What US Fraud and Misuse of Visas, Permits and Other Documents (18 USC 1546): Document Forgery, Possession and Employment-Verification Fraud requires
Section 1546 of Title 18 of the United States Code is the principal federal criminal statute punishing fraud and misuse of immigration documents, prosecuted by the Department of Justice and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security. Section 1546(a) makes it an offence to knowingly forge, counterfeit, alter or falsely make any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card or other document prescribed by statute or regulation for entry into or as evidence of authorized stay or employment in the United States, and equally to utter, use, attempt to use, possess, obtain, accept or receive any such document knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered or falsely made, or to have been procured by fraud or unlawfully obtained; it also reaches certain conduct involving blank document forms and impersonation in applications. The penalties under subsection (a) are tiered by purpose: imprisonment of up to twenty-five years if the offence was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism, up to twenty years if to facilitate a drug-trafficking crime, up to ten years for a first or second offence not so aggravated, and up to fifteen years for other offences, in each case together with a fine. Section 1546(b) punishes the use, for the purpose of satisfying the employment-verification requirement of section 274A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, of an identification document known not to have been lawfully issued for the use of the possessor, of a false identification document, or of a false attestation, by a fine or imprisonment of up to five years, or both. The section is the criminal backbone of the United States immigration-document integrity regime and the principal charge in benefit-fraud and employment-eligibility-fraud cases.
Pillar: Immigration & Border Control · Authority: US Congress / Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title18/html/USCODE-2022-title18-partI-chap75-sec1546.htm
SHA-256 integrity: 629c70a08a9b90f7e847b0a6f7920c478f38628ef826a9e322f8ff56d8b7e6c2
Primary Citations — 8 traced to source
- 18 U.S.C. 1546(a) - knowingly forging, counterfeiting, altering or falsely making any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa, permit, border crossing card, alien registration receipt card or other prescribed document.
- 18 U.S.C. 1546(a) - uttering, using, attempting to use, possessing, obtaining, accepting or receiving such a document knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered or falsely made or procured by fraud.
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