On the first day of Christmas My true love gave to me: An illegal in a hand cuff. On the second day of Christmas My true love gave to me: Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff. On the third day of Christmas My true love gave to me: Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the forth day of Christmas My true love gave to me: Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the fifth day of Christmas My true love gave to me: Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the sixth day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the seventh day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Seven illegals a-swimming Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the eight day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Eight maids a cleaning Seven illegals a-swimming Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the ninth day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Nine breeders dancing Eight maids a cleaning Seven illegals a-swimming Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the tenth day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Ten illegals running Nine breeders dancing Eight maids a cleaning Seven illegals a-swimming Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the eleventh day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Eleven mariachis playing Ten illegals running Nine breeders dancing Eight maids a cleaning Seven illegals a-swimming Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff.. On the Twelfth day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Twelve shooters shooting Eleven mariachis playin Ten illegals running Nine breeders dancing Eight maids a cleaning Seven illegals a-swimming Six illegals a breeding Five golden buds Four welfare checks Three family units, Two landscapers and an illegal in a hand cuff..
If she had been here for 21 years she should have been able to get a green card or take a citizenship test so that her mind would be at ease. But admittedly, I am not really familiar with the process.
She didn't qualify for any category to apply. Her easiest path would have been to marry a U.S. citizen.
How can she be labeled a "law abiding citizen" if she was breaking the law everyday she was here ILLEGALLY. She no path to US citizenship or legal resident status because she is already violating immigration law. She now has a 10 year wait because of it before she can apply and the chances then are slim. She would have to marry a citizen to have any real shot at getting back in. Even then she is going to have to have a huge amount of evidence in support of the marriage to prove its legit and not just a way around the immigration laws.
Actually that is not the reason. Had she filed a petition before 2001 she could have adjusted status in the U.S. in spite of being illegally present, by paying a $1000 fine. It's based on a law referred to as 245i. She had no path because she didn't qualify for any category (employer sponsored, family sponsored, or the one she attempted: asylum). And even had she married a U.S. citizen after 2001, she would have qualified for a green card after returning to Mexico for a few months. It's like driving without a license. It doesn't disqualify you from ever getting a driver's license. You pay a damned fine and then you get a license if you qualify.
Another Christmas story. Christmas of 1993. Denver, Colorado. I had married a Japanese woman in Japan, in February 1991 (Valentines Day, actually, awwwwwwww). We had dutifully registered our marriage at the US embassy there. When I was transferred back to the US later that year, we had applied for her Green Card and received permission for her to come join me. In 1992, our daughter was born. The very same one who, several years later, tormented a group of Horns sitting at a bar in Singapore by running over and shouting 'Touchdown, Oklahoma!' every five minutes. Christmas of 1993 (note timeline, INS/ICE have by this point taken almost three years to process papers that any mental deficit could have worked through in a long afternoon), we are told to appear at an admin court in Denver, for a hearing at 8 A.M., on a Saturday. The court was a nice-ish meeting room at the back of a non-descript building in an industrial park not far from old Stapleton Airport. The hearing began. At first there was no problem, we ran through documents, making sure that all necessary papers were properly in evidence. Then we broke for a recess. At the coffee machine, I chatted with the judge who was doing this as an adjunct to his normal duties in the federal court in Denver. It turned out that he was an OU Law grad and had roomed in law school with a friend of my dad's. Nice guy. We returned to the court. Our INS guy started his summation and it becomes increasingly evident that he is arguing against granting the Green Card. The grounds were murky, but something along the lines of "well, you haven't been married long and 'we see a lot of this, believe me', I just don't believe your marriage is valid'. Having, at this point, been married (and having registered said marriage with US authorities) for over two and a half years, I was a bit nonplussed. To the rescue, my daughter. We had her corralled in the back of the court room wiith a bunch of chairs and blankets. She was bored and started to cry. Silence from the court. Then the judge broke his silence, asking the INS guy whether there was any doubt that the marriage was legal and properly reported and registered. No, was the reply. Was there any doubt that the two of us had lived together as a married couple straight through, that my wife had entered the US legally or that any of the paperwork had been improperly filed. No. What, then, the INS guy was asked, was the problem? Well, the INS just felt that something was amiss. Could they name it? No. Well, the judge asked, what is that back there, pointing to my daughter? Uh, doh, mmmm, their daughter, answered Mr. INS? Yes, their daughter, confirmed the judge. The judge then looked at our heroic enforcer of immigration laws and said, "I am ruling in favor of the family. INS will issue her green card within the next two weeks. If this poses a problem, I will have US Marshals come to the Denver INS office to assist you. Are we done here? Next case." I could have kissed him. The moral of this story: I'm legally trained. All the paperwork was in order. We had a years long history of marriage and a child. We had dotted every i and crossed every t. And, if anything, we had a sympathetic judge. And it was still a nightmare. For us and for you, the poor saps who paid this out of control bureaucracy untold thousands of dollars to beetle brow something that most countries would have stamped at the border and been done with. Can you imagine what this process is like if you truly an immigrant, and not simply a citizen trying to get a foreign spouse into the country? If English is your second language? If you're not familiar with Anglo-American legal procedures? Whichever side of the debate you're on, we can all agree that our current 'system' is broken and badly needs replacing.
I didnt want to delve into it to much but you are partly correct. IF she had filed prior to 2001 she would not have to return IF she had status to file one of the immigration petitions, like a US spouse. Thats not the case here, its why I didn't mention it, I would think that 2001 being 10 years ago that this would now be a rare find for an immigration lawyer. What does apply to her is that she stayed in the US illegally for 1 year after her 18th birthday which automatically invokes the 10 year ban on ANY petition to immigrate. Furthermore, the fact that she entered illegally means that she would not have been able to remain in the US if she had married a US citizen and filed prior to being deported. She would have had to travel back to Mexico to get her green card. Where you are wrong is that the consulate there would have informed her that she is now banned for 10 years from entering the US unless she gets a hardship waiver approved. All of these cases deal with separation so it takes more than the same old sob story about the kids, job, spouse or sick grandma to get approval. Its a catch 22 but its currently the law. Immigration law is a mess, about as tangled as IRS, FDA, EPA, BATF or any other government agency law. It makes no sense but a person in this country illegally cannot adjust their status (get a green card) without leaving the country to their home country, UNLESS they entered the US legally (ie overstayed on a tourist visa etc). They get told by immigration that "this is the process, dont worry you just have to return to Mexico long enough to get processed through the US consulate there, 2-3 months tops then your right back here." What they conveniently leave out is that as soon as they leave they are subject to the 10 year ban. Even if they ask specifically about the 10 year ban the immigration official is able to truthfully say "No, you haven't been banned from the US for 10 years" because they haven't....yet.
Sounds like a mess but often dealing with the government is a slow process at best. I wish our ICE enforcers were as vigilent about true illegals as they were in your case. Unfortunately due to Obama's directive most illegals are not going to be prosecuted/deported.
And, here's where maybe we can find some common ground: I like nice clear solutions as much as the next guy, but I'm willing to make some compromises in this area and perhaps grant some form of 'amnesty' if we can get a workable system in place. I think we all agree that some form of control at the workplace is a vital component and that something like everify is a reasonable tool with which to make it work. I think we also agree that better border control is essential. I also think we agree that hermetic borders are virtually impossible and would be horrendously expensive. We're going to live with leakage...but hopefully in the same way that the SR-71 does: paying a small price for greater overall functionality. And I think that we all agree that these people didn't come here to sit on their butts. They came because WE wanted to hire them. So maybe we should recognize this and figure out a way for legitimate 'guest workers' (be they seasonal farm workers, whatever) to come over and do their deal. Finally I think we all agree that when someone tries to follow the law they are deserving of a prompt answer. Even in these post 9/11 days, I really don't think it should take more than 180 days to screen all but the most difficult cases. We've got a pretty broad base of agreement, wth some modest compromise, we could resolve this problem. It's very frustrating that every issue these days is hostage to rigid dogmatism on the national stage.
This sounds kinda like my case. I married a girl from Singapore and the saga we went through was mind boggling. There are some truly screwed up individuals that work in these place (INS, BATF, FDA, EPA etc) that love to wield their power over you and cause as much misery as possible to anyone that piques their interest. I could go on all freaking day about the fing 81tch that was assigned my case. My wife was already in the US on a tourist visa and we were already married for 8 or so years. (long story) I took the shotgun approach and just submitted a mountain of evidence, neatly binding it all up, I figured I was smart enough to do anything I wanted to do as long as I read enough on it. And the wife has never broken any laws, except getting busted with gum in Singapore, never used drugs, had no medical issues, etc, so I figured it would be a breeze. So there we were, 1 year later, waiting on our interview with our assigned case officer. This huge blob of fat rolls in on a obviously customized (heavily reinforced and widened) motorized wheelchair/scooter with O2 hoses and tanks strapped to it. This behemoth tipped 500+ easily. Dont get me wrong, I'm fat so I dont have a problem with fat people but this woman was ridiculous. She calls out our names and says follow me. I thought she was the "physically disabled" quota hire there to show us to our case officer. The shock was terrible when she wheeled into the office and over to a desk and informed us she was the case officer handling our case. We layed our case basically repeating everything that was already included in the filing. She asked a few questions and acted totally uninterested when we were talking (fiddling with crap on her desk, writing notes on a sticky pad that clearly had nothing to do with us, checking crap on her phone, etc). After we were done she came right out and called my wife a liar and started spouting off bs about the penalties of lying to her. I was shocked speechless. My wife started refuting her claims (which were ludicrous). Finally the straw broke when my wife started crying and the fat fing 81tch had the gall to tell her to shutup with the fake crying crap because it wasnt going to work. I immediately interrupted her and told her in no uncertain terms that neither me or the wife were going to put up with this crap and she needed to change her attitude or get this case assigned to a different officer. She laughed and said something like "good luck" then told us we were done and she would inform us of the decision. I blew up when I left that office. I have never felt so much hate for anyone in my entire life. I was seriously thinking of ways I could cost her some serious economic hurt by destroying some her property. This pathetic excuse of a life was basically going to determine mine and my wife's future on a couple hunches she had. The answer we got was we needed to file a waiver and more evidence within 30 days or the petition was going to be denied. I immediately went and got a good immigration lawyer that was just as dumbfounded as us about her attitude. The lawyer handled everything (for a nice fee of course) but the results were worth every penny. We never had to go back and see that slob. The lawyer even said the board that heard the waiver petition was confused as to why there were any questions about approving our petition in the first place. The best answer the case officer had was that the phone records from the first 5 years, to prove we called each other while my wife was visiting her home or I was deployed, weren't included. The really crappy thing is that I bet she is there now crapping on another innocent family. I agree completely. In fact, everything the government touches is broken ATF, EPA, FDA, SSA, IRS, Energy, Education and on and on. They are all just as screwed up as immigration.
Amnesty I absolutely do not want. I don't want birthrite citizenship either for illegals. If guest worker programs were available that did not afford birthrite citizenship for their offspring then that might be palatable. You do know that if 12,000,000 illegals were granted amnesty then under family reuinification the rest of their family can immigrate? You can expand that 12,000,000 figure to 40,000,000 in the next decade and then it will just grow exponentially from there. And these illegals are breeders. Right now approximately 1/10 of Mexico is here illegally. I sure don't want to see that grow to 20-30%.
let's try this, then: put an eVerify type plan in place for some period (a year, two? I'm open) to cull out those who have no real ties. If you can't work AND no one else in your family can, legally, either, you'll soon be gone. Hell, I'd be in favor of helping illegals who want to go home with transport costs. At least then we'd have a better handle on a smaller number. If we're going to sort this mess out, we can't take anything off the table.
I wouldn't want everify to just last 2 years...more like forever. I agree with the no work, no benefits, no birthrite citizenship, punishing employers, sanctuary cities, etc...will help to eliminate the problem. Guest workers are fine as a compromise but only as long as no citizenship, no birthrite citizenship goes along with the deal.
