We don't need lawyer Steven Riznyk to tell us that the immigration laws in the United States are complex and convoluted, but in stating the obvious, he's also offering a road map for those those in need with 50 bucks and five free hours. Riznyk, who splits time between his Dallas office on Greenville Avenue and one in Italy (the country, not the city in Texas), is offering potential border-breachers a four-disc DVD set to ensure they don't assume that once they're in, they're in.
"They will spend years following a rumor about what it takes to obtain a certain status in the U.S. only to find out at the time they are ready to apply that they were on the wrong track all along," Riznyk said today in a press release. He has yet to return a phone call to his office earlier today.
Along with illegal immigration, Riznyk's DVD set titled "Immigration House Call" covers two of the other most popular aspects of the system: visiting the U.S. and marrying a U.S. citizen. Folks visiting the U.S. who state their affection for the country and indicate that they would consider living here are denied entry into the U.S., according to Riznyk, and can be banned from visiting in the future. He claims that one of his friends was interrogated for four hours and barred from visiting the U.S. because of a card in her luggage that simply read "good luck in America."
Riznyk also says too many immigrants resort to marrying U.S. citizens to gain citizenship rather than obtaining a green card and work authorization. Others attempt to have children on U.S. soil to fast track their citizenship.
"Many people believe that having a U.S. citizen child will remedy the situation, and many innocent children are born for no other reason than the fact that they are an immigration vehicle for their parents, and this is wrong, but very much a byproduct of a lack of understanding about the laws," he said. "This really troubles me."
If he could afford to, Riznyk claims he'd give away the DVDs so people could "understand our complex system," but he didn't work on these for a year and a half just to hand them out as freebies. However, apparently a majority of the profits are headed to an unnamed charity. We'd like to know what percentage and which charity, but again, Riznyk hasn't gotten back to us yet.
"I feel that if we were able to educate people on the fundamental issues of immigration law they wouldn't waste their time, put their lives at risk, and ruin their families in order to take a chance on the system here," he said.
