Can calling the police to report a crime be considered a law and enforcement record in the US?
Immigration attorney Scott Decker highlighted a case in which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied an applicant’s STEM OPT extension citing that there had been a “law enforcement interaction” with the individual. The agency did not say what the law enforcement conversation was about but Decker said he knew his client had called police once after being attacked on the street.“In short, USCIS is taking the position that being a crime victim and calling the police for help is such a bad thing that it makes you ineligible for any discretionary benefits, such as receiving an extension of status in the US,” Decker wrote in his LinkedIn post.“I suspect/hope that USCIS officers were just being lazy, saw in their system that the customer’s name appeared on the police report, and then never looked further. Hopefully, upon receiving the NOID response, USCIS will come to their senses. If not, we may have to go to federal court for relief.”NOID is a Notice of Intent to Deny, which is a prior letter from USCIS Immigration stating that they plan to deny an application unless further evidence is provided. It is usually given a 30 day response window.Decker said this is a strange situation for USCIS but he can’t say it’s the first time this has happened.“About 10 years ago a client was refused a visitor visa to Paris on fraudulent grounds. The consular officer claimed that my client had lied about never being arrested, and the officer showed our client a police report to support the allegation. We explained that our client was a witness to a crime, not the perpetrator, and that the police report pages only reflect our client’s statement to the police about what he saw,” Decker wrote, giving an example.“So, clearly the customer did not lie to the Consulate and no fraud occurred. What did the Consulate do? After months of back-and-forth, they issued an updated denial notice stating that the customer lacked nonimmigrant intent, a ground that cannot be reviewed by the courts. Not only were they not going to admit that they made a mistake with the initial denial, they made sure no one else could call them out for their mistake,” the Post concluded. Took it out.