A large percentage of our clients come to Global Property Systems from abroad to find a home in the United States. Many come seeking Green Card status through the EB-5 Visa Program, which offers resident visas to foreigners who are starting, investing in or purchasing U.S. businesses. As a result, we encounter immigration problems pretty frequently. Our go-to attorney for immigration issues is Steve Maggi, lead attorney and CEO of SMA Law. He wrote recently about the Trump administration's attempts to limit immigration from a legal standpoint, which we found explained what the current administration is attempting to do and why they can't, legally, do it.

Regarding so called Anchor Babies, Maggi said, "President Trump began railing against the dangers of “anchor babies” and “chain migration” when he ran for President and he continues to use

[caption id="attachment_23504" align="alignright" width="323"]<img class="size-full wp-image-23504" src="http://www.globalpropertysystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SteveMaggi.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="532" data-id="23504" /> Steve Maggi, SMA Immigration Lawyers[/caption]

these terms incorrectly today. To clarify, while a child born in the U.S. is conferred automatic citizenship, this child cannot petition for any relatives until he or she becomes an adult, at the age of 21. This minimum age requirement serves the purpose of discouraging people from coming to the U.S. with a plan to have their children in the U.S. These children cannot, therefore, start a chain of legal migration at any time."

Maggi also pointed out the false claim that when the children turn 21, they can petition to have their parents and relatives legally admitted. Maggi says on this, "It is important to note that Mr. Trump emphasizes that the preponderance of the parents who have their children are in the U.S. illegally, and the fact is that even when those U.S. citizen children turn 21, their parents are still ineligible to receive green cards if they entered the U.S. illegally (known as “entry without inspection”, or “EWI”). Therefore, Mr. Trump’s entire diatribe is not only misinformed but based on pure fiction."

Nor can Trump legally end birthright citizenship. Maggi said,"Trump’s next step is to attack this at the core by trying to end birthright citizenship that arises when a person is born in the U.S., but only in specific situations, such as when the child is born with foreign-born parents without legal status. He intends to do this by issuing an executive order, which will essentially mandate that the 14th Amendment of our sacred Constitution be ignored, and those exceptions be made to deny that birthright to a selected group of people, i.e. the babies born, allowing them to be penalized for the immigration status and the decisions made by their parents. A threat of an executive order which would serve to allow for the arbitrary application of a law that has stood for 150 years shows that the President does not care about facts, nor about the Constitution."

To read Steve's entire article, click HERE.  En Espanol. Visit the SMA web site to see other posts about immigration issues.