An Explanation on Immigration Law

           As I dig deeper into the immigration morass, I think it is important for there to be a clear understanding of the terms that are used.

            Before I go any further, though, I want to be clear that this exercise in gaining a better understanding of the immigration process is about understanding the problem and finding leaders who can solve it. I’m not interested in placing blame on one president or another, on one party or another. There is plenty of blame to go around. I tend to think that each political party has allowed the dysfunction to continue because it is all useful as a compelling wedge political issue and in the meantime millions of Americans and aliens suffer. The human cost is astronomical

            And I guess that if the human suffering is going to end, then we have to speak with a common language on the subject and look for answers not for blame.

            So it is important therefore to know what the various terms mean under the law. They are not self-evident and are regularly used interchangeably although many have different meanings under the law.

            First off, the touchstone for immigration law in this country is found in The McCarran-Walter Act, formally known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. Most of immigration law arises out of that federal statute which is found at 8 United States Code, Section 1101. Over the years the law has been amended from time to time with its most recent overhaul in 1986.

            McCarran-Walter and its amendments define the terms used in immigration law. Here are the important ones.

            “Alien” is defined as any person, not a citizen or “national” of the United States.

            When we talk about immigration issues in the United States, particularly at our southern border, we are talking about “aliens” crossing the border.

            “National” is defined as a person owing permanent allegiance to a state, and as used above a “national” of the United States is a non-citizen who owes permanent allegiance to the United States. Thus, a lawfully admitted and permanent resident of the United States.

            An “immigrant” is defined differently from “alien.” Every immigrant is an alien, but not every alien is an immigrant. Non-immigrant aliens fall into an alphabet soup of categories determined by the type of visa they are afforded to gain admission to the United States. The most common visa for a non-immigrant alien is the B visa which is granted to tourists and others who are visiting the United States temporarily for business without any intention of abandoning their residence in a foreign country.

            F visas are granted to students for the purposes of pursuing a course of study in the United States where the student does not intend to abandon his foreign country residence. K visas are granted to aliens who are engaged to be married to a citizen and entering for the purpose of getting married or the child of such persons.

            O visas are granted to professional athletes, or others with extraordinary abilities sciences, arts, education, or business.

            The commonality for all of these aliens is that none of them have an intention of abandoning their home foreign countries. They are all non-immigrant statuses.   

            Obviously there is much more to this, but these are some of the common terms that must  be understood to gain a full understanding of the laws of immigration.