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Sunday, June 12, 2005

Serious penalties await false claims of citizenship

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

It seems like a little white lie, but falsely uttering the words "American citizen" when crossing the international bridges can have devastating consequences.

Horacio Rojas, an undocumented immigrant from Aguascaliente, Mexico, used those words last month as he made a second attempt to get back to Cincinnati, where his wife -- a U.S. citizen -- his child and his landscaping job awaited him.

In his first attempt, he was caught by the Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande at Laredo as he was putting on dry clothes. He was transported to El Paso and returned to Mexico in Juárez.

The second time, Rojas, 20, decided to cross the "easy way," he said.

He bought American-looking garb, a sports jersey and flashy sneakers, and walked across the Paso del Norte Bridge. He tried to sound casual as he said, "American citizen," to the Customs and Border Protection inspector.

It worked, and Rojas came into El Paso.

"It was easy," he said.

Rojas was caught later at a Border Patrol checkpoint leaving El Paso and was returned to Juárez.

About 1,100 people were caught making oral false claims of citizenship at El Paso's bridges between October 2004 and April, up 50 percent from the same period the year before, according to Customs and Border Protection.

In all of 2004, 1,382 people were caught making oral false claims in El Paso -- less than 1 percent of all border crossers.

For them, the penalties are harsh.

For instance, if Rojas had been caught lying about being a U.S. citizen, he could have faced up to three years in prison and a fine.

And he would have been barred for life from applying for a green card. This means he would have no hope of ever living legally in the United States or of becoming a U.S. citizen.

"Here on the border, it's something people do all the time. Teenagers do it to save time, or because they forgot their laser visas," said Ouisa Davis, executive director of the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services. "But it's one of the worst things you can ever do. It's up there with drug trafficking."

Officials at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said they prosecuted 146 cases of false claim of U.S. citizenship last year.

But for many immigrants yearning for the American Dream, the most serious penalties are the administrative ones.

Isabel Mullins, the assistant port director for Customs and Border Protection in El Paso, came up with the following scenarios.

A young man on his way to meet friends in El Paso forgets his laser visa at home and says, "U.S. citizen," at the bridge. He is found out, and the violation is registered into a computer. Ten years later, he meets an American woman in Juárez and they marry. He goes to the U.S Consulate to apply for a green card to be able to live in the United States with his wife.

"It will pop up on the (computer) screen that he is barred and he can't come in. Ever," Mullins said. "The consequences become apparent later in life, and they can be very serious for families."

A young woman makes a false claim of citizenship and gets caught. She then decides she wants to study in the United States. She won't be able to apply for a student visa right away. Rather, she'll have to wait five years and apply for a waiver to then apply for the visa. If she made false claims twice, she'll have to wait 20 years. If she made the false claim three times, she won't be able to apply for a waiver at all. The same goes for laser visas.

False claims can even have consequences for people who already have green cards.

They have to wait five years from the date of the false claim to apply for naturalization, immigration officials said.

Consequences
People who make a false claim of U.S. citizenship risk:

Criminal prosecution: Up to three years in prison and a fine.

Banned from applying for permanent residence for life.

Banned from applying for non-immigrant visas (laser visas, student visas, etc.) for five years on the first offense, 20 years on the second offense and life on the third offense. (Green card holders who make a false claim have to wait five years from the date of the offense to apply for naturalization.)
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office; Customs and Border Protection.

The law
False Claim to U.S. Citizenship:

Section 212(a)(6)(C)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by the 1996 Immigration Act, affects immigrants who falsely claim to be U.S. citizens for any purpose after Sept. 30, 1996.

It applies to false claims made to a U.S. government official or a private individual.

It applies to oral or written claims, such as on an I-9 form for employment eligibility verification.

Voting while not a U.S. citizen counts as a false claim of citizenship.
Source: El Paso Times research.