“Ex-Haitian mayor living in Mass. who lied about violent past convicted of U.S. visa fraud, feds say” (Boston 25, March 31):
A former Haitian mayor living in Massachusetts who committed “unspeakable acts of violence in Haiti” has been convicted of visa fraud for lying about his violent past to secure a green card to live in the United States, the U.S. Attorney said.
Prosecutors said Viliena “ordered and carried out brutal extrajudicial and political killings against the Haitian people” in Haiti. He later lied to immigration officials in 2008 to obtain a permanent resident card in the United States.
In another civil case two years ago, another jury at the US District Court in Boston found Viliena liable and ordered him to pay $15.5 million in damages to the victims and families of political opponents he allegedly killed and tortured in Haiti, the Globe reported. He is currently appealing that decision.
Foley said on June 3, 2008, Viliena went to the U.S. Embassy Consular Office in Port au Prince, Haiti, where he submitted an Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration, Form DS-230, Part II in order to gain entry to the United States.
The form specifically requires that each applicant state whether or not they are a member of any class of individuals that are excluded from admission into the United States, including those who have “ordered, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings and other acts of violence against the Haitian people.”
Viliena falsely responded that he was not. Viliena thereafter swore to, or affirmed, before a U.S. Consular Officer that the contents of the application were true and signed the application, Foley said.
Seventeen years and two federal court lawsuits later, justice has caught up with this enriching immigrant, a great result for attorneys who get paid to handle lawsuits, be judges, or be clerks for judges. What I find interesting is that U.S. immigration is based on the honor system. Mr. Viliena was asked “Are you guilty of extrajudicial and political killings?” and reasonably answered “No.” (It would be great to find out if in the entire history of the United States any prospective migrant has answered “Yes” to such a question!)
How did we expect this system to work and why is Mr. Viliena being prosecuted for lying? Wouldn’t it make more sense to prosecute for stupidity the Americans who set up the questionnaire?
Separately, let’s look at how Mr. Viliena enriched the United States:
Until his arrest two years ago, Viliena had been living in Malden and spent much of three years driving a school bus in the region, The Boston Globe reported.
He was one of the higher achievers in Haiti, mayor of a town of 23,000+, and here in the U.S. he was working at a job (driver) that will soon be automated at, no doubt, a salary that would have entitled him to taxpayer-subsidized housing, health care, etc. The majority of Americans seem to agree that we benefit from importing people who will be eligible for a lifetime of welfare.
> How is honor-system immigration supposed to work?
Related story from Kanadastan: govt expect 5M “temporary residents” (12% of population?) with expiring visas to ‘voluntarily’ leave Canada in next year.
https://torontosun.com/news/national/feds-expect-4-9-million-with-expiring-visas-to-voluntarily-leave-canada-in-next-year
Anon: I saw a Canadian TV show about the enricher Ahmed Ressam (background: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/trail/inside/cron.html ). Prior to trying to blow up LAX, the Canadian immigration bureaucrats and courts found him ineligible to remain in Canada and he was supposed to be deported to his native Algeria. Of course, he wasn’t deported. A Canadian government official interviewed on a Canadian TV show said that it wasn’t the Canadian government’s fault because the noble Mr. Ressam refused to cooperate with them by producing his passport. Nobody could reasonably expect them to deport a person who didn’t cooperate with them.
This is nothing new, thousands of “refugees” have arrived to the US in the past who had questionable CVs. Some were more successful than others; some even worked for NASA.
This is misleading. Werner von Braun was no refuge. He was initially interned and worked for US military, he had no say in it. Apparently his conditions were good enough that he did not want to repatriate back to Germany, even though his pay was nominal. His living was arranged though.
Perplexed, you are absolutely right—he was not a refugee. He applied for and obtained American citizenship. I would love to see his application documents
AFAIK non-Americans must fill in this when coming to the US: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/download/app Check out the questions.
The US certainly isn’t going to find out about “bad stuff” by not asking the questions.
I suppose the idea is that some people with these issues might not even try to enter the US. If it manages to discourage even a small percentage, it might be worth asking.
Maybe, some of them will think they’ll be caught by background checks.
One would presume/hope that background checks (as far as that’s possible) are done regardless of how these questions are answered.
Maybe this was part of a modern day “Operation Paperclip” and he brought valuable rocketry expertise with him from Haiti
As many readers of this blog know, my family and I legally immigrated from Aleppo, Syria to the US in 1981. The process was demanding. We underwent background checks (yes, they sent an agent to investigate my father’s workplace), medical exams (yes, we were all required to get physicals from a doctor of their choosing), and in-person interviews (yes, we had to travel from Aleppo to the U.S. Consulate in Damascus).
We had to submit every possible form of documentation to prove who we are: birth certificates, church affiliation, proof of residency, employment history, and military records. And if that wasn’t enough, each of us was interviewed individually. I was just 15 at the time, and they even cross-checked our answers. This wasn’t unique to my family, everyone I know who legally immigrated from Syria went through a similar process. That was the standard.
Today, if you follow the legal immigration path, the wait for a visa can easily exceed 20 years (I kid you not). But there appear to be two faster alternatives:
a) Walk across the southern (or even northern) border and make up an asylum story, or
b) Wrap yourself in a Rainbow Flag.
No wait, no paperwork, no background check, no hassle.
Honestly, it looks like Trump is fixing those problems. He’s certainly deterring quite a few people at the border.
BB: True, but as long as the combination of welfare state and asylum system exist, the flood across the border can simply resume as soon as the next Democrat is elected.
>. How did we expect this system to work and why is Mr. Viliena being prosecuted for lying? Wouldn’t it make more sense to prosecute for stupidity the Americans who set up the questionnaire?
I think these are naive questions. They are not stupid. I have a few plausible explanations:
1. The whole process is designed to give the system/government more power, and to keep it sufficiently corrupt. Imagine a criminal type person immigrating to the States successfully after filing the questionnaire. The system now has power over him, i.e. if he is “found” to be a criminal type, he can bribe the system and help keep it sufficiently corrupt.
2. When the questions were designed, there were not enough means to check whether a person fell into one of these categories. So, they were capitalizing on the guilt.
3. The questions have been designed to only catch really honest people who truly believe in Nature’s justice and think that they should be punished. This also keeps the system sufficiently corrupt.
4. They questions have been designed to keep the stupid people who will confess a crime after committing it without being tortured out of America. This also keeps the system sufficiently corrupt by making sure that stupid criminals don’t enter it.
5. The questions were designed by well-meaning Americans who thought that most people are really honest like they were. They might have believed that the States should take immigrants in if the crimes are paradonable or explainable.
You forgot the obvious – the questions could be designed to revoke citizenship of those who do not tote the line. Few known lies on the application and new citizen is under complete control. I think that either Mr. Vienna proved to be very insignificant or the system did not anticipate someone like Donald Trump to be elected.
To be fair, I have filled these a few times and I didn’t find them malicious. I mean, if one is apolitical, the answers alone cannot get him in trouble. Perhaps for political immigrants, who actually didn’t do anything illegal in their home countries, maybe the questions can be used to cause trouble, and what you’re saying might apply.