Immigration expert calls US government visa refusals largest fraud in history
A US immigration policy analyst and expert, Dr David Bier has made a scathing commentary on the US immigration and visa processing regime, calling visa refusals “the largest fraud in history.”
Dr Bier, who is Director of Immigration Studies at the Think Tank, Cato Institute wrote: “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.”
Dr Bier who gave testimony on the matter to Congress also wrote in a Blog for the Cato Institute and said 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,” he stated.
According to the Institute, Cubans represent the largest group of affected applicants with nearly a million affected applications at a combined cost of $543 million. The second most common was Venezuelans, with 239,000 applications at a cost of $138 million.
The Institute further estimates that over two million immigrant applicants were affected by the travel bans and had their money taken when there was no intention on the part of the administration of rendering the services in question.
“The fees came primarily from applications for work permits and filings to adjust status to permanent residence or immigrant visas—the two ways in which people receive green cards to stay permanently in the United States,” Dr Bier wrote.
He explained that to immigrate to the United States or to obtain authorization to work or travel internationally, noncitizens must usually pay a fee to have their applications processed.
He estimated that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS’s) immigration fee revenues were nearly $7 billion, and the Consular Affairs budget was about $6 billion.
“The fees stack up. For instance, to sponsor a spouse, a US citizen must pay a $675 fee to USCIS to petition for their spouse to obtain lawful permanent residence. Then, the immigrant must pay $1,440 to adjust status from temporary to permanent residence. That application takes so long that people usually pay $560 for the spouse to receive an employment authorization document, so the total fees can add up to $2,675,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has imposed different degrees of travel bans on countries around the world including Ghana.
By Emmanuel K Dogbevi