What is the controversy all about?
The current controversy in the United Kingdom today is the rule that allows illegal immigrants to earn British citizenship and the subsequent benefits if they manage to stay as long as fourteen years. This triggered a huge number of outbursts from the British people. They do not like the fact that the crime doers will be rewarded, provided that they are able to get away with their crime long enough, in this case, fourteen years.
Many are even quite surprised that this particular rule still even exists to date. It is a huge anomaly as compared to the rest of the policies established by the British Government, as majority of the British policies are obviously and very strongly opposed with illegal or irregular immigration into the country.
About the rules
The rules that have been getting a lot of negative outcries are the ones responsible for permitting illegal immigrants who wrongly claim residence after their fourteen years of living in the UK, in this sense, hiding in the UK. These rules have been formalized in the Home Office, particularly in 2003, despite being such a loose concession before that year.
Same as adverse possession
The aforementioned arrangements are very similar to the legal status obtained by those who have squatter’s rights. Under the Welsh and English law, something like this would be considered as adverse possession. This particular arrangement allows illegal occupiers of English and Welsh to apply for land owner registration to the land they stayed in, as long as they survive living illegally for twelve years. According to the authorities of Home Office, not all of the application forms they receive are actually granted, despite how long their residence has reached.
Before they are granted, their cases are reviewed individually, taking in to account exactly how strong their connection is to the people and the country of United Kingdom. Of course, their criminal records will also be checked, together with their compassionate circumstances. Moreover, he added that those who submitted their applications and fell under asylum claims were more quickly dealt with as compared to the others.
“Yes!” to the system
Keith Best, a known expert on immigration cases, and also a former Chairman of the Immigration Advisory Service stated that the system they are working with is very sensible and highly flexible. The system considers the person’s individual circumstances, especially when they could have stayed in the UK beyond the expiry date stated on their Visa, and also if they have not continuously been evading the authorities deliberately.
The 14-year wait
Illegal immigrants need to wait for as long as a decade and four additional years is only four years longer than the time needed for lawful immigrants to accomplish. The people who get to stay in UK on their Visa, or who are given refugee status only need to wait ten years before they start applying for the very same concession, particularly if they have stayed long as residents of Britain.
How to be an illegal immigrant?
It has been detailed that people can be called illegal immigrants if they perform one of the three possible ways that individuals can be considered as such. If they enter the country without any proper authorization and inspection from the officials, then they are branded as illegal immigrants. Also, if they end up staying more than the period of time allotted for them after they make their entry, they will be hiding from the country’s immigration officials. And, lastly, if they violate, in any way, the terms of legal entry set by the country, then they will also be regarded as illegal immigrants.
Mode of violation
If they enter the country legally but without inspection, they will be categorized under Non-Immigrant Visa Overstayer, which accounts for only four up to nearly six million of the illegal immigrants today. The Border Crossing Card Violators has a population of around two hundred fifty thousand And if they entered the country in an illegal manner without getting inspected, then they will be classified as Evaded the Immigration Inspectors and Border Patrol, which amounts to around six to seven million individuals.
How to make a legal entry?
Commonly, illegal immigrants decide to cross to a country by going across a border. They are able to do so with the assistance of a professional who makes a living out of smuggling illegal immigrants across the country’s border. The ones who are assigned at the border between the United States and Mexico are tagged as Coyotes.
Another way to enter the US illegally is when they use another person’s social security card. This happens when a US legal citizen returns to his or her original nation and lets someone else work in the US in his or her place. In this kind of situation, both parties get to benefit. The legal citizen still gets to accumulate his or her social security benefits while the illegal immigrant can get inside the country without any kind of hassle and get employed.
What is a Visa Overstay?
Tourists will be categorized under Visa Overstay once they decide to stay in the country after the expiry of their time of admission into the country. The time of admission actually varies, depending on the type of Visa class they have into which they got admitted in the first place.
For those who want to track Visa Overstayers, they can use the US-VISIT program, which actually stands for United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology. It is through this program that authorities can collect and keep information that involve biographic, biometric and travel details of the foreign nationals. Aside from that, they can also obtain pictures and some fingerprints. Majority of today’s Visa Overstayers tend to enter the country with the use of Tourist or Business Visas.
In fact, it was in 1994 that more than half of the entire population of illegal immigrants came out to be Visa Overstayers, as compared to the 2006 amount of forty-five percent.
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