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  1. #1
    Senior Member tinybobidaho's Avatar
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    U.S. Immigration Suffering In Paper

    Wednesday, November 21, 2007
    US-Immigration suffocating in paper

    Fee increase triggers immigration applications deluge; may delay naturalizations

    THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    Wednesday, November 21st 2007, 11:40 AM

    Millions of people who applied for naturalization and other immigration benefits to beat a midyear fee increase are caught in a paperwork pileup that threatens the chances for some to become U.S. citizens in time to vote in next year's presidential election.

    The application backlog is so large that Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, is months behind schedule in returning receipts for checks written to cover fees, an early step in the process.

    "Were we caught off guard by the volume? Let's just say it was anticipated it would increase. It was not anticipated it would increase by that much," said Emilio Gonzalez, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

    The immigration agency would not say how many applications it has received. The American Immigration Lawyers Association, a private legal advocacy group, said it was told by agency officials that 3.5 million applications had come in over a two-month period. The agency had projected a workload of 3.2 million applications for the period Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2009, the budget years 2008 and 2009.

    Gonzalez ordered his staff to give priority to naturalizations, but some applicants will miss voting in presidential primaries, which begin in January, preliminary voting for next year's November elections.

    "I really want to target the elections," Gonzalez said. "I really want to get as many people out there to vote as possible."

    The onslaught of applications has led to some files being sent back with errors or mistakenly rejected, while others seem lost in the system, applicants and attorneys say. Service centers in Nebraska and Texas have the longest delays. The Texas Service Center is working on applications dating from July 26, according to the agency's latest Web posting.

    Boston janitor Betsy Camacho, 44, applied for U.S. citizenship on July 27. On Nov. 9, she got a receipt acknowledging the check she wrote for her fees had been deposited and her information was logged in the agency's computer.

    Normally such receipts are returned to applicants within 10 days, immigration attorneys said.

    "I would like to vote, to participate, to travel with a passport, have freedom of expression," Camacho said. A native of El Salvador, she has lived in the United States for almost 25 years.

    Some groups that have been waging national campaign to help 1 million legal residents become citizens and vote in 2008 fear the pileup will hurt their efforts.

    "Everybody keeps saying immigrants don't want to be part of this country, they don't want to assimilate, and here people are coming in droves to show how much they want to be part of this country, and here are these barriers. I think it's unconscionable," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.

    The application crush was worsened by another flood of about 300,000 applications from skilled workers wanting to become legal residents. The agency initially said it would not accept the visa applications but changed its mind amid public outrage.

    The agency also set up hot lines and is posting progress updates on its Web site. Files are being sent to Vermont and California for processing there. The agency has asked staff members to volunteer to help clear the delayed paperwork, just as the State Department did this year when confronted with a passport application backlog because of a change in law requiring Americans to show passports when flying to and from Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas.

    At least 110 immigration workers have volunteered to help process applications and are being sent to Texas and Nebraska, said agency spokesman Chris Bentley.

    After businesses began to complain that their employees were being grounded, officials also changed regulations to allow immigrants who hold visas for skilled workers and visas for employees of international companies to travel without receipts.

    Still, the situation is hardly under control.

    Ashish Bansal applied for a green card on July 2. His application was returned to him twice, citing problems that others of his attorney's clients had not experienced. The bureaucratic snag forced Bansal to delay plans to travel with his family.

    "My application seems to be in a black hole. I don't know when it's going to be accepted," said Bansal, originally from India and now living on a skilled worker visa in a Washington suburb.

    Immigration application fees were raised in part so the agency could increase its work force. But the additional workers will not be on board in time to deal with the pileup.

    Congress appropriated $460 million in recent years to Citizenship and Immigration Services to cut previous application backlogs to six months. That funding ended last budget year.

    Rendell Jones, the agency's chief financial officer, said the agency could not afford to delay the fee increase until after the presidential elections.

    Without the fee increase, the agency estimated it would receive about $1.25 billion in annual revenue in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. It projected a funding gap of about $1 billion, but that includes about $524.3 million in planned improvements. Those include spending $124.3 million on improved information technology; $14 million to pay for humanitarian programs such as resettling Haitians and Cubans; and $41.2 million to provide professional development and training for employees.

    To cover the costs, the agency increased fees charged applicants, which can include citizens, rather than ask Congress for more money.

    The failure to anticipate the avalanche of applications has left some skeptical of the agency and uncertain whether the pileup is political.

    "I hope there is no politics involved, but it makes me wonder when it's a Republican administration and those pushing anti-immigrant legislation are Republicans and the ones managing this process are Republicans," Medina said. Membership of the Service Employees International Union, like that of other organizations with many immigrant members, is heavily Democratic.


    http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2007/ ... paper.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member miguelina's Avatar
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    First, close off all applications from Mexican nationals. They are way over the 10% rule. Applications that have languished for years should be the first approved. Anyone who entered illegally should be denied.
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    Can we expect a 'we are going to have to grant them 'temporary' citzenship and check them out later.' , coming down the pike?

    With, of course, no future checking done.

    It has been in the back of my mind that our government is trying to placate us with stories of raids and round ups, and increased border security and a fence (some time) while they work very hard to make citizens of the ones here.

    I wish I knew more about how immigration works (or fails to work), but are there just millions and millions and millions of foreigners here in our country - planning on becoming citizens some day? I mean as in here legally?

    I realize I'm dumb, but I would have thought that a work visa is one thing, a school visa another, a visa just to visit for a while another. It would seem a visa with the intend to become a citizen would come under another rule.

    Doesn't the government know how many are here with the intent to become citizens?

    Isn't there some kind of time frame? If they had the intent and are eligible, why haven't they already applied?

    So does anyone who gets a visa for any reason get to apply for citizenship?

    I don't understand.
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    Senior Member WhatMattersMost's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by miguelina
    First, close off all applications from Mexican nationals. They are way over the 10% rule. Applications that have languished for years should be the first approved. Anyone who entered illegally should be denied.
    Agreed. I really think that they should SUSPEND approval of all applications until after the 2008 elections. Our population is way out of control and we need to:

    1. Enforce all existing laws,

    2. Secure the borders (build the wall) so that those here illegally will self deport and NOT have a way to sneak back in.

    3. Empty our jails of ALL illegal aliens and deport them to their respective homelands;

    4. Deport those who refuse to leave of their own accord.

    By the time all of above has been accomplished we should have a newly elected President (hopefully Lou Dobbs) who will:

    5. Rescind the 14th Amendment;

    6. Cut off ALL social services (other than emergency medical care) to illegal aliens;

    7. Begin revamping the laws that contain loop holes in favor of illegal aliens;

    After ASSESSING OUR NEEDS only then should the applications be revisited.
    It's Time to Rescind the 14th Amendment

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    whatmattersmost

    All of those are on my Christmas wish list -
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  6. #6
    Senior Member SOSADFORUS's Avatar
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    I do just wonder how many illegals they are trying to sneak through in this process, why is there so many?? Crimany where does it end, how many can we obsorb.? I feel sick!!
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  7. #7
    Senior Member Populist's Avatar
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    Too bad if they have to wait. WE'VE been waiting for DECADES for our borders to be secured.
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  8. #8
    Senior Member Bowman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by miguelina
    First, close off all applications from Mexican nationals. They are way over the 10% rule.
    Actually it is a 7% rule, and they are over it because amnesties are not counted toward this 7% limit, plus Mexicans get another exemption from the 7% limit as explained here: http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-533586.html#533586

    I agree, enough of this discrimination in favor of Mexicans!
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  9. #9
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    I do just wonder how many illegals they are trying to sneak through in this process, why is there so many?? Crimany where does it end, how many can we obsorb.? I feel sick!!


    I fear they are sneaking many through - and those that don't get it will be given green cards.

    This is why I am wondering about the employer verification process - by now there should be a million or more taken off the payrolls. That doesn't seem to have happened. There should be millions, counting families headed for the border - that hasn't happened. Why?

    Also, the idea of border security and the fence being the prime mantra of law makers right now.

    Both of those things are important - but they know each of those will take time - a year - or in the case of the fence, several years.

    Interior enforcement is what they should be screaming for - and I don't hear it.

    I fear we are being flim-flammed. They are waving the right hand around, complete with smoke and mirrors, while the left hand is rubber stamping citizenship.

    I have a sinking feeling about this.
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  10. #10

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    The no match SS would have helped BUT of course a Judge put a halt to that one also!! Every thing that looks like the laws are going to work gets stoppped, isn't it a load of crap!!

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