Nearly 1.7 million U.S. citizens have a spouse who is undocumented. Roughly a quarter have been married for 20 years or longer, while more than half have been married for 10 years or longer
Although the U.S. has a history of supporting family-based immigration, spouses of U.S. citizens who entered the U.S. without inspection cannot adjust their status to become green card holders due to inadmissibility bars. They instead have to go abroad and are subject to a lengthy, expensive, and involved process involving several U.S. federal agencies. These limitations of current immigration law lead to the devastating possibility that families could be separated. Congress must act to help keep mixed-status families together. In the meantime, mental health professionals can make a significant impact in these families’ immigration plight.
Did you know?
Immigrant women are critical to healthcare in the United States!
· 1 in 5 nursing, psychiatric, and home health aides
· 1 in 8 registered nurses
· 1 in 5 personal care aides are foreign born women
For several reasons, immigrants have been a particularly important stopgap filling some of our most glaring healthcare needs. Immigrants are twice as likely as native-born to fill lesser skilled home health aide positions, but also twice as likely to fill high-skilled positions as physicians and surgeons. And because immigrants tend to be more willing to move for a job than the native-born, and there are visa provisions to encourage this, immigrants also fill doctor vacancies in some of our rural communities with the greatest need. A smarter immigration system, however, could help fill far more gaps in our healthcare system, benefiting patients.
Hardship Waivers
Evaluating hardship for waivers of inadmissibility
Friday, March 4th
9am - 1pm PST
Matthew G. Holt
Owner / Managing Attorney
Hurwitz Holt, APLC
Q: What is “Exceptional and Extremely Unusual Hardship”?
A: When this form of relief was first developed by Congress in 1996, the legislative history, since quoted by the 2001 BIA’s decision in Matter of Monreal, stated that exceptional and extremely unusual hardship means that a person undergoing removal proceedings must provide evidence of hardship to his qualifying spouse, parent, or child, where the hardship is “substantially different from, or beyond that which would be normally expected from the deportation of an alien with close family members [in the United States].”
Do you have a question for an immigration attorney? Email us!
info@psychevalcoach.com
