Does the United States government treat interracial couples differently in immigration? Hi, I'm Jim Hacking, immigration lawyer practicing law throughout the United States at our offices in St. Louis, San Diego and Washington DC. In this video, we're going to dive deep. We're going to take a look at racism, racial overtones at USCIS, the kinds of things that we have seen over the years. And we wanted to shoot this video to talk about how, in our opinion, USCIS, specifically certain fields offices, treat interracial couples differently.
We have had many, many cases involving interracial couples. We love bringing people in love together. We love bringing same-sex couples together, heterosexual couples together, couples of all races. We enjoy representing each and every one of them. But the fact is undeniable that if a couple is of different races, USCIS treats them differently. I don't know if they have a secret playbook, but they definitely treat the cases differently. They are much more suspicious when someone from one racial category marries someone from another racial category.
You would think in 2021 that we'd be beyond this. You would think that in light of the fact that the United States now recognize the same-sex marriages, that we would be beyond racism and beyond homophobia and be in a place where people are treated on the merits of their own case. Certainly you can get your case approved if you are an interracial couple. But I think one of the things that they look for, it might be quote unquote, an unofficial fraud indicator is when the couple is of different races. As someone who is a white Caucasian, who is married to an Arab woman, I find this very offensive and I also have found it to be very destructive.
We have seen cases at USCIS where what they do is they delay. They delay, they delay, they delay. This also happens at the embassies around the world. And at the embassies, it's really bad because we've seen people being brought into those embassies for their [inaudible 00:01:58] interview and they get berated and yelled at and scared for having the temerity to fall in love with someone of a different race. And they really use that at the embassies in particular, but certainly unspoken at the field offices here in America, to really try to drive a wedge between the couple. You may think that I'm sounding conspiratorial or overly dramatic, but it is undeniable. And I guarantee you that if you follow the comments in this video after I post it, that you're going to hear lots of stories of people having trouble because they were an interracial marriage.
Now, when I was in law school, we studied the case called Loving versus Virginia, which I think is from the forties, maybe from the thirties, and it's regarding old laws in Virginia that prohibited interracial couples from being married. So it's not that long ago, certainly in my father's lifetime, that interracial couples could not even get married. So it's no surprise that in a racist country, like the United States, that this would seep into processing at USCIS. And the interesting thing is, is that I've seen officers of all different races treat interracial couples differently. So it's not just one category of race of the officers that impacts whether or not an interracial couple is treated differently, it's across the board. And we've seen it when a white person marries an Arab, when a black person marries a white person, when an Asian person marries a black person, and all kinds of different ways.
And so, I really hope, and I made this video as a clarion call and hope that we turn the corner on this, that USCIS is treats all people fairly and compassionately and justly, but I'm not holding my breath, and you shouldn't either. And so what that means is that if you have yourself in interracial relationship, you need to prove your case by even more evidence. You need to make a stronger case in order to get the immigration benefit to which you are applying.
If you have questions, give us a call, 314-961-8200. You can email us [email protected]. Be sure to join us in our Facebook group, which is called Immigrant Home. If you liked this video, we ask that you please share it out on social. Also, please leave us a comment down below if you were in an interracial couple and we'll see how you've been affected by this. And then, finally, if you want to join us on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you'll find us live in our Immigrant Home Facebook group and on our YouTube channel answering as many of your law related questions on immigration as possible. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.
