[raidergirl13]

My boyfriend has lived in the United States for seven years and we have been together for almost two. We really want to get married but we dont know what to do. The biggest problem is that he got caught crossing the border twice in 2002 and just recentaly went home to visit his family. He has been caught again three more times crossing the border and still hasn't returned to the U.S. :cry: Will he ever be able to get citizenship or at leat residency after we marry? I know he we be deported and have a 10 year bar against him but if i file a petition do you think they would grant it considering his situation? Will he really have to wait 10 years?

[Mr. Knowitall]

His repeated immigration violations sharply diminish his chances of getting a waiver of his period of exclusion. He should consult an immigration lawyer to see if there are any options available to him under the circumstances.

[piniondallas]

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but according to the Immigration Act of 1996, he will never be able to obtain any type of legal status in th U.S. because he did not apply during the grace period that was given to illegals back then, recently there was a man who had been living here about 20 yrs. but had been deported before the act was initiated in '96, he had even started a trucking business, gotten married to a U.S. citizen also, but was deported anyway in 2004 because he had not applied for legal status during that grace period back then. Unfortunately for him, there is no way now to get around it, not even by marrying you. He will be deported if they catch him and you will be subject to investigations if they find out it is you, even though you are a citizen, who is harboring him.

There just isn't any legal way for you to do what you are wanting to and stay here in the U.S., and unfortunately, his country will not ever allow you to become a citizen because their laws do not allow illegals to become citizens over there at all.

[aaron]

Here's an LA Times story on the case just mentioned.

The 8-1 decision upholds a strict 1996 law that adopted a no-leniency policy for those who returned illegally to this country after having been deported.

* * *

The Supreme Court took up the case because several lower courts — including the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction in California and eight other Western states — had adopted a lenient standard for illegal immigrants who had been in the United States for decades. The 9th Circuit judges had ruled that Congress did not mean to apply the new law to illegal immigrants who had reentered the country before 1996.

But writing for the majority on the Supreme Court, Justice David H. Souter disagreed, saying that Congress meant the law to apply to every once-deported immigrant who had returned illegally and stayed.