Thread: Encouraging illegals to 'game' the system

Encouraging illegals to 'game' the system
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 6/20/2008 10:10:00 AM

An immigration reform organization says a recent Supreme Court ruling has made it easier for some foreign nationals who overstay their visas to remain in the U.S. legally.

In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled that someone who is in the country illegally may withdraw a voluntary agreement to depart and continue to try to adjust his or her status while in the United States. The case involved a Nigerian national who overstayed his visa and later married an American woman. Authorities wanted to force him out of the country. But in ruling in the majority in the case, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote an opinion favorable to his efforts to remain in the country.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, explains the basics of the case. "This is a case where you have somebody who had accepted voluntary departure -- and then suddenly thought of a reason why he might be able to be allowed to stay and wants to withdraw his voluntary departure agreement."

Mehlman acknowledges that the number of people who might be interested in withdrawing their acceptance of voluntary departure is probably rather small. "But nevertheless, this still sends a signal to people who are caught in the country illegally that we're going to provide all kinds of opportunities for them to 'game' the system," he contends. "[It tells them] that you can come here and then subsequently figure out some reason why you might be eligible to stay later on ... that you can play the system for as long as you can get away with it in the hopes that you might eventually win."

And that, argues Mehlman, clearly sends the wrong message to illegal aliens and may encourage them to find a way to remain in the U.S.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=144376

PhD's in "Gaming the System"...

Our feckless goverment has NO idea how many visa overstays are here! And there is NO effort to track them. My daughter has a friend who came here from Israel on a student Visa, and that person is still here after 15 years! No one ever bothered to check on her. Not only that, but she graduated college and has a great job as a chemical engineer. She has an ITIN and pays taxes, bought a house and is getting married next year.

I think we should pass a law if we don't already have one in effect, and we might since immigration law is pretty thorough already and it just may not be enforced, that if a school accepts a foreign student, then the educational institution, like employers of temporary farm workers with visas, should be held liable for the conduct of the student while here and assurance that the student has left the US upon drop out or graduation from the institution and returned to their home country.