[clamprecht]

The best part of the story is how he hacked the US immigration system to be able to stay in the US after serving his time:

> Factoring in time served and a reduction for good behavior, Naskovets got out in September 2012. He faced a deportation order that would have sent him back to Belarus. Representing himself in immigration court, he argued that he risked torture if sent home, based on his run-ins with the KGB. As a signatory to the U.N. Convention Against Torture, the U.S. cannot send someone back to a country knowing he’s likely to be tortured. An immigration judge sided with Naskovets. The government appealed. Here’s where Naskovets’s optimism proved justified. While he was buffing floors in a county prison in Pennsylvania, his case had caught the attention of Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor who runs an immigration clinic at Cornell. With the help of Yale-Loehr and his students, Naskovets fought Immigration and Customs Enforcement in court for two years—and in October 2014 the agency decided to let him stay.

[will_brown]

That is how immigration law is supposed to work so it is not a hack. [1][2]

I represented many, many individuals who were in removal proceedings (deportation) or where otherwise immediately detained while entering the US without authorization/documentation. In many instances there was a real threat to the lives of my Clients if returned to their home countries (Haiti and Columbia) that they would be killed/tortured by the political opposition and/or FARC. But they didn't hack the legal system, they availed themselves to it.

[1] http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/obt... [2]http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum

[trhway]

who says what crime doesn't pay? He stuffed away about $0.5M and got an immigration to US in less than it takes most professionals. All the downside is 33 months in US prison. And no, Belarus wouldn't torture him, he isn't a dissident, though some in the KGB/police there would probably try to press him to pay the "tax" from his profits - such possibility isn't a valid cause of asylum in the most Western countries.

On the other side - that Boston gangster, "Whitey", was allowed even to kill people as long as he was informing for FBI, so immigration is just a peanuts compare to it.

[abcd_f]

Yale-Loehr must be so proud.

Deferring to the torture risk in Belarus is such as an obvious bullshit. The only way they can torture there is by forcing you to eat their organic condensed sweetened milk.

[halviti]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Belarus#Opposi...

Belarus is subject to US sanctions for “undermining democratic process and constituting an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.[25] It is also subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union for human-rights violations.[26] Belarus has been determined to be a habitual violator of international human-rights laws and accepted norms of international behavior by the UN, the US, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Council of Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. As stated by the UN Special Rapporteur on Belarus, “it is impossible to believe that all these people are wrong or biased.”

[gdy]

How on Earth is Belarus "constituting an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States"?

[kuschku]

It’s a communist nation, the US just declared all soviet nations to be a threat during the cold war.

[drzaiusapelord]

I hate that you're being downvoted. There's a real gamification of immigration and welfare benefits in the US by shady lawyers that serve the corrupt and steal resources from those who actually need them. These stories are endless.

The big problem with building a pro-immigration welfare state is that there's often no check on fraud. Bureaucrats like bigger budgets, expanding, etc and would rather just rubber stamp everything 'yes' than tackle things like fraud. Judges don't want to be labeled racist or anti-immigration, especially if they are voted in like they are in my state.

Now we're in this ugly position where we've imported all this unskilled labor and are simultaneously building automated solutions that'll make them redundant. Where will the taxi drivers and janitors go when robots replace them? Why are we importing in so much labor when U6 unemployment rates are still above 10%? What evidence do we have that this man is actually a torture risk? In Russia's sphere of influence pretty much everyone is a torture risk. That's what? 150m people?

[gambiting]

I'm pretty sure 150m of Russian people are not hackers investigated by the KGB.

[gambiting]

What? Belarus is the North Korea of Europe. Have many relatives who tried doing business there, all of them ran away after police and different agencies tried extorting money for protection. No different, or probably worse than Russia in my opinion.

[jpatokal]

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia...

[gdy]

There is even no word "torture" in the document.