■ Asylum-seekers whose stated reason for entering the United States is fear of persecution in another country;
■ A longtime legal resident who has a single conviction dating back to a time when such convictions were not deportable offenses;
■ A legal resident who is appealing a conviction for a deportable offense;
■ Students whose visas have lapsed because they did not have the resources to stay enrolled full time;
■ An individual from a visa-waiver country (primarily rich, Western European countries) who has remained in the United States for more than 90 days but is legally married to a US citizen;
■ People who have entered the United States illegally but now may have a right to legal status based on certain criminal actions, such as human trafficking, committed against them.
Which of these individuals is “illegal’’ is unclear to me. Some of them may be undocumented, while some have had their green card for decades. And while many are immigrants, some do not intend to stay in the United States permanently. The most accurate, and neutral, term would be “noncitizen,’’ although ICE has been known to arrest and deport US citizens as well.
Matthew J. Lamberti
Staff attorney
Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center
York, Pa.
Put an end, not just a tweak, to Secure Communities
THE LATEST attempt to silence voices against programs such as Secure Communities once again misses the mark (“Obama’s immigration policy points in the right direction,’’ Editorial, Aug. 29). This so-called initiative is nothing but a strategy to paper over valid criticisms, and divide and conquer critics. A few immigrants will breathe a sigh of relief as they avoid deportation. But for a great many people caught in the administration’s widening dragnet, which has resulted in an all-time high of more than 1 million deportations, these latest changes will have no effect.
