Immigration is a loaded and confusing topic. No doubt everyone has their own opinions about illegal immigration and what to do about it, if anything. I firmly believe that something needs to be done. I did not think that I would be in the situation that I am now, but many times over the past 8 months I have contemplated the illegal immigration of my spouse. I never contemplated seriously, but I definitely know a little about the frustration and feelings of cruel separation that the process of legal immigration does to a family.
My husband is from Nepal, a historically peaceful and non-threatening country. Though recently the Maoists have been declared terrorists by the Bush Administration, Drona, my husband, is not one of them. In fact his family has been threatened by them. Drona's brother was kidnapped and Drona's parents are still trying to pay the Maoists off for releasing him several years ago.
I suppose I could have tried to spin the situation into a more immediate threat demanding that Drona must promptly flee the area, but I chose to follow the legitimate path. I am a fan of playing by the rules. I started by filing the I-130 petition only to find out that there have been unprecedented delays in processing times. In the few months before and after I had filed the form with USCIS*, which is now run by DHS**, millions more applicants had filed petitions than normal. USCIS informed me that they had hired an additional 1500 workers to process these forms. After several phone calls to check the status and make sure I didn't have to start the process all over again, I finally received my receipt notice. The receipt normally arrives about a month after filing. I filed in September and did not get my receipt until the end of February.
This was only the first step in the whole process. I was already upset and frustrated. I wasn't even close to actually applying for a visa. Phone communications are limited in Nepal, especially in Drona's village. I am confident to say that e-mail is a crappy way to sustain a relationship.
Meanwhile, I continued to hear stories of friends who have immigrant friends or relatives. Many of whom have failed to maintain their statuses or immigrated illegally or overstayed their visas and went before a judge to get excused… I have yet to hear of a judge who denied their requests.
To quell any suspicions, I am most definitely pro-immigration and I understand much of the desperation surrounding decisions to immigrate illegally. But the process to immigrate legally should not be more cumbersome and delayed than illegal immigration being pardoned into a legal status. That is incentive alone to immigrate illegally.
Hiring more than 1500 people to process the additional 2 million or so petitions would be a start. I definitely do not advocate letting bad people in or becoming lax in the requirements. I do advocate moving the process forward. It only takes a few minutes to process these petitions, and from what I understand, they even let employees work from home! This would not jeopardize our national security in any way. Additionally, how about the PATRIOT Act actually allows for the organizations to work together in this situation as well. Instead of having to check and cross check names on every database all around the country, they could be consolidated.
Thank goddess that Drona doesn't share a name with a suspected terrorist . knock on wood There are several hundred thousand names now in the system. Innocent family members are kept out of the country for years because they have similar names to suspected terrorists. I hope that our government is capable of telling the difference between the terrorists and the non-terrorists.
Clearly I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the immigration issues America is dealing with. This just happens to be one I am unfortunately too familiar with. The sub-culture of illegal immigrants currently in our country is also of great concern to me. Essentially, various forms of slavery are occurring in our country which is arguably must more serious than my impatience with USCIS and the State Department. Sadly, I have had limited time procrastinating at work to really get into this issue.
*United States Citizen and Immigration Services (formerly INS)
**Department of Homeland Security
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