Author: immigration lawyer Alena Shautsova
While the new proposed immigration bill comes under evaluation for its ability to
address national security, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified
before a State Judiciary Committee hearing about the bill’s merits. According to a
Fox news report, Napolitano stated that the bill offered “significant improvements”
for tracking immigrants and encouraging immigrant interaction with law enforcement
on reporting crimes and coming forth as witnesses.
In the Boston bombing case, one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsamaev had taken a
six-month trip to Russia last year but this fact initially eluded the FBI because his
name was spelled incorrectly on a travel document. Under the changes proposed by
the new immigration bill, all U.S. passports will be read electronically, not manually
typed, thus eliminating such human errors as the one that occurred with Tamerlan.
Even so, there were enough redundancies in the immigration system where the
name appeared correctly that the FBI was aware of the trip.
The two suspects in the Boston bombing case, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsamaev
came to the United States about 10 years ago when their family obtained asylum,
and they both became permanent residents and one became a U.S. citizen. The
process of asylum came into question but Napolitano described a comprehensive
process that is already in place and pointed out that the new immigration bill further
enhances the process. One concern brought to view was that the new bill does not
require that people apply for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States.
Immigrants with asylum cases that were previously unapproved could reapply under
the new immigration bill.
If you have questions about immigration, obtaining asylum or problems with
deportation or other issues, consult with a immigration lawyer to get
answers.