[BDSM-LegalIssues] Re: The US Government cares about arrest records...
Ummmm.... You may want to recheck your facts.
a) If you are the partner of a US citizen and come to the US to get
married, you can't do that on the visa waiver to begin with. You have
to apply for a fiance visa. For that matter, merely having a US
citizen girlfriend and coming to visit the parents can cause problems
with using the visa waiver. Note: this is a bit simplified; we have
100+ types of visa, and there are exceptions. Writing a 100% accurate
statement that covers everything could fill a book.
b) Poor example because the way we treat non-citizens (and even
citizens) at our borders and airports is abysmal to begin with. None
of the Constitutional protections apply until after you have gone
through immigration. In fact, that was the rationale for putting the
torture camp into Guantanamo Bay rather than on US soil.
Immigration law is actually specifically designed with "guilty until
proven innocent" in mind, primarily to appease a hysteria about
"dangerous immigrants" in the second half of last century. No due
process. No need for search warrants. The Supreme Court gave its
blessing to that approach. And, yes, the US government can arrest even
a US citizen without a warrant when he comes fresh off an
international flight.
c) If you exclude the issue of having a US citizen partner, as an
ordinary tourist or business visitor, an arrest does *not* ban you
from using the visa waiver program. A conviction does. Since
immigration law is always based on "guilty until proven innocent" it
is a good idea to carry documentation of that fact.
d) I would also argue that telling somebody to delay a trip by few
weeks or months until charges are dismissed is quite a bit less
intrusive than destroying his livelihood.
--- In BDSM-LegalIssues@
>
> Suppose you are the partner of a US citizen, and want to fly to the
USA and
> get married.
>
> But suppose also you got arrested in your youth.
>
> "No worries!", you think, "I was never charged, and anyway that was
a long
> time ago!".
>
> So you fly to the USA... And discover that NO MATTER where you were
arrested
> (including in the USA), the fact of the arrest is sufficient grounds
to deny
> you entry under the Visa Waiver Program. So they throw you in a
detention
> cell, and put you on the next flight back to where you come from, and
> nevermind what you paid for your ticket or anything else.
>
> Yup. The Feds care about your arrest record, regardless of the
disposition.
>
> (Arrested people may apply for a paper visa, but the procedure is
lengthy
> and incurs costs. See e.g.
> http://london.
> http://london.
> verbiage explicitly includes people who were arrested but not charged or
> convicted.)
>
> Presumably, the authority for this comes from 8 USC 1187(a)(6),
which reads:
>
> "Not a safety threat.
> The alien has been determined not to represent a threat to the welfare,
> health, safety, or security of the United States."
>
> So, those who wish to impose whacky additional standards on private
> companies could usefully start with changing US Law.
>
> Malc.
>
Post message: BDSM-LegalIssues@onelist.com
Subscribe: BDSM-LegalIssues-subscribe@onelist.com
Unsubscribe: BDSM-LegalIssues-unsubscribe@onelist.com
List owner: BDSM-LegalIssues-owner@onelist.com
Shortcut URL to this page:
http://www.onelist.com/community/BDSM-LegalIssues
Earn your degree in as few as 2 years - Advance your career with an AS, BS, MS degree - College-Finder.net.
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
posted by Annja Sue at
11:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home