We were stopped by Border Patrol while traveling within the US without our passports. Would this cause issues for future travel?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 29 Jul, 2023
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In order to make you criminally inadmissible per 8 U.S. Code § 1182, you have to be charged with some qualified crime. In order to get charged with something serious, you have to be arraigned, go through court etc.
Did this stop become a part of your immigration record? File a FOIA/PA request to the USCIS and to the CBP. Then you will know exactly what has been recorded about this encounter (possibly, nothing) and you will have the opportunity to correct the record.
I recollect an anecdote told by one immigration practitioner, when a very wealthy Mexican got almost denied his green card. The officer creating his record for visa application punched in an incorrect code as the reason for having his fingerprints taken. The officer used the code for “deportation” instead for the one for “visa application”. So file the request and check the record.
First off the border patrol guy is ignorant of the laws or lying as many do.
Not carrying your immigration papers is NOT a deportable offense. Per INA: ACT 264, Sec. 264. or 8 U.S.C. 1304,
Every alien, eighteen years of age and over, shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien
registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him pursuant
to subsection (d). Any alien who fails to comply with the provisions
of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon
conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $100 or be
imprisoned not more than thirty days, or both.
Now will the incident show up on your immigration records? Yes if they made those notes on there. It is nothing to worry about though. You may or may not be questioned about it, however once again It is nothing to worry about. Finally no it is nothing to worry about when getting OPT or an H1B.
Like I stated earlier, that potential misdemeanor is neither a deportable offense nor a crime which makes you inadmissible when you next go out of the USA and apply for a new visa or are coming back in with a valid visa.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘