An American lawyer visiting Bermuda yesterday held out hope for Bermudians on the US stop list because of criminal convictions.

Donette Russell-Love, a Bahamian who works in Florida, said that American legislation designed to keep criminals out of the US contained some loopholes for applicants looking for a waiver in connection with a previous conviction.

But she said people were often intimidated by the red tape of bureaucracy and unaware of the complexities of US immigration law and leeway in its regulations.

Ms Russell-Love, who runs Immigration Care Service in the Sunshine State’s Cooper City, said: “Sometimes it’s not a permanent situation. I help those who don’t fall into that permanent situation, and sometimes those who do, and figure out how we can get them back in.

“A lot of individuals who may have had some contact with the law with regards to drugs — and I highlight that because immigration law is very harsh when it comes to drug laws — could still enter the US.”

She added that non-American lawyers were often not familiar with complex US immigration laws.

She said: “I am a US attorney and to get someone to deal with a problem at the US border, you need a US attorney.”

Ms Russell-Love, who is visiting friends in Bermuda, said that convictions for possession of 30 grams of cannabis or less, for example, could get a waiver from US immigration authorities.

She added: “I highlight the drugs because if it’s anything other than simple possession — under 30 grams of cannabis — people can be permanently banned from returning to the US and certainly banned from things like being a US resident or a US citizen.”

Ms Russell-Love said that drug trafficking or delivery, whether in the US or elsewhere, counted as an “aggravated felony” in the US with an automatic ban on entry.

But she added: “That being said, there is a provision of the immigration law that permits both the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State visa office to give a waiver of ineligibility.

“They have the discretion to decide if they are going to give that to you. The waiver is their option.

“Bermuda is a pre-clearance country and I do a lot of work in the Bahamas, which is also a pre-clearance country and in Turks and Caicos, which comes under the US Embassy in the Bahamas.

“All hope is not lost — and I see this in the Bahamas as well — there is a lot of interaction between America and these pre-clearance countries.”

Ms Russell-Love said: “A big part of what my office does is give people a list of things, talks to them and finds out how long ago the crime happened, their circumstances and what they’ve done since the conviction.

“There are a number of factors the visa office will review to decide whether they will issue a visa. We review that to try and make it a little bit easier for people.

“The visa office wants to know things about people, to know they are rehabilitated — that is something they want to know.”

And Ms Russell-Love added that even a conviction for possession of cannabis under the 30g threshold did not prevent Bermudians from acquiring permanent residency in the US.

She said: “The standards today are a lot higher, but it’s still possible.”

But she added: “In the era of President Trump they are a lot more harsh at the pre-clearance borders.

Ms Russell-Love said, however: “Anything other than rape, murder or child molestation, people may qualify for eligibility.”

And she added: “People can have a conviction that does not make them ineligible for a visa, but an immigration officer has the discretion to say ‘I’m not going to give you a visa because you’ve been arrested’.

“A bar fight in the US doesn’t make you ineligible, but that can be used as a reason for refusal.”

Ms Russell-Love said some people on the US stop list could not remember why they had been added.

She added: “We help people retrieve these records, review them, discuss them, then provide them with a copy and make a sound decision on what to do going forward. Sometimes what people think is the issue isn’t. We can identify what it is and move forward.

“My goal is to empower people — people don’t have to stay in the dark.”

For more information, visit www.immigrationcareservice.com or e-mail Ms Russell-Love’s firm at immigrationcareservice@gmail.com.