A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW
Deacon San Nguyen
A DOLLAR FOR A SOUP
In America, buying sex illegally will be considered as a misdemeanor and will be charged as follow:
- As stated in Oklahoma Law, article 21, number 1031, buying or selling sex will be charged as a misdemeanor and will be detained with the minimum of 30 days to the maximum of 1 year, or will be paying a fine of $2,500.00 at maximum, if it is the first offense. If it is the second offense, the fine would be $7,500.00. If a man commits the third offense, he will be in jail and pay a sum of money, too. The Court may request that man to serve the community from 40 to 80 hours, no salary would be given. Besides, his name will be released to Local Health Department.
- If the suspect knows that he has HIV but still buys sex to spread the decease to someone else, he will be accused as a criminal and will be in jail for the maximum of 5 years.
- If the sex is performed on a teenager, the suspect would be detained in jail for the maximum of 10 years and a fine of $5,000.00 for the first offense. The second time will be fined as $10.000.00, and the next one, $15.000.00 for each time.
- If the crime happens within 1000 feet away from school, the suspect will be charged as a criminal and may be in jail for the maximum of 5 years and a fine of $2,500.00 for the first offense, $5,000.00 for the second offense, and $7,500.00 for the third offense. The Court may request that man to serve the community from 40 to 80 hours, no salary would be given. Besides, his name will be released to Local Health Department.
Years ago, Mr. Home told me a story about buying sex in Vietnam.
After 20 years living in the States, Mr. Home came back Vietnam to visit his friends and relatives. Mr. Home rented a room at a 3-star hotel for a temporary staying during the time in Vietnam, because he did not want to bother any of his relatives or friends. One evening, when he was just coming back to his hotel room from a tour in the city, Mr. Home heard a knock at the door. Mr. Home asked “Who is it?” A nice young voice of a girl said that she was the night shift hotel manager, who needed to discuss with him some important issues. Mr. Home opened the door and let her in. The girl was about 20 year old and very pretty. She told him that she wanted to sleep with him for a night. Seeing the pretty girl in a ready position for a love making, Mr. Home agreed immediately and gave her money as she requested.
Right at the time both just put off their clothes, two policemen opened the door and walked in. They charged Mr. Home on the account of buying sex illegally. The girl was charged on the account of selling sex illegally. Both were arrested and brought to a police station. After knowing that this was the first offense, the police only gave Mr. Home a warning then released him after requesting him to pay a sum of money. The police also told him that he was lucky because the prostitute was not a teenager, if so, Mr. Home would be in jail for long. While Mr. Home told his friend about the story and said that he was happy because he was not put in jail, his friends laughed at him and said that was a game to trap all men who liked to buy sex from a Vietnamese prostitute. The guys who set up such trap just wanted to steal dollars from an unwise visitor.
Right after coming back U.S.A., Mr. Home sent form N-400 to INS applying for citizenship. In the application, Mr. Home answered very clearly that in the past 5 years, he was arrested because of his buying sex illegally in Vietnam. In addition, he stated, he was released after he paid some money to police, no any day in jail at all. Later, in an interview with an INS examiner, he got big problem when he could not show any paperwork related to that incident. He could only show a receipt for a fine. The INS examiner did not allow him to take the Oath of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony. The examiner informed Mr. Home that he had rights to fill out the form N-336 to appeal this decision at U.S. Immigration Court because he already passed the oral test about English and U.S. History. The cost for an appeal like that was $500.00.
In spite of that, as our experience, I advised him that his appeal would have no use because he was unable to prove that he was acquitted by Vietnam Government of all charges. Mr. Home needed to have a proof showing that his case was acquitted by the government or, he needed to wait for another 5 years before he could submit a new application for citizenship. In the application for naturalization, INS asked for all incidents happened within 5 years only. Mr. Home followed our advice and forfeited his rights to appeal and waited for his fate to come.
There was another story related with the process of an appeal. Mr. Brune submitted an application for citizenships for his family including 7 persons. He made mistake when he turned in the application 100 calendar days before his family completed their permanent residence requirement instead of 90 calendar days as required by INS. Therefore, his applications were returned to him without the fee of about $2,000.00. Mr. Brune appealed to Immigration Court without seeking any advice from any experienced person. At the Appeal Court, the Judge asked him to see if he had read all instructions before filling applications, Mr. Brune answered “yes”. The Judge then reminded him that in the form, there were directions informing the applicants that they only could turned in applications 90 calendar days before the applicants completed their permanent residence requirement. Additionally, all the fees submitted to INS would not be refunded for any reason. (Please be noted that in the meantime, fees will be refunded if the applications are denied.) The Judge then dismissed the case. Mr. Brune lost the case and $3,000.00 including fees for the applications and the appeal fee.
For a conclusion, the future of all permanent residents belongs to INS. With whoever wants to come back to their old country, especially men, must be very careful with pretty girls. They may trap unwise visitors to rip off their money. If there is any problem with police, remember to ask for all paperwork related to the case so that it is ready to show to INS later on.
Another issue to be remembered: Anyone who wants to appeal with INS must seek advice from Private Immigration Lawyer who specialized of Immigration Law before submitting appeals to court. If doing so, he could save a lot of time and money, unlike Mr. Brune who lost both time and $3,000.00 for nothing.
