Any support in transporting a family member to the United States may be deemed alien smuggling, which might jeopardize your own future immigration aspirations.
Many individuals who live in the United States, whether as green card holders, citizens, or illegally, have kin back home that they wish to join them in the nation. However, the visa categories that enable immigration to the United States are restricted and can require lengthy delays.
If you’re wondering if you can go around the law and have your family cross the border illegally and discreetly, one of the first issues to ask is whether doing so would jeopardize your own present or future immigration status.
In many situations, assisting a family member to illegally enter the United States is a criminal known as “alien smuggling.” It is also critical to understand that a person may be held accountable for this even if they do not physically smuggle their relative into the United States (as occurs when the person is, for instance, hidden in the trunk of a car).
Simply giving some of the instruments for illegal entrance into the United States, like as money or fraudulent passports, may land you in significant jeopardy.
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What Exactly Is Alien Smuggling?
An alien smuggler is defined by law as someone who promotes, induces, enables, or aids another person to enter or attempt to enter the United States in violation of the law. (See I.N.A. 212(a)(6)(E)(i).)
The following activities may be classified as alien smuggling:
hiring someone to smuggle another person, in this case a relative, across the border sending money to a relative abroad so that the relative can hire someone to smuggle him or her across the border giving family members false documents to use in crossing the border, such as a fake passport or a relative’s birth certificate, and driving a relative across the border without legal documentation for U.S. entry.
These are some of the most typical methods in which a person engages in alien smuggling, however there are more behaviors that qualify.
Most notably, alien smuggling happens even if neither the smuggler nor the individual being smuggled is apprehended, and even if they are unsuccessful in assisting the individual in entering the United States. So even giving money to someone who employs a coyote but who is arrested and turned returned at the access to a tunnel to the U.S. might be enough to place a permanent mark on your immigration record.
How Alien Smuggling Might Affect Your Immigration Plans in the Future
Assisting a relative to enter the United States illegally, often known as alien smuggling, may have a variety of consequences for your immigration status.
If you are seeking for permanent residency in the United States: A person who is proven to have supported or helped another person in attempting to enter the United States is barred from entering. This implies that they are unable to apply for or get a U.S. green card or any other kind of U.S. visa.
If you’re seeking for U.S. citizenship: “Good moral character” is one of the major prerequisites for someone having a green card to naturalize and become a US citizen. Someone who cannot demonstrate excellent moral character may be denied citizenship in the United States.
Anyone convicted of immigrant smuggling after November 29, 1990, and whose conviction is regarded an aggravated crime, will never be able to demonstrate good moral character for citizenship purposes. It is a permanent impediment to becoming a citizen.
Even if an individual has not been convicted of alien smuggling, he or she may be prevented from naturalizing after promoting or supporting a relative to enter the United States. To become a US citizen, one must have shown excellent moral conduct during the five years before the application. If an immigration official uncovers that the applicant urged or supported a relative to enter the United States within that five-year period, the applicant may be found to lack good moral character and so be denied naturalization.
If you are an undocumented immigrant in the United States. You are already at danger of deportation, but if you have a history of alien smuggling, you will provide U.S. immigration officials another reason to deport you and will undermine your chances of qualifying for any other immigration remedy. (According to I.N.A. 237(a)(1)(E)(i), alien smuggling constitutes a basis for removal.)
If you already have a green card or a visa: Even if they have a legal right to be in the United States, someone who is proved to be a “alien smuggler” might be deported.
Deportation does not need an actual conviction for immigrant smuggling. If the immigration court concludes, based on the evidence before the judge, that the individual encouraged or enabled someone else, including a relative, to enter the United States illegally, the judge may issue a deportation order.
Is There an Exemption for Alien Smuggling?
A limited waiver is provided for permanent residents, green card applicants, and applicants for an immigrant visa from overseas who illegally supported a spouse, son, or daughter in entering the United States. The waiver is offered to persons who establish that they deserve it for humanitarian causes, to protect family unity, or because it is in the public interest.
This waiver does not apply if the individual supported anybody other than his or her spouse or children in entering the United States. So, for example, someone who paid money to his spouse and brother in order for them to enter the United States illegally will not be eligible for the waiver.
The Ninth Circuit, which hears cases in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona, has similarly ruled that the waiver cannot be used to overcome the good moral character hurdle in deportation proceedings. This implies that residents of the Ninth Circuit who urged or supported a family member to enter the United States illegally will not be entitled for cancellation of removal, a deportation defense.