SAN FRANCISCO — The police chief in Oakland, California, on Thursday encouraged immigrants who were victims of a crime to reapply for a temporary visa certification, saying city officials may have wrongly denied as many as 25 of the applications after misinterpreting a state law. The Alameda County Public Defender’s Office first raised the issue last week regarding two cases involving such visas, Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said. Oakland denied the certifications because officials believed applicants could be disqualified if they had criminal convictions or were suspects in a crime, Deputy Police Chief Oliver Cunningham said. The department said an internal audit found at least 25 of the 144 rejected applications for U-Visas in 2017 may have been improperly denied. Cunningham said the two applications pointed out by the public defender’s office have since been approved.

Source: National Post January 26, 2018 00:16 UTC