From the Mailroom

Hi,

With all the debate now days about the reform to the immigration system, nobody talks about the state of legal immigrants, caught for years inside the INS maze with no end or hope in sight.

We came to the US eight years ago on a work visa. We were told, and believed, that if we follow the rules and be patient we will be able to become permanent residents and one day citizens. We followed all the rules, we were patient, but eight years have passed and we are still on a work visa, still waiting for the Green Card with no end in sight.

I agree with whoever says that the immigration system doesn’t work and needs to be fixed. I just don’t understand why not start with the people who chose to obey the law, who followed all your requirements, and still, after eight years are stuck in this awful limbo called the Green Card Process.

Do you want to know what it means to live eight years with a work visa? It means that my husband can’t leave his job and look for a better one because then the Green Card process will end and we will have to leave the country.

It means that in the past eight years I wasn’t able to work since our visa gives only my husband this right. It means that for eight years we pay our taxes and social security but the minute my husband’s employer decides he doesn’t need him anymore we’ll have to leave the country immediately. Eight years of living in this country on the hope that one day our Green Card process will be over and we’ll finally have some rights. Does it seem right to you? Does it seem right that with all the “improvements to the immigration system” we’re waiting now for 23 months just for our Labor Certificate and our lawyer says it’s going to take 18 more months to get it?

And this is just one of the steps for the Green Card, and not the last one.

And yet, nobody talks about the rights of legal immigrants or try to do something about it.

Does it seem fair or right or just or any of the other things the American Legal System is so proud of?

Sincerely,

Shira Albo