DHS Giving Illegal Immigrant ‘Petty’ Criminals Second Chance in Waiver Application Process
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Eric ThayerAre you an illegal immigrant whose waiver to stay in the country was denied because of your criminal past? Well, you’re in luck, because the Obama Administration may let you stay in the country anyway.
In a guidance distributed to congressional offices and obtained by The Daily Caller, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it is reopening cases in which applications for provisional unlawful presence waivers were denied to criminals.
According to the notice, USCIS had determined that applicants should not be denied an I-601A waiver due to a past criminal offense so long as it “falls under the petty offense or youthful offender exceptions or is not considered a crime involving moral turpitude.”Last week, USCIS began reopening waiver applications denied due ‘solely’ to a prior criminal offense before January 24, 2014, “in order to determine whether there is reason to believe the prior criminal offense might render the applicant inadmissible.”
The notice does not specify what types of crimes constitute a “petty offense,” and defines neither “youthful offender” nor “a crime involving moral turpitude.” Neither DHS nor USCIS responded to TheDC’s requests for comment.
The provisional unlawful presence waiver process allows illegal immigrants who are immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to overcome their inadmissibility due to their illegal status so long as they meet all the eligibility requirements outside of being in the country illegally. Prior to 2013, people had to return to their home countries to apply for these waivers.
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