At the Border- Elementary School

The government has strict rules about how you enter the country, and there are serious consequences if rules are broken.

• Entry with Inspection: Entering the U.S. and following the rules. This means you walked or drove through an official border station, showed your passport, and an officer said, "Welcome, you may enter."

• Entry without Inspection (EWI): Crossing into the U.S. secretly without stopping at a border station or showing papers to an officer. This is against the rules.

• Grounds of inadmissibility: A checklist of reasons why the government can say "No, you cannot come into our country." This includes things like having a dangerous sickness, a criminal background, or lying on paperwork.

• Crimes involving moral turpitude / Criminal background: A criminal background is a list of crimes someone has committed. "Moral turpitude" is a fancy legal term for crimes that are considered extra mean or dishonest, like stealing or hurting someone on purpose.

• 3 or 10-year bars / Permanent bar: If someone stays in the U.S. without permission for a long time and then leaves, the government punishes them by banning them from coming back for 3 years, 10 years, or even forever (permanent).

• 212(d)(3) Waiver / Extreme hardship: A waiver is an official "pardon" or forgiveness. To get it, you usually have to prove that being separated from your family would cause "extreme hardship"—meaning it would ruin your family's life, health, or safety.