Immigration law determines whether a person is an alien, the rights, duties, and obligations associated with being an alien in the United States, and how aliens gain residence or citizenship within the United States. It also provides the means by which certain aliens can become legally naturalized citizens with full rights of citizenship. Immigration law serves as a gatekeeper for the border of the nation, determining who may enter, how long they may stay, and when they must leave. Immigration lawyers represent persons seeking temporary and permanent residency (green cards) status in the U.S., those interested in obtaining U.S. citizenship through a process called naturalization, and clients facing deportation and removal. Immigration attorneys may also represent businesses seeking to secure temporary visa status for foreign employees.
Bel Alton is an unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland, United States. It is marked by old-style motels, a popular "bikers'" tavern, and other small businesses along U.S. Highway 301 catering to local residents and interstate travelers. Bel Alton is much smaller than its name in dark bold print on some road maps would suggest. A series of interpretive signs on a side road mark various spots where, in April 1865, John Wilkes Booth stopped to hide during his flight south after shooting President Abraham Lincoln. St. Ignatius Church and cemetery, the oldest continuous Roman Catholic parish in the United States (although this claim is contested by another church in New Mexico), is two miles west of Bel Alton on a beautiful, scenic bluff overlooking a wide inlet of the Potomac River. The county fairgrounds are also nearby. The former Bel Alton African American high school building is now used for community activities. Before 1891 Bel Alton was known as Cox's Station after a local resident. The area is poised for growth as construction has started on a housing development, "Stagecoach Crossing", two miles north.