Live data from Hacker News

Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

nytimes.com

161–170 of 191 posts

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I'm hearing about CA and NY is 10hr work days if you're lucky, 2/3 jobs to make ends meet if you're not, and absurd rents. All these things can be said about most countries you'd want to live in nowadays.

Healthcare in USA is a nightmare, from almost every perspective. But a lot of countries like Canada, EU nations and other developed countries (and even in developing nations like India) have free or affordable healthcare systems. So, at least from a healthcare metric, most of these nations trump USA (pun intended, since Trump scrapped or crippled Obamacare, which itself wasn't a full-fledged solution to the healthcar…

Most of the countries with free healthcare are dying at the seams. Look at the NHS in England, you can't even get appointments as there are so few doctors. Operations take years to be done. In the USA you get ops real fast and doctors can be seen same day. Obamacare has only reset back to pre-COVID subsidies so it was always temporary the COVID subsidies, per the Inflation Reduction Act 2021.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#162
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone back home in Texas wondered why my husband (a German) wouldn’t “let” us move to the US. He was open to doing at least a few years over there; he’d enjoyed his exchange during university back in the 90s. I was the one who said no, having seen the hell my colleagues married to Germans and other western Europeans were going through with US immigration. Instead, I got a German residence permit without much fuss,…

For every anecdote here about a (very) bad experience with US immigration policy, there are 1000s daily that go on fine. It is a very large complex system that has issues, but for the majority it is working. Find the specific issues and fix them. Counter Anecdote: My wife won the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, aka Green Card lottery. Came here with close to nothing and not speaking more than a sentence or two of E…

And that's about the only type of visa where that happens.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#163
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans have just seemingly become a rather cruel people.

They didn't become anything. What happened is that the Republican party turned hard towards pandering to the minority of cruel people that were always present.

Yes, and they won. Cruelty won.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but if you overstay a visa you should expect detention. I really dont get this view. Like you could substitute detention with a 1 dollar a day fine, or community service. Why does the punishment for this particular crime, have to be detention. Why is it worse than making your local council mad for not taking out the bins. The severity of the punishment is just ludicrous compared to the crime of participating in a co…

Because this is immigration and there is no right to be in another country. I've been detained for irregularities in other countries while just doing tourism. This is a normal and expected part of travelling to foreign countries.

Theres no right to speed in your car or drop litter on the ground, but they attract less severe penalties.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember talking to a britisher about the US border situation on a forum that also included yanks. He had asked for advice, and I relayed a bunch that was evergreen, but was passed around during the first trump admin. The yanks all got confused, like I was making up a problem. And would not stop pretending like there are no border issues even after I presented multiple instances as evidence. Like if you can drive y…

I am intimately familiar with the immigration system as my entire family came to this country by applying for green cards and waiting. Not your average yank lol.

Not even just immigration. The US detains people based on the content of their phones.

Like beloved childrens authors https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/28/in-tha...

Or meme havers

https://hyperallergic.com/us-agencies-say-they-have-no-recor...

The advice is generally, that if you absolutely have to go to the US, that you start a fresh email account, and take an empty/clean phone signed in with your fresh email account through border security, then load a backup to your phone once through.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#166
post #109

Truly brave feat of public service getting those criminals off the street.

Enter on visa that requires marriage within 3 months, don't do it despite promising the government you would, then cry victim when you're deported for overstaying an entire year? Why can't they just do what their visa REQUIRES by law?

How easy it is to get married? Get the various birth certificates, get eligibility papers, get an appointment, oops, you are over the 3 months. Beep, 6 months in some DHS warehouse, have fun, try again later.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#167
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a catch-22 What do immigration attorneys recommend in this scenario? I don’t get the catch-22, time’s up & you leave Happens to H1Bs all the time

The "overstay" was scare quotes – you're allowed to stay.

But TFA says that it was people exactly in this situation who were apprehended by ICE and then set for deportation proceedings. According to the current administration you are NOT allowed to stay, and that's where the Catch-22 is.

The whole thing just further exemplifies the "cruelty is the point" ideal.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#168
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you discontinue your studies, USCIS (particularly under this administration) might try and argue you obtained your student visa fraudulently to deny your marriage petition. The best thing you can do is complete your studies and then, if applicable, obtain OPT to further maintain status. There are two things that I'm not sure about: – Is the distinction between studying (regardless of status), vs. being in status…

You can have two (or more) separate petitions with USCIS. For example, if you get sponsored by an employer for a green card and you marry a US citizen, you might ask which green card should you pursue? The answer is both. This is fine and encouraged. This also comes up with people who apply for asylum. This can take years to adjudicate. What if they get married to a US citizen in the meantime? Generally, the advice i…

Just for the record I went through this process this year with my spouse and a lawyer. My spouse did continue studying and had their i-130, i-485, and i-131, however the immigration office told our lawyer and said their F1 was no longer valid and that my spouse was under “authorized stay” not a visa any longer, especially for i-131.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#169
post #23

While I personally find no objection to these spouses remaining here, I don't see what is really supposed to concern me from a legal perspective. There is no right to residency of migration in general. I do agree we ought to change the law to be make it easier for spouses of citizens, but if you overstay a visa you should expect detention. However from a moral standpoint I find the infant child separation abhorrent a…

>but if you overstay a visa you should expect detention. I really dont get this view. Like you could substitute detention with a 1 dollar a day fine, or community service. Why does the punishment for this particular crime, have to be detention. Why is it worse than making your local council mad for not taking out the bins. The severity of the punishment is just ludicrous compared to the crime of participating in a co…

A rational relief for being in the country illegally is a removal of such an individual from the country. Same as if somebody enters your house and you don't want them there, you don't ask for a dollar a day or to clean up the dishes, do you? You ask them to leave and call police if they refuse. This is where detention comes into play: people who don't want to leave the country need to be detained before forcibly transported outside the country's border, maybe in the future, when we invent instant teleportation, we will be able to just send them home without detention but the current realities do not allow for that.

Re: Green card interviews end in handcuffs for spouses of U.S. citizens

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but if you overstay a visa you should expect detention. I really dont get this view. Like you could substitute detention with a 1 dollar a day fine, or community service. Why does the punishment for this particular crime, have to be detention. Why is it worse than making your local council mad for not taking out the bins. The severity of the punishment is just ludicrous compared to the crime of participating in a co…

A rational relief for being in the country illegally is a removal of such an individual from the country. Same as if somebody enters your house and you don't want them there, you don't ask for a dollar a day or to clean up the dishes, do you? You ask them to leave and call police if they refuse. This is where detention comes into play: people who don't want to leave the country need to be detained before forcibly tra…

>A rational relief for being in the country illegally is a removal of such an individual from the country.

Right, but immigration detention isnt that.

>Same as if somebody enters your house and you don't want them there, you don't ask for a dollar a day or to clean up the dishes, do you? You ask them to leave and call police if they refuse.

The house analogy is really weird and does not at all fit the realities of a nation.

>This is where detention comes into play: people who don't want to leave the country need to be detained before forcibly transported outside the country's border, maybe in the future, when we invent instant teleportation, we will be able to just send them home without detention but the current realities do not allow for that.

They dont need to be detained. Theres no process that cant be completed before deportation without detention. It is arbitrary punishment. Your own tortured analogy of the house, does not detain prisoners in the basement while awaiting court in the I don't know Laundry to see if their marriage to someone in the master bedroom is valid. Theres no reason someone cant live working in the living room? (who comes up with these terrible seppoisms?) and sleeping in their room that they can somehow afford to pay for in your house somehow while the laundry judge rules on their case before taking them to the roof airport?

Feeling a bit like the house thing is forced to come to some predetermined conclusion but its not as obvious as made out nor is it any good.

Anyway to blow that whole thing open I looked at the silly seppo website and:

"Most aliens ICE arrests are detained and eventually removed. In some cases, these people remain in ICE detention for months while they wait for a final decision from an immigration judge."

https://www.ice.gov/self-deportation

Theres nothing wrong with:

> Complete legal process while living in situ > If determination is, deportation, fine X and escort person to airport/border.

You would probably spend less money giving people 2 further weeks to deal with their affairs beforehand but w/e not required.

Detention, especially before trial, being a necessary component is a ghost that lives entirely in your head that you can evict at any time.

Post reply on HN