Phoenix Immigration & Naturalization Law Blog

Non-citizens who visit or work in Arizona sometimes have concerns about overstaying their visas. In general, there can be severe legal consequences for not departing the United States before the visa has expired. There are some circumstances under which overstaying a visa may incur minor penalties.

When someone from another country comes to the United States, he or she is issued a visa. Unless a person has been granted permanent residency, the visa will expire at some point. Those who remain in the U.S. after their visa expires have "overstayed" their visa.

On May 29, the Trump administration announced that it would soon start fingerprinting parents who attempt to claim custody of unaccompanied children detained for entering the U.S. illegally. However, immigrant advocates claim the move may cause undocumented adults in Arizona and elsewhere to abandon their children for fear of being deported.

Because U.S. laws limit the amount of time minors can be held in custody, immigration officials have historically released unaccompanied children to adult sponsors who live in the U.S. The sponsors are then expected to bring the children to court for their deportation hearings. However, a representative of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services told media outlets that the government now intends to fingerprint adult sponsors with the intention of performing thorough background checks. Critics of the policy say that it will stop some parents from picking up their children, leaving them to sit in detention centers. An HHS representative disagreed, saying that parents who are afraid to pick up their children don't deserve to be sponsors.

Some Arizona residents who came to the United States under the Temporary Protected Status program may be sent back to their home countries even if they have been living in the country for decades and have children who are citizens. The Trump administration is phasing out these programs, and now, Hondurans who are in the United States with TPS status must either return home within the next 18 months or remain in the country as an undocumented immigrant.

The purpose of the program is to grant temporary residency for people whose countries have been devastated by civil war, hurricanes or earthquakes. The devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 lead to Hondurans being allowed to settle in the country under the program. However, since then, there have been serious issues with drug cartel and gang violence, and opponents of ending the program argue that people will be sent right back into these situations. Supporters say the country has had time to recover from the hurricane and that it has always had problems with violence and poverty.

Residents in border states such as Arizona may have heard about a caravan that is looking to cross Mexico with hopes of eventually reaching the United States. According to organizers, there are roughly 200 people in that caravan, and their goal is to seek asylum once they reach the United States border. A representative from Pueblo Sin Fronteras said that this was more than twice as many as was expected.

Many in the caravan are of Central American descent and are trying to escape harsh conditions in Honduras or El Salvador. One man acknowledged that his odds of actually getting asylum were relatively slim as he had no proof of the danger that he faced back home. However, he claimed that he and his family were fleeing from a gang in Honduras that had already killed one of his relatives.