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Originally Posted by djtestudo
One question I'm a little hazy about.
If you're already here illegally, what exactly can you do to become legal while staying?
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Currently, it's rare. But your status can be adjusted. Refugees (in theory) are allowed to arrive first, file for status and then their case is reviewed. But this is why the Coast Guard intercepts Cubans *before* they hit land so that none of that applies.
In some cases, a "Humanitarian Parole" is granted to someone who arrived without inspection (the technical term for border crossing). These are exceedingly rare, and are a catchall visa for special circumstances. Often granted in conjuction with a need for medical treatment only available in the US. I worked as a congressional liason in immigration affairs...out of the nine cases i filed for Humanitarian Parole, i got one accepted. And that's a high batting average.
Mostly, entry without inspection does preclude adjustment of status. if you overstay a visa but did intitally enter legally, there are a few more options. but a lot's changed since 2001...and across the board, it's harder to enter. we shut down refugee resettlement from anywhere for a year in the wake of the attacks. i work with a Baptist church in Minnesota...and we had a bunch of Karen refugees desperatly in need of a new home, as their camps were being closed by the Thai government, and we shut the door on these folks for over 12 months while "security" reviews were done. The reason these folks were refugees in the first place was that they were an ethnic minority, and Christian.
the point of the story is that legal immigration is a closed door right now. the number of visas we grant is tiny in proportion to the population that we could be accepting.