Legal Question in Immigration Law in North Carolina
I am a 23 yr old US born citizen and in the Air Force. My father had been in the US since 1989. We went to visit family in Mexico in 2005 and tried to bring him back with our cousin's papers but he was deported and told he wasn't going to be able to come back for 10 yrs. He managed to come back in without being caught. His wife, my mother, is a legal resident. What can we do to help him be here legally? He has no criminal record.
1 Answer from Attorneys
1. It sounds as if he's been issued an expedited removal order and had previous unlawful presence. The former is a 5 year bar and the latter is a 10 year bar. They don't stack and there is a waiver available for him.
2. When he reentered after a removal order (assuming he had one) and certainly after departing with unlawful presence bar, he triggered the permanent bar to returning lawfully. In a sense, he's permanently ineligible to obtain LPR status.
3. Also as a result of the above and assuming he has a removal order, he's now subject to federal criminal prosecution for unlawful reentry.
4. Had your mom naturalized (became a citizen) and then filed papers for him while he waited in Mexico, he would have at least had a fighting chance with a waiver of the original indiscretions listed in number 1.
5. And if anyone did help attempt to bring him back with the cousin's papers, those people might be indictable for alien smuggling.
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