US border officials target senior green card holders

Immigration attorneys are seeing an uptick within the variety of green card holders (together with Indians) being subjected to secondary inspection, together with in a single day detention on the port of entry (airports) by US Custom and Border Protection (CBP) officers, studies Lubna Kably. Some are additionally ‘pressured’ to voluntarily quit their green card. Elderly Indians who dwell with their kids within the US however spend the winter months in India are particularly vulnerable.
An essential piece of recommendation from attorneys: Do not give up your green card. A green card holder has the suitable to be heard by an immigration choose.

Immigration attorneys warn in opposition to surrendering green playing cards

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a lawful everlasting resident (LPR) — aka green card holder — who’s absent from the US for over 180 days is handled as looking for ‘re-admission’ and is topic to grounds of inadmissibility. While the problem of abandonment (relinquishment) of green card standing sometimes arises when the person has been exterior the US for greater than a 12 months (one year), a keep in India throughout the winter season can also be developing for elevated scrutiny.

Ashwin Sharma, an immigration legal professional, based mostly in Florida instructed TOI, “I have personally handled cases recently where the CBP has targeted elderly Indian green card holders, particularly grandparents who happen to have spent a bit longer outside the US, and pressured them to sign Form I-407 to ‘voluntarily’ surrender their lawful permanent resident status (green card). And the moment they have tried to push back, they have been met with threats of detention or ‘removal’ by the CBP officers who have been emboldened by Trump to see themselves as judge, jury, and executioner.”
Kripa Upadhyay, a Seattle-based immigration legal professional, pressured the significance of not surrendering the green card. “Generally, an individual’s green card cannot be revoked by the border unless the person ‘voluntarily’ surrenders (by signing Form 1-407). If a green card holder has spent more than 365 days out of the US they are deemed to have ‘abandoned’ their residence. Even if this is the allegation, the green card holder has the right to challenge this in court but they lose this right if they ‘voluntarily’ surrender at the airport!”
“Only an immigration judge can take away a green card, so individuals should not sign this form. Unfortunately, people do not realise this because they are afraid, confused or do not understand what they are signing due to language barriers. This is a particular problem for our elderly green card holders who spend winter months in India and may not have sufficient evidence to prove maintenance of permanent resident status. Through documentation such as ownership of property, tax returns and employment one can overcome a presumption of abandonment,” stated Snehal Batra, managing legal professional at NPZ Law Group.
She referred to a case the place a person was positioned in secondary inspection, as a result of ever since turning into a lawful everlasting resident (greater than six years in the past), he has spent loads of time in India. Though he by no means spent greater than six months (180 days) exterior the US, it was clear from his journey historical past that he returned to the US solely to keep up his green card standing. “He was lucky this time and was admitted into the country but warned by CBP to give up his green card if he was not living in the US on a permanent basis,” stated Batra.
Rajiv S Khanna, an Arlington-based immigration legal professional, sounded a phrase of warning, “One of the common scenarios that I have provided consultations on is when green card holders are not living in the US. They may visit every few months and consider that to be sufficient. That is legally incorrect. Maintaining a green card requires establishing and maintaining a permanent home in the US. Anything short of that can be grounds for ‘lifting the green card’ for abandonment.” To this, Jesse Bless, immigration legal professional added, “Lawful permanent residents who are outside the US for more than a year (without a re-entry permit) are getting a notice to appear in removal proceedings.”
Greg Siskin, co-founder of Siskin Susser, an immigration legislation agency, recalled, “During the previous Trump administration, there were sky marshals who were passing forms out on planes asking people to surrender their green cards and people were calling and texting from the planes asking what to do. People need to not surrender their cards. But they must be prepared to sit for a while in secondary inspection. It is possible a CBP officer could even detain a person overnight. But a person is entitled to a hearing in front of a judge and most judges are not going to be happy about these cases going in front of them so I suspect CBP will cave in if a person is adamant about not surrendering.”