Grounds for Removal: Inadmissibility at Entry and Smuggling Text Size:

Any alien who knowingly induced, assisted or aided any other alien to enter the United States in violation of the law is inadmissible or deportable and is subject to removal on the grounds of alien smuggling. An alien is any person who is not a citizen or national of the United States.

If the smuggler was not lawfully admitted to the United States when the smuggling occurred, he or she is inadmissible. If the smuggler was lawfully admitted, he or she is deportable.

Grounds of Inadmissibility

The law that covers smuggling by aliens is the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) § 212(a)(6)(E), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(E). It provides that any alien who at any time knowingly has encouraged, induced, assisted, abetted, or aided any other alien to enter or to try to enter the United States in violation of law is inadmissible.

Section 212(a)(6)(E) has a broad sweep. Not only does it include the physical bringing of an alien into the United States illegally ("aided" or "assisted"), but also, for example, the offering of a job to an alien under circumstances where it is clear that the alien's entry to accept the employment will not be legal ("encouraged" or "induced").

A suspected smuggler's mistaken belief that the alien was entitled to enter legally is a defense to ineligibility. The alleged alien smuggler must have known that the other alien was not legally entitled to enter the United States and must have taken a secretive act for this ground of inadmissibility to apply.

Exceptions

The law provides exceptions to inadmissibility and deportability in the case of certain smuggled family members, and it provides a discretionary waiver for aliens who smuggled only a spouse, parent, son, or daughter into the United States. For waiver eligibility, the family relationship must have existed at the time of the smuggling, rather than at the time of application for the waiver.

Grounds of Deportability

INA § 237(a)(1)(E), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(E), makes alien smuggling a deportable offense, except if the alleged smuggler is a legal permanent resident and if the smuggling was done solely to aid a spouse, parent, son, or daughter. The family relationship must have existed at the time of the smuggling. Also, there is a limited waiver by the Attorney General, which might be exercised for humanitarian purposes, or if the waiver would serve the public interest.

Since knowledge is part of the offense of alien smuggling, the alien must have known that his or her acts would encourage, induce, assist, abet or aid an alien to enter the United States illegally.

Questions for Your Attorney

• What is alien smuggling?
• Does an alleged alien smuggler have to know that the smuggled alien was not legally entitled to enter the United States?
• Is a legal permanent resident subject to deportation and removal on the grounds that he smuggled his daughter into the United States?

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