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Seeking Political Asylum in the United States
In one of his last executive actions before leaving office, on January 12, 2017, president Obama has ended a long-standing policy known as “wet foot dry foot.” Under this policy, Cuban nationals fleeing Cuba were granted entry into the United States without a visa and eventually, after being in the country for a year, were able to apply for and be approved for legal residency in the United States. The policy was supposed to protect people escaping political persecution in Cuba, but had also been used by economic refugees seeking better opportunities in the United States.
Cuban nationals entering the United States without a valid visa will now be treated as other hopeful immigrants, and be eligible for deportation. Like other immigrants, those with fears of political prosecution will still be able to seek political asylum upon arrival in the United States.
Asylum is a legal process through which a person can be granted permission to stay in the United States if the person has a well-founded fear of persecution in his or her home country based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Seeking asylum is not always an easy process, and the person seeking asylum has the burden of proving his or her case and showing that he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution. Generally, a person seeking asylum has a year from the date of arrival within the United States to seek asylum, and there is no fee for the application. If granted asylum, a person can also legally work here.
What constitutes a well-founded fear depends on the facts of each asylum seeker’s case. It is not as simple as just alleging that the government of the asylum seeker’s country will harm the person upon return. There has to be some evidence of the claim, for example, past incarceration for political reasons. For this reason, asylum cases can be difficult to prove and for the asylum seeker to be successful. If a person is not successful, removal proceedings or deportation may be the next step. In some cases, a person may be held in detention while an application for asylum is pending.
Even a person with a well-founded fear of persecution based on the above reasons may be unable to apply for asylum if the filing deadline has passed since his or her arrival in the United States, the person previously applied for asylum and was denied, or can be granted asylum in a third country as part of an agreement with the United States.
A person can also be denied or barred from asylum if the person engaged in terrorists activities or was a part of a terrorist group, participated in the persecution of people based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, committed or was convicted of certain crimes, was settled in another country before seeking asylum in the United States, and for several other reasons.
Contact us for Experienced Legal Assistance
Having an attorney assist you with your claim for asylum can make a difference in whether or not you are able to present your case in the best way. If you believe you have a reasonable case for asylum because of persecution you suffered in your country of origin, contact our multi-lingual staff in Pasadena, California, to speak to an experienced immigration attorney from Strassburg, Gilmore & Wei, LLP to discuss how we can help you with your application.
Seeking an Option to Work Legally After DACA
Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) after the program was implemented in June of 2012. Under this program, many were able to receive Employment Authorization Documents, allowing them to work legally in the United States. With the future of DACA uncertain, because it was authorized through Executive Order by President Obama, many with work authorization under DACA may begin to look into other kinds of work visas or permits for which they may qualify.
There are a number of guest worker visa program under the United States immigration laws. The most commonly referenced is the H-1B visa program which hires temporary workers who typically have a first degree and often more advanced degrees. The types of workers employed on this visa include engineers, teachers, and computer programmers. In order to receive an H-1B visa, a person must have a qualifying employer willing to sponsor his or her application.
An employer cannot seek an H-1B visa on behalf of an undocumented immigrant. Unfortunately, DACA as a program did not legalize its participants, and they are technically still eligible for deportation at a later date if the program is eliminated or the next administration reprioritizes deportation targets. This means that it is not generally possible for a person who is on DACA, and is therefore an undocumented immigrant, to get an H1B visa.
The Immigration and Nationality Act’s Section 212(d)(3) waiver presents a way for an undocumented immigrant with an employer willing to sponsor an H-1B visa to successfully gain legal admission into the country and work under the temporary H-1B visa. However, the waiver is also a huge gamble because the undocumented immigrant has to leave the country in order to apply for the waiver, and leaving after having been in the country unlawfully for more than one year triggers certain bans on re-entry. This is where the waiver comes in; an undocumented immigrant who received the waiver of inadmissibility can be allowed to return to the United States on a temporary non-immigrant visa such as the H-1B visa without having to serve out the period of the ban abroad.
This waiver would not remove the person’s inadmissibility permanently, and the person would still likely have to serve out the three- or ten-year bans once the temporary visa expired or he or she sought to change status to an immigrant visa. In addition, the H-1B visa restricts the worker to the sponsoring employer, if an employee want to change employers, the new employer has to sponsor a new H-1B visa or the employee has to leave the country.
While this option presents a way to exit the country and re-enter and work without fear of deportation if DACA gets revoked, it is also quite dangerous because the exiting immigrant is not guaranteed a waiver or an H-1B visa. Before deciding what action to take, it is always best to discuss your case with an experienced attorney.
Contact Us for Legal Assistance
If you are in Pasadena, California, and looking to change your status from a non-immigrant visa to an immigrant visa, or looking for a way to adjust your status so you can legally live and work in the United States, contact our multilingual staff to speak to an experienced immigration attorney from Strassburg, Gilmore & Wei, LLP.
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