Guatemalan father trying to attend the funeral of his murdered teenage daughter in North Carolina is REFUSED a visa [edited title]

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

I don't know if y'all had heard about this case or  not but it has been big news here in the Carolinas since she went missing on November 5th. The car she went missing in was later found burned a week later without her in it. They had next to no leads that the FBI has let on to the public at all even before her body was found earlier this month. 

 

It does not surprise me that they did n't grant the humanitarian visa since the girl's mother is Illegal from Guatemala and he is in Guatemala right now. But it is sad all the way around in this case. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6467497/Family-North-Carolina-teen-dead-gets-new-home.html

Edited December 7, 2018 by TBoneTX
edit article title

[Boiler 45,466]

So had the father been to the US? Said the girl was born in the US.

[bcking 3,157]

I read the title as a father who was a teen and was murdered now is getting a visa...

 

It's missing some punctuation. Also just realized it should read NOT, not now.

Edited December 7, 2018 by bcking

[X Factor 1,112]

Heart wrenching - what occurred to that little girl

[TBoneTX 45,266]

Thread title has been edited to match (long) article title.

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

7 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Thread title has been edited to match (long) article title.

Sorry

[bcking 3,157]

I've realized my original post focused entirely on the thread typo's, and that came across as insensitive.  My apologies.

 

It is indeed horrible for this family. Wish we could handle these cases better. He may not have many ties to his home country but he has one very important tie to our country. The chance to say goodbye to his daughter.

[Dashinka 24,487]

Interesting words from the lawyer.  I guess everyone got visitor visas under President Obama.  Makes me wonder why my now wife was denied twice for purely discretionary reasons even though she had much more stronger ties than this guy. 

 

'To tell you the truth, with past administrations, we never had a problem like this,'  Salem, an immigration lawyer based in Texas, told the New York Times.

'With [President Donald Trump's] administration, most everything that is discretionary is getting denied.' 

[Boiler 45,466]

So nobody visits any long? NIV's are discretionary, so no Students etc etc.

[Boiler 45,466]

Mr. Aguilar lived in the United States when his daughter was an infant but moved back to Guatemala around 2005, she said.

 

No mention of how he was living in the US.

[bcking 3,157]

22 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

Interesting words from the lawyer.  I guess everyone got visitor visas under President Obama.  Makes me wonder why my now wife was denied twice for purely discretionary reasons even though she had much more stronger ties than this guy. 

 

'To tell you the truth, with past administrations, we never had a problem like this,'  Salem, an immigration lawyer based in Texas, told the New York Times.

'With [President Donald Trump's] administration, most everything that is discretionary is getting denied.' 

I'm sure that information is accessible to someone, though probably not published data. They must keep track of their denial rates and one could look at how they have risen (or not). Probably even look at the reasons for the denial and whether certain ones have gone up. Would be interesting, but I don't know if it's public information.

[Boiler 45,466]

Plenty of experience here on VJ, why have we not seen such changes?

[bcking 3,157]

25 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Plenty of experience here on VJ, why have we not seen such changes?

Is someone on VJ quantifying denials in an objective way? Or are you just asking why we haven't seen a qualitative change? 

 

I'm asking for data. I hate qualitative assessments (which include what the lawyer said). People's viewpoint is easily influenced by their own experience, and their own biases. Not to mention getting data from a forum is going to be highly influenced by reporting bias to the degree that even if we had an objective assessment from these forums, I wouldn't really lend it much weight.

Edited December 7, 2018 by bcking

[jg121783 3,915]

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

Mr. Aguilar lived in the United States when his daughter was an infant but moved back to Guatemala around 2005, she said.

 

No mention of how he was living in the US.

As sad as this story is if this guy was previously here illegally there is a legitimate concern that he could overstay the visa.

[Dashinka 24,487]

2 hours ago, bcking said:

I'm sure that information is accessible to someone, though probably not published data. They must keep track of their denial rates and one could look at how they have risen (or not). Probably even look at the reasons for the denial and whether certain ones have gone up. Would be interesting, but I don't know if it's public information.

Looking at the stats comparing 2017, and 2016 specific to Guatemala, it looks to run around 47-48% refusal for B1/B2s with 2016 being slightly higher.  There appears to be a big jump for Guatemala in 2015.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/refusalratelanguage.pdf

 

Go to the links in section 7.