18 U.S.C. § 1546 : US Code - Section 1546: Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents

Search 18 U.S.C. § 1546 : US Code - Section 1546: Fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents

(a) Whoever knowingly forges, counterfeits, alters, or falsely
makes 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, or utters,
uses, attempts to use, possesses, obtains, accepts, or receives any
such 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, knowing it to be forged, counterfeited, altered, or
falsely made, or to have been procured by means of any false claim
or statement, or to have been otherwise procured by fraud or
unlawfully obtained; or
Whoever, except under direction of the Attorney General or the
Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or
other proper officer, knowingly possesses any blank permit, or
engraves, sells, brings into the United States, or has in his
control or possession any plate in the likeness of a plate designed
for the printing of permits, or makes any print, photograph, or
impression in the likeness of any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa,
permit or other document required for entry into the United States,
or has in his possession a distinctive paper which has been adopted
by the Attorney General or the Commissioner of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service for the printing of such visas, permits, or
documents; or
Whoever, when applying for an immigrant or nonimmigrant visa,
permit, or other document required for entry into the United
States, or for admission to the United States personates another,
or falsely appears in the name of a deceased individual, or evades
or attempts to evade the immigration laws by appearing under an
assumed or fictitious name without disclosing his true identity, or
sells or otherwise disposes of, or offers to sell or otherwise
dispose of, or utters, such visa, permit, or other document, to any
person not authorized by law to receive such document; or
Whoever knowingly makes under oath, or as permitted under penalty
of perjury under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code,
knowingly subscribes as true, any false statement with respect to a
material fact in any application, affidavit, or other document
required by the immigration laws or regulations prescribed
thereunder, or knowingly presents any such application, affidavit,
or other document which contains any such false statement or which
fails to contain any reasonable basis in law or fact -
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 25
years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of
international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this
title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate a
drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929(a) of this
title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense,
if the offense was not committed to facilitate such an act of
international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years
(in the case of any other offense), or both.
(b) Whoever uses -
(1) an identification document, knowing (or having reason to
know) that the document was not issued lawfully for the use of
the possessor,
(2) an identification document knowing (or having reason to
know) that the document is false, or
(3) a false attestation,
for the purpose of satisfying a requirement of section 274A(b) of
the Immigration and Nationality Act, shall be fined under this
title, imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(c) This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized
investigative, protective, or intelligence activity of a law
enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or a subdivision
of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States, or
any activity authorized under title V of the Organized Crime
Control Act of 1970 (18 U.S.C. note prec. 3481).(!1) For purposes
of this section, the term "State" means a State of the United
States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory,
or possession of the United States.