Immigration And National Security

To receive their visa domestically, the applicant must pay a fine of $1000.00. Payment of this fine relieves the necessity for the applicant to return to their home country to apply for their visa. Immigrants who qualify for permanent residency and who pick up their visas in the U.S. are subject to intense scrutiny. They face a rigorous screening process, with criminal background checks, and in-person interviews. During this process, the government looks at a variety of factors in determining whether or not to grant the visa, which include: health related concerns, criminal convictions, fraud convictions, and adverse foreign policy consequences. The Attorney General may deny a visa to any alien if he/she has reasonable grounds to believe that the alien is likely to engage in any terrorist or criminal activity after entry. Terrorism is a very big concern in this process. Terrorism related provisions include any terrorist activity, such as providing support to terrorist organizations, being a member of one such organization or planning any such activity. This section also introduces the use of re-entry bars to immigrants who have held previous violations of their visas. These individuals are denied re-entry into the United States after they have left the country to pick up their visas abroad. This system prevents the individuals from re-entering the U.S. for a period of years. These periods of time give the U.S. government another chance to thoroughly review the backgrounds of those who may have already resided in the United States. Basically, Section 245 encourages people to come forward and apply for permanent residency in our country and gives us the chance to re-examine the immigrants that we have previously allowed past our borders.
             Another attempt to reform our current system of immigration is the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS). The first phase of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System was implemented on September 11th 2002 at selected points of entry throughout the United States.