone can claim to be victim and pretend to cooperate. This is the same as amnesty. We must fight it.
If it took 7 years to get 7,000 applications, why then 10,000 per year?
Well since the cops & courts are useless, to get justice I'd call on my 'lawyers'....
Makarov, Mauser, Colt & Remington LLC
They're experts on 'criminal law'.
:-)
I’m a cop. Part of the area I work in has a lot of Mexican/Central American Illegals residing within it.
I responded to a fight disturbance at one of the two bars that they frequent one evening and found a barely conscious/not very alert male who had been in a fight.
During the fight (he got his ass kicked) someone cut off a portion of one of his ears.
He was too drunk to stand up. He was unable to answer any questions. He was unable to focus his eyes do to being stinking drunk.
He wasn’t seriously injured other than some scrapes and having the outer portion of his ear sliced off. He couldn’t even give us his name, nor could he respond to fire’s questions.
Do to a knife being involved I wrote a report on this incident.
A couple of months later I got a letter, followed up by a phone call, from an “immigration rights” attorney’s office out of Houston (I work in Washington State) who said they were trying to get Senor his “union” Visa.
The only requirement would be me to sign a form saying he was a crime victim and assisted me in the investigation, and, that merely providing his name and date of birth is sufficient to show that he assisted in the investigation.
I responded that, “I wouldn’t call being so drunk that two cops have to hold you up so I can fish your driver’s license out of you back pocket, ‘assisting in the investigation.’”
Her response was, “well from what I’ve learned, he was able to give more information to the detective a couple of days later.”
“So you better call the detective. I’m not required to sign that paper and I’ll never sign it.”
This was 1.5 years ago.
There really aren’t too many illegals in my area, not like some other areas in the country, but there are plenty enough.
The immigration/U Visa industry is ramping up if I heard of it almost 2 years ago.
Because this is another form of amnesty via stealth. When will those elected to represent us, REPRESENT US?
Or human smuggling? That pretty much covers anyone crossing the southern border.
This idiot must thnk the WOT is a bumper sticker and ICE hqad nothing better to do than institute new visas. I respect the assertion that they needed to prioritize.
It lists "extortion" as reason or cause for issuance.
From Webster's...
"extortion" One entry found for extortion.
Main Entry: ex•tor•tion
Pronunciation: ik-'stor-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : the act or practice of extorting especially money or other property; especially : the offense committed by an official engaging in such practice
2 : something extorted; especially : a gross overcharge
- ex•tor•tion•er /-sh(&-)n&r/ noun
- ex•tor•tion•ist /-sh(&-)nist/ noun
So, I would like to see anyone traveling through mexico that has not been extorted. And ANY of the illegals that paid a coyote were certainly "extorted." And it is retroactive so if they paid a coyote the first time, oh say in 1988 and then got deported five times over the years and picked up a couple of felonies for being caught in the u.S. after a deportation they get a U (pass-go and collect) Visa.
Yea, that is just peachy.
Exactly.
bttt
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