Man with no criminal background arrested at meeting with USCIS

Some immigrants who reside in Riverside County but do not have the proper paperwork may wish to take measures to obtain legal status. However, given the current state of immigration enforcement, many of those same people are living in fear of being forced to leave the country that they call home before they can obtain proper documentation.

One man in Ohio recently had his fears come true after being arrested for his undocumented status. His case is alarming to many people since he had been living in the U.S. for a number of years and did not have any kind of criminal background. While under the Obama administration, most of the focus of immigration enforcement was on those with a history of committing crimes. That has now changed under the Trump administration, as evidenced by the fact that 10,800 immigrants with no criminal background were arrested from January 20 to April 30 of this year. In 2016, only 4,200 non-criminals were arrested during that same three-month period.

This man’s case is also alarming in that he was attending a meeting with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time of his arrest. He, along with his U.S-born wife and attorney, were meeting with immigration officials, who had actually approved his marriage petition moments before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials placed him in custody.

Unlike in the past, even those who do not have the proper paperwork but are trying to seek out ways to become legal residents appear to be targets of immigration enforcement. People who are facing removal from the country may wish to consult with an experienced attorney.

Source: USA Today, “ICE agents arrest man in federal building,” Mark Curnutte, May 30, 2017