03/29/2022
Lynn Murphy Mark
Today is one of my days to work. I call it going to work, but really it is going to perform a service for someone whose life is in flux. I usually have 27 clients at any given time, all of them hoping for the granting of an immigration benefit to which they are entitled. Some are hoping to become new citizens. Some have gone through the arduous process of naturalizing into US Citizens and now want to bring over close relatives from all over the globe. Some are victims of domestic violence who are undocumented applying for special visas that will allow them to stay here, get a work card, and eventually be approved for a “green card”.
The domestic violence victims, who have cooperated with the police to help them find and deal with the abuser, are not automatically entitled to any benefit. They must first file a request, in a file that can end up being two or three inches thick. That’s a lot of paper proving who they are and what they have been through and being background checked themselves. That’s not the half of it. It takes six to seven years for that file to work its way through the immigration system before a person will get a work card or be approved for the special visa. There’s always the chance that the visa will be denied. For those six or seven years, the client remains undocumented and always at risk for deportation. For those years, during which they need to work to support themselves, they do not have a work card granting them permission to work legally in the United States. So they are part of an underground economy of people who clean our houses and work in our fields.
Working within our immigration programs requires patience above all. That’s easy for me to say. I am a US citizen and safe from deportation and entitled to any number of rights and privileges. When I explain the length of time that a given case can take there is always a little gasp on the other end of the phone. I have a client who applied for citizenship in 2020. Usually it’s a process that can take 8 months to a year, but for some unknown reason, her case is held up. I have written letters, called the national customer service number, filed requests for review of her case. Her case is stuck somewhere in the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) office on Spruce street in downtown St. Louis. So close and yet so far. And, there is no way to speak to a person in that office. I keep sending letters that go unanswered. Today I will try again to prevail upon the supervisor of that office. I think I will use the words, “professional courtesy” in this letter.
I have a client from Iraq, a naturalized citizen, who has petitioned for his brothers to come here. He filed in 2007 and his brothers have only now been approved for a visa. However, they must first get an appointment for an official interview with the State Department, at which time they will likely get a visa and permission to travel. They live in Iraq, but because of country conditions, the embassy there does not do the interviews – they must travel with their families in tow to the US embassy in Ankara, Turkey, for their appointment. The State Department has announced that it can take up to three years to get such an appointment once approved for an interview.
Welcome to the world of an immigrant. Leaving home and family is only the beginning, and the road is long and hard. God bless them, everyone.