THERE WAS some hope yesterday that the tough line being taken by US officials on immigration rules could be relaxed for British citizens following high-level pressure from within the UK Government.

Dundee East MP Iain Luke is among a group of parliamentarians who have taken up the case of their constituents who have been heavily punished for committing minor breaches of the US immigration code.

He said discussions with the US authorities are continuing and that he is encouraged by signals that suggest Britons—being citizens of one of the USA’s “preferred countries”—could be subject to greater discretion at points of entry.

“After pressure and discussion with American authorities on this issue, we are making progress with these problems,” said Mr Luke.

“We have made representations to Robert Bonner (of the US department of homeland security) to improve conditions for immigration violators, namely those who are guilty of only very minor US visa infarctions.

“Those include the implementation of measures that allow greater discretion to be given to those who do not pose a criminal or terrorist threat to the United States.”

Dundee woman Maureen Mordente (63) was detained by immigration authorities in the US after mistakenly overstaying her visa by a few days.

She was banned from entering the country for 10 years, robbing her of the opportunity of visiting her daughter.

Mr Luke labelled her treatment a disgrace and he is hoping that the ongoing discussions will also help clarify the position of individuals who possess minor criminal convictions, such as traffic offences, under the visa waiver programme.

He said, “The problem is, they don’t actually clarify what these are.

“If you have a traffic offence, it is not clear if the Americans are chasing up people when going in.

“There are 3.8 million British people go into the United States every year on the visa waiver programme and 30 complaints have been received since June last year about those who have received aggressive treatment.”

But Mr Luke said he believes the US authorities are already beginning to cool off in certain circumstances.

“I think the Government is taking the rough edge of the immigration rules for people with minor offences,” he said.

“There is progress being made and people might find that immigration is not so bad as it may have been before.

“But if people continue to encounter problems they should still come to see me.”