تحذير شديد اللهجة للمتلاعبين بقوانين اللجوء السياسي والمؤيدين لنظام الانقاذ

Quote: MMIGRATION U.S. warning alarms some given asylum, green cards A statement recently posted on a federal website has raised concern among permanent residents who obtained green cards through asylum. BY ALFONSO CHARDY [email protected] CONCERNED: Cheryl Little, executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center is concerned about the factsheet not including exemptions for emergencies or changed political conditions. MIAMI HERALD FILE CONCERNED: Cheryl Little, executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center is concerned about the factsheet not including exemptions for emergencies or changed political conditions. * Audio | Interview with Cheryl Little, executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center * U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: Fact sheet (.pdf) Thousands of immigrants who obtained green cards after receiving asylum now risk losing them if they return to the countries where they claimed they were persecuted, a recent U.S. government warning suggests. The notice, titled ''fact sheet,'' marks the first time the agency has publicly warned those with green cards that they could lose their asylum status, according to immigration attorneys. More than 110,000 immigrants who won asylum since 1996 have received green cards, according to the Office of Immigration Statistics. Posted on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website in the closing days of 2006, the warning has shocked immigration attorneys who specialize in asylum cases and stirred fears among immigrants with asylum-based green cards. Some worry that even a trip home to see an ailing parent could result in revocation of their green card. ''That's my concern,'' said Homer Davis, a Haitian doctor who fled his country with his wife and their three children in 2001 because armed gangs were persecuting him. Davis, 53, won asylum in 2004 with the assistance of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center and got his green card last year. ''It's a bad idea because sometimes you have a sick relative who is dying or has died and you need to go back to see them or to the funeral,'' Davis said. Chris Bentley, a spokesman in Washington for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said people with asylum claims who return home for a family emergency have nothing to worry about. The warning is designed to catch those who abuse the system and return home frequently for reasons that may raise suspicions of fraud. ''We are not talking about people who are traveling out of the country to visit an ill or dying relative,'' Bentley told The Miami Herald. ``What we're talking about here is an individual who travels back and forth multiple times. That person would be subject to these types of conditions.'' POLITICAL CONDITIONS A trip home under changed political conditions in that country also would not trigger scrutiny under the laws and regulations cited in the fact sheet, Bentley said. Bentley added it was the first time his agency had published an asylum travel fact sheet ''along these lines,'' but noted it was based on longstanding laws and regulations. He said the agency posted the warning because of questions from the public in South Florida and elsewhere ``to clarify the travel conditions on these certain classes of individuals.'' Immigration attorneys said they were concerned because the fact sheet did not include specific exemptions for family emergencies or changed political conditions for asylum-based green card holders. ''People are going to read it and not know that,'' said Cheryl Little, executive director of Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. 'They're just going to think, `better safe than sorry.' '' Ira Kurzban, a national authority on immigration law, said immigration officials may scrutinize more aggressively the trips of people who have won asylum grants and those with asylum-based green cards. Officials, he said, could argue that since a person does not fear persecution in his home country, the original asylum claim is not valid and the green card was obtained fraudulently. As a result, deportation proceedings could be instituted. The notice says asylum could be revoked ''due to fraud in the asylum application'' and adds that return to the country of ''feared persecution'' could be ``evidence that the asylee's alleged fear of persecution is not genuine.'' Albert Perez, an immigration attorney at Miami-based Colombian American Service Association, said several immigrants with asylum-based green cards have recently been questioned more closely by immigration officers after returning from trips abroad -- but none has been detained or given notice that his or her asylum is in jeopardy. Other immigrants are worried that they may be denied documents if authorities find out they have already returned home for a visit. An Algerian currently seeking an immigration benefit is worried because he has traveled home several times over the years to visit family, said Kari Fonte, a Miami immigration attorney familiar with the case. RECENT MEASURES The posting is among a growing body of post-9/11 federal immigration measures to detect fraud by noncitizens who seek immigration documents or benefits ranging from asylum to citizenship to green cards. USCIS director Emilio González has made national security and fraud detection key priorities in the agency that processes applications for asylum, green cards and citizenship. The warning is not expected to have any effect on Cuban exiles who are permitted to return home once every three years. The biggest effect may be on asylum applicants and asylum-based green card holders from Colombia, Venezuela and Haiti who regularly travel home after securing a green card. Immigration attorneys who specialize in asylum cases voiced strong objections. ''It's inappropriate overreaching by the enforcement branches of the Department of Homeland Security because it imputes fraud to asylees who have been granted residence simply because they returned to their country,'' said Kurzban, a Miami immigration attorney who has spearheaded asylum claims for Haitian refugees and others since the 1970s. ''Telling asylum seekers who have already proved their right to U.S. legal status that they now risk losing that status if they return to their country . . . sends a misdirected and disturbing message,'' Little said. ''This new interpretation would . . . undercut our entire asylum process which encourages individuals to adjust their status from that of asylee to permanent resident, putting them on the path to citizenship and assimilation,'' said Randolph McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Charities Legal Services. Under U.S. immigration law, foreign nationals who receive asylum eventually can apply for permanent residence. If approved, they receive green cards. As a general rule, green-card holders have enjoyed the same freedoms as U.S. citizens to travel. While immigration authorities have in the past revoked asylum for people awaiting green cards after they traveled to their home countries, they have generally not bothered asylum-based green-card holders.