Ameliorating Hardships under the Immigration Laws

Abstract

Because the immigration laws of the United States traditionally have been inflexible, many situations of hardship have arisen. Until recently, the laws made little provision for the alleviation of such hardships. However, many remedial measures are now permitted. Persons seeking entry may be granted parole or waivers of certain grounds of excludability. Persons in the United States may be granted permanent residence through processes known as suspension of deportation, adjustment of status, registry, and waiver, and their deportation may be withheld on a claim that they would be subject to persecution. All of these dispensations are allowable in the discretion of the Attorney General and his subordinates. These remedies are numerous and to some extent overlap, but they do allow wide room for amelioration.