If a resident is bringing a close relative to stay in the United States through immigration permanently then legal responsibility has to be borne for financially supporting the relative. The resident can become a sponsor of the relative for the Green Card – a form has to be completed by signing a document called the Affidavit of Support – Form I-864, as a part of the entire immigration process.
As a part of filing for the Green Card the form I-864 has to be filled up, and it is used for:
- Family – based immigrant visa applicants. Petitions are filed using Form I-130 or Form I-129F, including orphans (IR-4, a petition using Form I-600 or I-600A).
The family member who files a petition for the immigrant must be the sponsor, especially for immediate relatives of U S Citizens and family – based preference category immigrants.
- Those who are employee-based immigrants and have close relatives abroad the relative who files the petition should have a significant interest of ownership in the business entity.
THE TERM “RELATIVE” USED WITH RELATIONSHIP TO GREEN CARD
The term “relative” for purposes related to immigration visas is defined as husband, wife, father, mother, child, adult son or daughter, brother or sister.
A hunger strike was launched by a group of angry illegal, immigrant detainees at a detention center in the United States in Arizona state last Saturday morning to protest against the death of a detainee – the detainee died last month. The strike also called attention to the inhuman conditions at the facility.
A detainee died in custody last month, and this was the reason for the protest. At that time ICE officials issued a statement that the individual was found dead in his cell with no injury to his person. But other protesters claim that he was beaten up by the security guards in the detention center. The protestors also stated that a second man died while in custody, but the death has not been acknowledged by ICE officials.
The immigrant’s death has come to become a rallying call for all detainees who state that they were being forced to work at the center for $1 per day and most often, did not receive medical treatment.
“They’re outraged because they’re the ones who heard him scream for mercy,” said a director of a human rights group. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
The detainees asked for an investigation- most of them said that they were scared that something could happen to them too.
Pressure is building on the Obama administration to enhance or as a last measure, do away with the detention of women and children, and whole families. With the pressure mounting officials of the administration have agreed to let some mothers who are illegal immigrants get release from the detention center.
Earlier the very same families had been denied request for release by the U S Immigration authorities – deportation orders were now issued, according to their attorneys.
Family detention was being expanded after an inflow of more than 68,000 families from across the southern border last year, with most Central American families making the illegal crossing through the state of Texas. The impending releases were announced last Thursday.
3 family detention centers are being run at present, by the U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. There is a negotiation going on with the administration by the immigrant attorneys over the case of family detention after a preliminary ruling was issued by a federal judge in the state of California.
The decision to release the families came weeks after 136 members of the Democratic Party in Congress approached the Secretary of Homeland Security to stop keeping families in confinement. A congressional delegation too is expected to make a visit to a detention center in one of the cities soon.
The U S Border Patrol has received a complaint from a civil rights group that in a lawsuit which complains that immigrants were illegally held for long periods in freezing, bad weather, in dirty holding cells in Arizona.
The lawsuit which was filed on behalf of 3 illegal immigrants who were detained at the Tucson Border Patrol Station stated that detainees were not treated well for days, and what’s more, these cells were made to be only hour-long old holding facilities. These holding cells were in the state of Arizona. A wide range of abuse and neglect has been reported, including inadequate food, water, sleep and medical attention. “With the filing of this lawsuit, it’s no longer going to be possible for Border Patrol to continue denying and ignoring its inhumane and unconscionable mistreatment of individuals in its custody,” said one of the attorneys who is helping a plaintiff.
The complaint has recorded for the request to a judge to order the country’s border protection agency to help improve the conditions in the detention centers. The complaint hits under the belt at one of the country’s busiest sections that deal with the massive flow of immigrants who are entering the country illegally from Mexico. More than 87000 arrests were made there last year. The lawsuit is a pointer to a grim fate faced by men, women and families who were detained for extended periods of time, as they wait for transfer or secure release.
