Cato Institute: "Government Defrauds Legal Immigrants and US Sponsors Who Paid $1 Billion in Fees"
Government Defrauds Legal Immigrants and US Sponsors Who Paid $1 Billion in Fees
https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-donald-trumps-administration-accused-of-defrauding-migrants-out-of-1-billion/
The US government is taking fees from immigrants and US sponsors for services that it has no plans to provide. The government took their money, and now it won’t even adjudicate their applications—in many cases, it refuses even to issue denials. The State Department is actually telling consular officers not to notify future applicants that the government has banned them.
During testimony before the US Senate, I called it the largest fraud in the history of the US immigration system. In fact, it is likely the first $1 billion fraud—a theft of processing fees for services never rendered. Even Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told me at the hearing that he was shocked it was happening. It is happening, and it is shocking.
This massive fraud is the result of three policies promulgated by President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Joseph Edlow.
First, in December, President Trump signed a proclamation that bars legal entry and almost all visas for citizens of 40 countries (including the Palestinian territories) who were then outside of the United States. An earlier June proclamation had already partially suspended entry for 19 countries, but it had exempted immediate relatives of US citizens—the largest category of legal immigration. The upshot of these bans is that any citizens from these countries will be denied if they apply for an immigrant visa and most types of temporary visas. Nonetheless, consular officers are being instructed not to “counsel applicants or advise them in advance of the interview that they are subject to the [Proclamation].”
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