विनोद रोका
अमेरिकी रोजगारदाता, आमसमुदाय, र आप्रवासीहरु विद्यमानमा रहेको अमेरिकाको भाच्चिएको आप्रवासी कानुनी व्यवस्थाबाट अतिनै प्रभावित रहेका छन । त्यसैगरी अमेरिकी संघीय सरकार र राज्य सरकार आप्रवासी कानुन बैज्ञानिक र समयोचित नभएको हुँदा आफ्ना साधन र श्रोतलाई राम्ररी परिचालन गरी देशमा भैरहेको आर्थिक र मानविय उर्जालाई देशको चौतर्फी विकासको मुल प्रवाहमा समावेश गर्न सकिरहेका छैनन। यसै पृष्ठभूमीलाई ध्यानमा राखेर धेरै लामो प्रयास पछि रिपव्लीकन र डेमोक्याटका तर्फबाट अमेरीकी सिनेटमा प्रतिनिधित्व गर्ने ८ जना सदस्यहरु सम्मीलित भएको समुहले तयार पारी हाल सिनेट समक्ष बिचाराधिन रहेको सुधारात्मक अप्राबासी विधेयक “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” or S. 744 २०१३ ले अमेरिकामा डिसेम्वर ३१, २०११ भित्र आएका र स्टाटस नभएका आप्रवासीहरुलाई परिक्षणकालको ग्रिनकार्ड अर्थात Registered Provisional Immigrant(RPI) को हैसियत प्रदान गर्ने प्रावधान पनि राखेको छ ।
यो विधेयकमा २१ सौ सताव्दीको अमेरिकाको आर्थिक र मानविय विकास एवं आन्तरिक एवं राष्ट्रि्य सुरक्षाका आवस्यकतालाई पुरा गर्ने खालका प्रावधानहरु राख्ने प्रयास गरेको देखिन्छ। यद्यपि विधेयकमा रहेका आप्रवासीले गर्न नहुने अपराध वा विज्याईका प्रकारहरु र गरेको अवस्थामा निजहरुले परिक्षणकालीन रुपमा अमेरिकामा बसोबास गर्ने कागज, ग्रिनकार्ड, एवं अमेरिकाको नागरिकता प्राप्त गर्न नसक्ने र गरेको ठहर भएमा अमेरिकाबाट निष्कासन समेत हुने हुँदा कतिपय आप्रवासीहरुका लागि यो विधेयकले प्रदान गरेका सुविधाहरु कागलाई वेल पाके सरह हुन पनि सक्दछ ।
यो विधेयक सिनेट समक्ष जुन ११ तारिखका दिनमा मतदान हुदा छलफलका पक्षमा डेमोक्रयाट र रिपव्लीकन सहितको ८४ मत र विपक्षमा केवल १५ रिपव्लीकन सिनेटरहरुको मत परेको थियो। तथापि टेक्सास राज्यबाट प्रतिनिधित्व गर्ने रिपव्लीकन सिनेटर Jonh Crnyn ले शंसोधनको प्रस्थाव पेश गरेका छन बोर्डर सुरक्षाको ग्यारान्टीको प्रमाणपत्र नभएसम्म यो सुविधा दिइनु हुँदैन भनेर । यद्यपि भैरहेको विधेयकले ६ महिना भित्र गृह विभाग समन्धि मामला हेर्ने सचिवलाई वोर्डरमा पर्खाल लगाउने, दक्षिणको वोर्डरलाई बढी सुरक्षित बनाई भविष्यमा अनियमित रुपबाट आप्रवासीहरु अमेरिकामा प्रवेश गर्न नसक्ने प्रभावकारी योजना पेश गरेपछि मात्र यो विधेयकले प्रदान गरेको सुविधा दिन थाल्ने व्यवस्था रहेको छ।
यो विधेयकले हाल भै रकेका अपराधका अतिरिक्त पनि अन्य अपराधहरु समावेश गरेको छ जस्ले आप्रवासीलाई RPI को सुविधा पाऊन प्रतिबन्ध लगाएको छ । यसरी हाल भैरहेको र थप गरिएका अपराधहरु निम्नानुसार रहेका छन ।
Criminal bars to RPI eligibility include:
• Any felony (other than state or local status-based or immigration offenses);
• An aggravated felony under INA §101(a)(43);
• Three or more misdemeanors (other than minor traffic offenses or state/local status-based or immigration offenses) where conviction occurred on different dates;
• Conviction or participation in a criminal street gang;
• Foreign offenses (except purely political offenses) that would render the person inadmissible or deportable if committed in the U.S., with certain exceptions; and
• Unlawful voting.
Grounds of inadmissibility for RPI applicants include:
• Crimes involving moral turpitude;
• Controlled substance violations;
• Two or more criminal convictions;
• Drug trafficking;
• Prostitution and procuring a prostitute
• Criminal activity where the person has asserted immunity;
• Violators of religious freedom;
• Human trafficking;
• Money laundering;
• National security grounds, including espionage
• Terrorists and terrorist activities; Nazis and members of a totalitarian party
• Polygamy;
• Child abductors;
• A misrepresentation relates to RPI application;
• Immigrant smugglers;
• Draft evaders.
• Habitual drunk drivers
• Criminal street gang participants
• Domestic violence;
• Stalking;
• Violating a protection order;
• Child abuse, child neglect or child abandonment;
• Enhanced passport trafficking and immigration document fraud offenses; and
• Failure to comply with a request for biometrics.
National security-related procedures and requirements for RPI applicants and status-holders include:
• Mandatory completion of biometric and biographic background checks on every applicant – and every dependent spouse or child – before any application is granted, to determine whether there are any national security or law enforcement factors that would render them ineligible.
• Process involves multiple layers of security screenings – at initial application, upon renewal of RPI status, upon return to the U.S. for RPI holders after travel abroad, and at adjustment of status to permanent residency.
S. 744 adds several new grounds of inadmissibility.
• Criminal Street Gangs;
• Habitual Drunk Drivers;
• Domestic violence;
• Stalking;
• Violating a protection order;
• Child abuse, child neglect or child abandonment;
• Enhanced passport trafficking and immigration document fraud offenses;
• Failure to comply with a request for biometrics; and
• War crimes, ethnic cleansing and other systematic attacks against civilians.
S. 744 adds several new grounds of deportability.
• Criminal Street Gangs;
• Habitual Drunk Drivers; and
• Enhanced passport trafficking and passport application fraud offenses.
S.744 adds habitual drunk driving as an “aggravated felony.”
S.744 enhances national security protocols.
• Specifies biometric and biographic background checks be conducted on every applicant seeking refugee and asylee status before they are granted such status, including mandatory checks using the applicant’s biometric and biographic data in various databases including those maintained by DHS, DOS, DOJ and other federal national security or law enforcement records or databases deemed necessary by the DHS Secretary. Current practices include:
• mandatory checks using the applicant’s name, date of birth, and aliases in various databases including those maintained by USCIS, CBP, ICE, DOS and the FBI;
• mandatory checks using the applicant’s fingerprints and photograph including FBI fingerprint check, US-VISIT, and DOD/ABIS vetting for certain applicants;
• additional biographical screening by National Counterterrorism Center of all asylum applicants starting in August 2011;
• mandatory supervisory review of all asylum decisions; and
• full-time Fraud Detection and National Security officers who conduct in-depth vetting on cases with national security concerns, including liaising with Joint Terrorism Task Forces if necessary and monitor asylum caseload for fraud.
• Requires regulations for new investor and entrepreneur visas to ensure the program is implemented consistent with the protection of national security.
• Provides for termination of conditional permanent residency for certain employment-based immigrants (and their spouses and children) if the Secretary determines that such status is contrary to US national interests based on threats to national security.
• Ensures that consular officers have access to all government terrorism records and databases for conducting security screenings of applicants for admission to the U.S.
• Terminates asylum and refugee status for individuals who return to the country of persecution without good cause.
S. 744 toughens the penalties for criminal immigration violations.
• Imposes a year prison sentence for illegal entry, instead of 6 months;
• Imposes 3 years in prison for every subsequent illegal entry, instead of 2 years;
• Creates enhancements for illegal entry if the person reenters after being convicted of a crime based upon the nature of the criminal history;
• Imposes a maximum 10 years prison sentence for illegally entering after having been convicted for 3 or more misdemeanors on different dates with time served of 15 days;
• Imposes a maximum 15 years prison sentence for illegally entering after a felony conviction with a sentence of at least 30 months;
• Imposes a maximum 10 years prison sentence for illegal reentry after having been convicted of a wider array of 3 or more misdemeanors on different dates;
• Imposes a maximum 15 year prison sentence for illegal reentry after having been convicted for a felony with a sentence of at least 30 months;
• Imposes a maximum 20 year prison sentence for illegal reentry after having been convicted of a felony with a sentence of at least 60 months or convicted for murder, rape, kidnapping, peonage/slavery, or terrorism;
• Imposes a 10 year prison sentence for anyone who has been deported or denied entry 3 or more times
• Modifies current law to punish trafficking in passports with 20 years in prison;
• Removes the requirement that a person “willingly and knowingly” makes a false statement in a passport or misuses a passport and instead requires only “knowingly;”
• Creates penalties for trafficking in immigration documents including use of official materials and imposes a 20 year sentence;
• Increases the maximum sentence that can be imposed on the chapter from 15 to 20 years imprisonment if committed to facilitate drug trafficking and from 20 to 25 years if committed to facilitate terrorism;
• Criminalizes “illicit spotting,” or the transmission to another person of the location, movement, or activities of law enforcement agents with the intent to further a federal immigration crime;
• Criminalizes the damaging of sensors, fences, barriers or other border or port of entry controls;
• Enhances penalties for using or carrying a firearm in furtherance of smuggling crimes and for participating in fraudulent immigration schemes that involve the death, bodily injury, sexual assault, robbery or extortion, or bribery of U.S. officials; and
• Enhances criminal penalties under the Controlled Substances Act for cultivating marijuana on federal lands and for violations of the CSA that involve poisons or other hazards.
यो विधेयक जुन महिना भरी सिनेट समक्ष पेश भै पारित पनि हुने अनुमान गरिएको छ । यद्यपि अमेरिकी प्रतिनिधि सभा कांग्रेस जहाँ रिपव्लीकनहरुको बहुमत रहेको छ, ले यहि विधेयकमा सहमति जनाउछ भन्न सकिदैन । अत अझै आ आफ्ना क्षेत्रका सिनेटर र कांग्रसम्यानहरुलाई यो विल पारित हुन पर्छ र यस्मा आएका भाजो हाल्ने खालका शंसोधनका विधेयकहरु भने पारित हुनु हुदैन भनि आवाज पुरयाउन भने छोडनु हुँदैन ।