Greensboro NC Immigration and Naturalization Law Blog

Immigrants in North Carolina often have to overcome many hurdles to enter and remain in the United States. The task can be even more daunting to those immigrants with mental illnesses. To make matters worse, the government has not given courts sufficient guidance regarding how to deal with mentally ill immigrants, especially those who do not have a lawyer to represent them.

The recent case of a man in California demonstrates the difficulty such immigrants face in protecting their rights. The man, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression 14 years ago, faced deportation for the beating of his stepfather in 2008. He appeared in immigration court via a video conferencing system hooked up to the detention center where he was being held. He could not afford a lawyer or find one to represent him pro bono. The judge asked him a series of questions, and it quickly became clear from his long pauses that he didn't understand anything asked of him.

Even though the war in Iraq is formally over, everyone in North Carolina knows that the situation there is not entirely peaceful. There is still some fighting and one group that remains under threat of persecution and violence are the Iraqi Kurds who worked with the United States military during the Iraq war. While some Kurds have family in the United States, they are having trouble getting the necessary visas to immigrate.

In some cases, men and women can apply for visas that are supposed to make immigrating to the United States easier for those people who are being threatened or harassed for their assistance to American military forces. While one Kurdish man traveled from Iraq to the American embassy in Ankara, Turkey, spending thousands of dollars to apply for this special visa, he was denied.

Throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country, there are thousands of Americans married to people living in the country without legal permission. In order for these North Carolina families to be truly "legal" in the eyes of the federal government, the non-American spouse must return to his or her country of citizenship, obtain a visa and receive a green card. Unfortunately for many of the people who are living here without legal permission, leaving their family and the country could mean years of separation waiting to be readmitted into the country.

The Obama administration, however, has recently announced a proposed change that would allow illegal immigrants back into the country much quicker. For many of the people living here without legal permission, trying to regain entry into the United States is difficult because many people are barred from entering the United States for three or 10 years for their time spent in the United States illegally. Although some people do receive waivers to get around the bar, it often takes considerable time and effort.

He was a good student in high school, and his family worked hard ever since they emigrated here from Bangladesh in 1991. After graduating from high school in North Carolina, Monji Dolon wasn't sure what residency box to check on his college applications. He's live in the United States for a majority of his life, but for no fault of his own, he is not a legal resident.

Originally, he was rejected from college because of immigration rules. Luckily, he was able to convince the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to admit him to the school as an international student, with no financial aid or scholarships, although he may have qualified for such aid because of his high school grades.