The Key to Illegal Immigration is Education, Not Just Spending $600 Million in Security Measures, States Immigration Lawyer Steven Riznyk

    DALLAS, TX, August 08, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Illegal immigration is a problem that has been plaguing the U.S. and well-known author and immigration lawyer Steven Riznyk is of the opinion that education is the answer to the massive problem. Spending $600 million on enforcement is great, but there's an easier fix, he states, that, if implemented properly, is much cheaper and faster.

The difficulty, states Mr Riznyk, is that people don't understand US immigration. Mr Riznyk, who has conducted seminars all over the world on the topic states that "people have amazing theories about what works and doesn't work. They will spend years following a rumor about what it takes to obtain a certain status in the U.S. only to find out at the time they are ready to apply that they were on the wrong track all along." Just today, a potential client called who believed, states Mr Riznyk, "that if you just make it into the United States they will let you stay; these rumors have been circulating for decades and just don't stop." We need to take an approach similar to the one where you teach the farmer to grow his own food, not just band-aid him by supplying his needs at the moment. Spend all the money you want on enforcement and people will just find ways around it; our history has demonstrated this.

As an international business lawyer and negotiator who has worked with immigration cases for 22 years, Mr Riznyk states that "most lawyers do not understand the system; immigration officers have informed me they only understand a narrow area of it, and we expect the public to somehow get it...it's impossible." U.S. immigration law is one of the most complex areas of law in the world, with federal cases being decided daily and procedures changing on a regular basis. We need to clarify this system for the public, at least the aspects that are most popular: illegal immigration, visiting the country, and marriage to a US citizen. The public does not understand it and the Internet does not help. People spend hours on the Internet and still don't understand it, he states, our office is flooded with calls from people who want a simple concept explained but spent all weekend looking for it and are frustrated. Our system is so convoluted and complicated and there is no easy way for the public to understand it, let alone follow it.

The only way to alleviate the problem of illegal immigration is to educate people so that they understand the system and know what to expect. A lot of people in Mexico, for example, have heard the rumor that if you can make your way into the United States, sooner or later there will be an amnesty. Well, with that kind of information floating around, some people feel they have very little to lose by trying. "I feel", states Mr Riznyk. "that if we were able to educate people on the fundamental issues of immigration law they wouldn't waste their time, put their lives at risk, and ruin their families in order to take a chance on the system here." What a lot of people do not know, for example, is that we have very harsh consequences for criminal backgrounds and in some cases no waivers (where you ask the government to overlook/forgive your past) are available. The first time they discover this information is when they call us, after they have married a U.S. citizen and maybe even had a child. In many cases, the marriages are not real, but the U.S. citizen spouse doesn't even suspect it; the child is a pawn for immigration purposes.

Part of the problem is that immigration is hard to explain as it is so complex and convoluted; the other part is how to get the word out to the people who are affected by it. I know this sounds simplistic, states Mr Riznyk, but if you have to rent billboards in both countries by the border, just do it. Explain some of the simple concepts. The issue is that if you make this into a military operation, the other side will just find new ways of penetrating the border; it will be a cat-and-mouse game and when will it end? "If I could afford to," he states, "I would give away our DVDs so that people would, for the first time, understand our complex system." The DVDs he is referring to are an almost 5-hour program he spent a year and a half developing as a result of questions he was asked in his seminars worldwide; it covers every single visa and Green Card and what the requirements are. In easy-to-understand language it is available in English and Spanish, with a majority of the profits going to a charity Mr Riznyk has developed (www.US-Immigration-Explained.com).

Mr Riznyk's office (www.myImmigrationAttorney.com) receives numerous calls from U.S. citizens who fall in love with someone here illegally and both spouses are under the impression that marrying a citizen solves all of the problems. When they discover the only way to remedy the situation is to have the person here illegally go to their own country for an interview (meaning they could be locked out of the U.S.) and present an extreme hardship waiver, they either don't qualify or can't afford it. In that case, they most likely remain in the U.S. waiting for an amnesty. Additionally, states Mr Riznyk, "Many people believe that having a U.S. citizen child will remedy the situation, and many innocent children are born for no other reason than the fact that they are an immigration vehicle for their parents, and this is wrong, but very much a by-product of a lack of understanding about the laws. This really troubles me." These children will not receive the love and attention they deserve. Abandoned by their parents when they are no longer of any use, they will take to the streets and help fill up our prisons along the way. They will cause injury to themselves as well as to U.S. citizens along the way.

In other instances, people enter the country legally and overstay their visas. Many of these people marry U.S. citizens and are not aware that they could file a legitimate case and obtain a Green Card and work authorization. They are afraid of our punitive and unforgiving system and as a result they stay away from the CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services = immigration department) as well as immigration lawyers out of fear. These people are now here illegally, but due to the simple technicality of not filling out the forms that are required. Again, this can be easily remedied.

Another area where we face problems is with visitors to the United States. If someone is asked why they are visiting and, for example, state that they love the country and would consider living here, they will be denied under INA 214(b). Potentially, these people may never be able to visit the U.S. again. Once again, states Mr Riznyk, we don't make our laws very clear and no one understands what they can and cannot do. We receive many calls, he states, from people who have been barred for saying the wrong thing. A friend of mine, he states, had a card in her luggage from her aunt that stated "good luck in America." She was going to visit the U.S. for a week. This led to a 4-hour interrogation and a bar from the United States. Her trip was an innocent one, but the laws are so inflexible, and the officers many times apply them so rigidly that innocent visits become nightmare situations for people who in the future lie about their intentions and resent the United States for what happened during their visit.

Our approach may be more successful if we educate and work 'with' people entering rather than looking at them When I first became a lawyer, he states, I didn't believe the stories from clients about the treatment the received at some of the embassies and consulates. However, after 22 years in the field, it's becoming a regular story. I received 3 such calls this week. Instead of educating the client on what they need, it seems that there is more of an emphasis on power and control. Yes, we need it at certain levels such as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement); but we need to have some controls over our approach and perhaps take a more educational stance than one that emphasizes power and intimidation. I feel we would get our goals accomplished more easily and it would lead to a lesser need for enforcement. When people feel alienated, he states, they have no qualms over breaking the law, because that approach on the part of embassies and consulates leads to a lack of respect for both the laws and the United States.

Currently traveling back-and-forth between his Rome and Dallas offices, Mr Riznyk has spoken with a number of Italians about US immigration and conducted three lectures at the Rome Bar Association in order to train Italian lawyers in US immigration law. He has heard numerous stories from both lawyers and the public and noted that there are many false rumors that people firmly believe. Because people worldwide have had bad experiences entering as visitors, for example, they have been trained by our system to lie about their intentions. If our system is easier to understand, there would be no need for people to lie; they could ascertain in advance if they qualified. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted annually on hotels and airfares by people who travel to the U.S., only to be denied entry and then detained in custody until the next flight out.

There are no easy answers to our problem with illegal immigration. However, a large number of people who are here illegally do qualify for Green Cards but don't know it. Others don't ever have a chance, even if an amnesty passes, but don't know that. We need to find a way to educate the public. Steven Riznyk has taken the first step towards this theory by creating his video program, the most comprehensive ever made for the public in simple language. Perhaps if others felt the way he does, more initiatives such as his could be implemented or made available to people in such a way that they would be making a decision based on the reality of our immigration system and not on the many rumors that are out there.

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