Kamal Ghorui
Can calling the police to report a crime be considered as a law and enforcement record in the US?
Immigration attorney Scott Decker highlighted a case in which the US Citizenship and Immigration Services denied an applicant’s STEM OPT extension, citing that the individual had a “law enforcement interaction”. The agency did not say what the law enforcement interaction was but Decker said that he was aware that his client once called the police after being assaulted on the street.“In short, USCIS is taking the position that being a crime victim and calling the police for help is such a bad thing that it makes you ineligible for any discretionary benefit, such as obtaining an extension of status in the US,” Decker wrote in his LinkedIn post.“I suspect/hope that the USCIS officer was just being lazy, saw in their system that the client’s name appeared in a police report, and never looked any further. Hopefully, upon receiving the response to the NOID, USCIS will come to its senses. If not, we may need to turn to federal court for relief.”NOID is a Notice of Intent to Deny, a former letter from USCIS immigration in which they say that they plan to refuse an application unless further evidence is provided. It is usually granted a 30-day response window.Decker said this is a crazy situation for the USCIS but he could not say that this is the first time something like this has happened.“About 10 years ago a client was denied a visitor visa in Paris on the basis of fraud. The consular officer claimed my client lied about never having been arrested, and the officer showed our client a police report in support of the allegation. We explained that our client was a witness to a crime, not the perpetrator, and the police report pages merely reflected our client’s statement to the police about what he witnessed,” Decker wrote giving an example.“So, obviously the client did not lie to the consulate and there was no fraud. What did the consulate do? After months of back-and-forth, they issued an updated denial notice saying the client lacked non-immigrant intent, a basis that cannot be reviewed by the courts. Not only were they not going to admit they made a mistake with the initial denial, they made sure nobody else could call them out for their mistake,” the post concluded.
