INS red tape snags couple

Greg Tuttle

Saturday, Aug. 26, 2000 | 4:12 a.m.

After three decades as a legal alien, Bruce Vaughan became a United States citizen on July 7. As the Canadian-born Las Vegan recited the Oath of Citizenship at Cashman Field, his parents looked on with pride and relief.

The relief was because Vaughan's new citizenship status would allow the Las Vegas family to welcome his new bride from Japan into the fold of American life.

Or so they thought.

Since then, Vaughan and his wife, Ruriko, have learned a hard lesson about U.S. immigration law: Stick to the rules or suffer the consequences.

The Vaughans now find themselves trapped in a Vancouver, B.C., hotel room, running out of money and patience. They are also dealing with the stress of a complicated pregnancy.

The office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has tried unsuccessfully to pressure the Immigration and Naturalization Service on behalf of the couple.

"In a sense, the Vaughans' case is representative of the plight of thousands of immigrants who are trying to come into the country legally and often these folks face a bureaucratic nightmare," said Mark Schuermann, a Reid spokesman.

Schuermann said the senator's office receives hundreds of requests for help each month from people dealing with INS red tape. Vaughan's case received special attention because of their difficult circumstances, he said.

Vaughan works for Global Communications, a Las Vegas company involved in video communication and wireless technology. He met Ruriko, a private tutor, during her first visit to the United States in September 1998.

Vaughan flew to Japan early last year to ask her parents for her hand in marriage. They agreed, a wedding date of Oct. 9, 1999, was set, and Vaughan returned to Las Vegas to begin making arrangements.

Vaughan applied for U.S. citizenship, then asked immigration officials what he needed to do in order to have his bride remain with him after the wedding.

"They said, 'You can't marry her until you become a U.S. citizen,' " Vaughan said. "I didn't know how long that would be, so I walked out of there very, very depressed."

As he was leaving the INS office on Pecos Road, Vaughan said he noticed a sign for an immigration attorney across the street. He decided to get a second opinion and met with a paralegal who Vaughan says he mistakenly believed was an attorney.

"His advice was to get her into the country, get married and see him after the wedding," Vaughan said.

Vaughan chose to accept this free oral advice over the INS instructions.

"They were confident there would be no problem," said Bruce Vaughan's father, Charles. "All of this has come about because of the legal advice they got, it was bad."

The first hint of trouble came after the wedding.

Vaughan said when he returned to the law office the paralegal told him that because Ruriko's three-month visitor's visa was about to expire, the couple needed to leave the country and apply for a new visa at an American consulate. He suggested Canada, partly because Bruce Vaughan was still a Canadian citizen at that time.

But the newlyweds did not know that U.S. immigration laws do not allow someone traveling on a visitor's visa to leave the country and return on the same visa. American officials in Canada denied Ruriko's request for a new visa, and because the couple were now married she could not enter the country without first being granted immigrant status.

The couple tried to return to the U.S. anyway -- even taking off their wedding rings in an attempt to not appear as a married couple -- but Ruriko was questioned at the Blaine border crossing in Washington. When INS agents found the couple's wedding certificate in Ruriko's luggage, she was denied entry because she was now an immigrant to the U.S. based on her marital status and she didn't have the proper documents.

"That was the worst night of my life," Vaughan said.

Shortly after, Ruriko returned to Japan, and Vaughan came home to Las Vegas. Unwilling to be separated, Vaughan returned to Japan and on Jan. 10 the couple tried again to enter the country, this time at McCarran International Airport.

But Ruriko was again stopped by INS agents and denied entry. She was forced to board the next plane to Japan.

"I'm not cheating anything," Ruriko said. "But they tried to convince me I was smuggling myself in. I told them I don't have bad intentions, that I wanted to go to immigration to explain everything."

In despair, the couple agreed to meet again in Vancouver where they could at least be together as they wait for INS to adjust her status from a visitor to an immigrant. They've been told that process could take six months or longer.

Ruriko is now 12 weeks pregnant and her doctor has advised her not to travel back to Japan by airline because of her condition, she said.

Vaughan said his savings are now dwindling, and the couple has no medical insurance in Canada. He is also concerned his job in Las Vegas won't be available if he does not return soon.

After hearing of the couple's problems, Reid sent a letter to INS officials on Aug. 9 urging them to expedite Ruriko's application for legal entry into the U.S. So far the INS has not responded, Schuermann said.

Karen Dorman, the INS regional director in Las Vegas, said immigration officials are not responsible for the couple's plight. She said it is unlikely their case will receive special treatment.

In some cases humanitarian waivers are issued that allow immigrants to enter the country while their status is adjusted. But Ruriko's pregnancy alone does not appear enough to warrant a waiver, Dorman said, because there is medical care in Canada.

"Everybody feels that their (immigrant) petition is the most important," she said. "What I feel bad about is the advice they received was not good advice. That's hard."