NY Times covers GC backlogs in front page article

[waytoolong]

Article in frontpage: www.nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/ny...06VISA.html?hp


Text:

Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span
By NINA BERNSTEIN

Published: April 6, 2004


abriella A. Barschdorff, a vice president for strategic investment at J. P. Morgan Chase in New York, is not exactly the huddled-masses type. But one rainy day last week, shortly before 7 a.m., she joined the long, bedraggled line of immigrants standing outside 26 Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan. There she took the spot held for her by a young man she had hired to camp out in his sleeping bag.

It was all part of a last-ditch bid to get her formal travel document, a paper that, as a legal foreign worker with a pending green card application, she badly needed. If she failed, she would miss a business meeting in London. If she went without the permit, she risked being barred from coming back to America.

Ms. Barschdorff, who is Swedish, is one of thousands of skilled foreign professionals working legally in the United States who find themselves virtual prisoners of a ballooning immigration-services backlog. In the last year, the mostly routine paperwork they need to work and travel has slowed to a crawl.

Processing times — for everything from renewing an annual work permit to securing permanent legal residency — have as much as quadrupled over the last 18 months, despite the Bush administration's pledge to cut waiting times in half. The wait to replace a lost green card, for instance, has grown to 19 months from four. And the kind of paperwork sought by Ms. Barschdorff — a document allowing her to re-enter the country after a brief trip — now takes seven months instead of two.

As a consequence, and despite an infusion of $160 million earmarked for cutting the backlog, the number of pending applications has risen by nearly 60 percent over the last three years, to 6.2 million, according to a recent congressional report. The root cause, officials say, is the post-9/11 reassignment of 1,000 agents who used to issue documents and now do extensive security checks of every applicant instead.

The fallout ranges from minor inconveniences to wrenching dilemmas.

There is Christopher B. Murray, for example, the manager of nano-scale research for I.B.M., who had to decide whether to rush to his mother's side when his father died in Nova Scotia last week, or battle for an emergency travel document to replace the one that he had applied to renew last year. And there is William Powell, an American journalist for Fortune magazine, and his Chinese wife, Joyce Cui, who spent most of her pregnancy agonizing over whether she should go back to Beijing to give birth near her family. Because she had applied for a green card, she risked being barred from the United States if she left before her travel documents came through; if she stayed, she risked going into labor alone in New York when he was reassigned to China.

"The delays in processing some of these cases have clearly been as a result of moving so many of our employees, especially in the service centers, into security checks," said William R. Yates, associate director of operations for Citizenship and Immigration Services, in Homeland Security. "We don't apologize. We have identified a number of persons who represented a threat to the United States."

But he added, "Everything else has suffered, unfortunately."

Mr. Yates reiterated the commitment to cut the backlog by the end of September 2006. But there is little optimism among many international businesses and institutions struggling with the problem on behalf of 700,000 U.S.-based foreign employees.

The new obstacles and delays, business leaders say, are already hurting their ability to recruit and keep the best talent worldwide.

"There are key people who are unable to work, unable to close the gaps in their status," said Mr. Murray, adding that his recruitment of foreign researchers at Harvard and M.I.T. had been damaged. "There are family impacts. But if you want to be very cold about it, it puts the U.S. at a serious disadvantage."

One reason the backlog has ballooned is that processing delays force employers to file costly multiple petitions just to keep an employee and dependents in legal status, complained Lynn Shotwell, director of the American Council on International Personnel, a Washington organization for 250 corporations and institutions that want to ease the movement of personnel across national borders.

The council has protested a Bush administration plan to impose higher processing fees to cover the cost of hiring additional personnel.

Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span

Published: April 6, 2004


(Page 2 of 2)



One of the regional immigration offices most beset with delays is the Vermont Service Center, which handles applications from New York and other Northeastern states. Mr. Yates, the homeland security official, said the office, in St. Albans, stopped issuing travel documents for several months this winter because it ran out of security paper with the department's new logo.

The overflow spilled into district offices like 26 Federal Plaza. In theory, after waiting 90 days for a work permit to be renewed by mail, for example, an applicant is entitled to have one issued in person, the same day. But in practice, no more than 100 such permits are given out daily.

Such problems played out last week when Ms. Barschdorff, 33, passed through the metal detectors at 26 Federal Plaza. She wanted to renew her annual work permit and to get the document that would let her travel safely to London and back to her 1-year-old American daughter.

For her, the last best hope was the young man with the sleeping bag, Kendo McDonald. Mr. McDonald, 28, has worked for a decade as a trusted "runner," shepherding documents and now clients for the international immigration law firm of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy. He has his own measure of how much worse the backlog grew in the last year.

"Before I didn't have to do this 3 o'clock in the morning thing," he said, rainwater still dripping from his jacket. "I could come at 8 a.m."

After vetting Ms. Barschdorff's documents, and those of two other clients, Mr. McDonald guided them into the netherworld of federal bureaucracy. Ms. Barschdorff would spend the next nine and a half hours there, in a labyrinth of lines and waiting rooms.

The two other clients asked that their names not be published, worried that publicity could hurt their pending green card applications. One was a 33-year-old computer scientist at I.B.M. who left India eight years ago to earn a doctorate at the State University of New York at Stonybrook. He said he had risen at 3 a.m. to make it from his home in Mohegan Lake, where his wife and 5-month-old U.S.-born daughter were sleeping. The other man described himself as a "denim consultant" who was born in Zimbabwe but had lived for years in London before moving to New York six years ago to work for the fashion designer Calvin Klein.

Together with Ms. Barschdorff, who previously worked at the European Parliament in Brussels and has degrees from Columbia and the London School of Economics, the trio almost typified the mobility of an international class of go-getters whose cosmopolitan careers help make New York a global hub of finance, science and design. Both men were being sponsored for green cards by employers as "aliens of extraordinary ability" — a phrase "that makes people think of E.T.," Ms. Barschdorff joked. But without the work permit renewals they needed, they could be left without a paycheck.

Mr. McDonald warned Ms. Barschdorff that her goal of renewing two documents at once might be impossible. The waiting room for one was on the eighth floor, the other on the ninth.

There are plans for every waiting room to adopt a number system like the one used by busy New York delis, Mr. McDonald said, but for now, after turning in papers to one of the window agents, applicants just have to wait until they are summoned by name. The typical wait is four to six hours, he said. And if Ms. Barschdorff ran up and down between waiting rooms, she would risk missing one or both calls.

It was Mr. McDonald who helped her manage the juggling act, and smooth the way when her paperwork seemed deficient. J. P. Morgan was paying $1,500 for the law firm's work to renew Ms. Barschdorff's employment authorization card alone, she said.

Many in the room were fending for themselves. The line that snaked through the ninth-floor waiting room included a Polish construction worker, a Nigerian nurse, and a turbaned chef from India. Only the chef, Manjit Singh, 42, would give his name after explaining that his boss was sponsoring him because of his skill at making curry for a restaurant on Union Turnpike in Queens.

Some were turned away, but after nearly 10 hours, Ms. Barschdorff emerged triumphant. She had gained both the right to travel and another year's work authorization. Her two companions had their work permits, too. Mr. McDonald was headed back to Queens for a few hours' sleep before doing it all over again.

"Even though I absolutely despise this bureaucracy," Ms. Barschdorff said, "at the end of the day you can come to America."

[kashmir]

"The delays in processing some of these cases have clearly been as a result of moving so many of our employees, especially in the service centers, into security checks," said William R. Yates, associate director of operations for Citizenship and Immigration Services, in Homeland Security. "We don't apologize. We have identified a number of persons who represented a threat to the United States."

Bill Yates should aplogize !!
Let's make him resign !!
Let's send hundreds of letters to New York Times !!

Project Ocean Campaign #12
Make Bill Yates Apologize !!
Target Number of Letters = 100

Not only post your comment here, but also send your letter to New York Times within 150 words !!
Once you send a letter, please declare clearly here to encourage others.
You can find my sample letter here.
Also, if you write a good letter, please post your letter.

[kashmir]

To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: USCIS Bill Yates should apologize or resign !!

I am one of I-485 applicants and I read the following article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/ny...06VISA.html?hp
Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: April 6, 2004

It describes:
"The delays in processing some of these cases have clearly been as a result of moving so many of our employees, especially in the service centers, into security checks," said William R. Yates, associate director of operations for Citizenship and Immigration Services, in Homeland Security. "We don't apologize. We have identified a number of persons who represented a threat to the United States."

I strongly object against Bill Yates' utterance "We don't apologize."
He should apologize us.
Otherwise, he should resign from USCIS.

Regards,

(my name)
(my address)
(my contact information)

[jat]

Security seems to have become a catchall phrase for everyone at USCIS and this must be fifth time I am reading that a high-ranking USCIS official is saying, that they do not apologize for the backlog. They are shameless. They are hiding behind the security checks because that is what every politician and citizen in this country would understand better after 9/11.

These politicians who buy this explanation need to be told that USCIS is hardly concerned about the nation’s security be delaying security check on number of people already in this country. AND YES Yates MUST APOLOGIZE to us and to the citizens of the US.

[ruxrux]

E-mail sent:

Dear NY Times,

I am one of I-485 applicants and I have just read the article
"Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span"
by NINA BERNSTEIN
at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/ny...06VISA.html?hp
published April 6, 2004

It describes:
"The delays in processing some of these cases have clearly been as a result of moving so many of our employees, especially in the service centers, into security checks," said William R. Yates, associate director of operations for Citizenship and Immigration Services, in Homeland Security. "We don't apologize. We have identified a number of persons who represented a threat to the United States."

Me and my family have suffered a lot due to the US CIS permanent residency backlog and Mr Yates forgets that legal immigrants are human beings just like him, with very human feelings:
* I cannot buy a home since no bank would give me a loan
* In case of a layoff I have to leave the country since US CIS requires approved candidates to have a job
* My case has been pending in US CIS California Service Center (CSC) for over 26 months, way over mentioned 18

Therefore, I am appalled and I strongly object against Bill Yates' words "We don't apologize."
He should indeed apologize to us since this is very disturbing and quite derogatory behavior.
Otherwise, he should resign from USCIS since he has obviously forgotten the best practices and elementary work ethic.

Regards,

my name
my address
my e-mail

[ruxrux]

I got an auto-reply from NY Times, here's what's interesting:

"Letters should be no longer than 150 words and may be shortened to fit allotted space. They must be exclusive to The Times and refer to an article that has appeared within the last seven days. Letters must also include the writer's address and daytime and evening phone numbers (not for publication). Please do not send attachments. "

Obviously, I did not know about 150 words so please keep them under 150 words, but this is a really great opportunity for us, let's grab it! 6 days left!!!

[cinta]

Nice article, "waytoolong". Collected in "DHS / Press". First the LA Times, the GovExec magazine and now the NY Times in addition to the GAO reports offcourse.
The Press has Power. Let us use it.

Quote: 1000 adjudicators are doing security checks. This is 1/4 of the total number of 4000.
(similar number in the LA Times article).Yates is lying alsosee Eduardo Aguirre testimony in the Senate). Nobody was caught to be a terrorist. They caught a sex offender and a murderer, bad people who would not have been free in the society to begin with. USCIS is OUR POLICE now!!!!!

[sukla]

I have posted this to NYTimes:

I am an applicant waiting for my I-485 to be approved by USCIS and I read this article in your paper this morning
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/n.../06VISA.html?hp
Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span
By NINA BERNSTEIN

What really bothered me is the statement: "We don't apologize. We have identified a number of persons who represented a threat to the United States." made by the associate director. It is both condescending and illogical! If they have to do security check for everyone and that creates a backlog of security checks then the last person in line waits for years before he is cleared and what if he is a threat? The problem with USCIS is its inefficient processes and that what is a security problem. Kindly follow http://boards.immigration.com/forumd...hp?forumid=208 which is a lawsuit filed against USCIS for illegal delays in I-485 processing.
Regards,

[kashmir]

Project Ocean Campaign #12
Make Bill Yates Apologize !!
Target Number of Letters = 100

1. kashmir
2. ruxrux
3. sukla

Not only post your comment here, but also send your letter to New York Times !!
Once you send a letter, please post your message here to encourage others.
Also, if you write a good letter, please post your letter.

[dasarihp_newid]

from the above nytime article...

=========
One reason the backlog has ballooned is that processing delays force employers to file costly multiple petitions just to keep an employee and dependents in legal status, complained Lynn Shotwell, director of the American Council on International Personnel, a Washington organization for 250 corporations and institutions that want to ease the movement of personnel across national borders.

The council has protested a Bush administration plan to impose higher processing fees to cover the cost of hiring additional personnel.
===========

http://www.acip.com/acipweb.nsf/1f4...1d?OpenDocument

Can we contact this council and talk to them in support of our lawsuit ??

[dsatish]

Appreciate waytoolong for posting this and doubly appreciate Kashmir for starting the fight back. I will join the campaign. I will send an Email by the end of the day.
Who else is going to send an Email ??

[kailashr]

email sent to NY TImes

[GreenCardMA]

I will send email to them. What are email addresses please?

[dsatish]

Originally posted by GreenCardMA
I will send email to them. What are email addresses please?

Email : letters@nytimes.com

[myopinion]

I noticed footer in kasmir's email about stairway to heaven....and thought of responding.

Just imagine how many more people may be thinking about such eventuality and getting sick with stress.

USCIS needs to be taken to task for not listening to such genuine requests and not taking action on such common sense issues.

Forget about quick processing, but what stops USCIS to issue an interim rule that dependants case will not be withdrawn if primary applicant dies after 180 days of filing 485.

It is disgusting and sickening just to think how insensitive this Govt. can be.

[dsatish]

Illegal immigrants have made bus trips across the country in support of their cause. Family Visa (VVISA) category people are also planning for a demonstration in front of White house. Why don't the EB I485 people organize a strong demonstration in front of white house ?

[kashmir]

Project Ocean Campaign #12
Make Bill Yates Apologize !!
Target Number of Letters = 100

1. kashmir
2. ruxrux (also CSC forum)
3. sukla
4. (dsatish)
5. kailashr
6. (GreenCardMA)
7. wac022XXX (CSC forum)
8. kingAnil007 (CSC forum)

Not only post your comment here, but also send your letter to New York Times !!
Once you send a letter, please post your message here to encourage others.
You can find my sample letter here.
Also, if you write a good letter, please post your letter.

CSC forum thread

[scotty]

Originally posted by kashmir
.........Once you send a letter, please post your message here to encourage others.
Also, if you write a good letter, please post your letter. [/B]

Not sure it is a good one but here it is!!!

I read with interest the article in your paper this morning titled “Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span” By Nina Bernstein. The article is a well written overview of problems encountered by intending immigrants, however, the quote by Mr. Yeats is misleading and I feel should have been countered. Most intending immigrants support the fact that security checks have to be performed, however this does not excuse the inflexible and unsympathetic attitude of the USCIS. In addition it should have been clarified how many people were “caught” and whether it was for terrorism. Mr. Yeats needs to make clear why the USCIS is failing (or refusing) to reduce processing times. A blanket statement regarding terrorism that capitalizes on emotions is unjustified, unprofessional and blatantly offensive. He should explain it in depth and be held accountable for its accuracy.


We should try to persuade them to follow up on it with more facts.

[Milko_Djurovski]

Why? Family visa people are mainly US citizens, who cannot be deported. The EB folks are not. Whether attending an event like that could hurt your chances of getting a GC or your position with your employer remains to be seen, but it is a matter of fact that people are worried about those consequences.

I am not neccessarily condoning the way of thinking, just presenting it.

In reality, opinions expressed like that are part of American culture of democracy and should not hurt anyone on any front. But, the point is, all this is easier said than done. And, also there is the question of what results would the event produce: the family based immigration lobbyists have a much stronger point, as there are applications from 1999 pending and there is less of a bias towards them in the arena of public opinion then there is against EB petitioners (the almighty Lou Dobbs, the Mel Gibson of the CNN). It can be a show of protest, but real results are not expected. Most changes need to happen behind the scenes. We need insiders and lobbyists, not demonstrations. Anyone willing to pay for this?

[Bold_Trueth]

The article syas that "Mr. Yates reiterated the commitment to cut the backlog by the end of September 2006".
These USCIS/DHS rogues should know that if one is bleeding due to stabbing, he has to be given immediate treatment, not after 2 years.

[kashmir]

Originally posted by Milko_Djurovski
... It can be a show of protest, but real results are not expected. Most changes need to happen behind the scenes. We need insiders and lobbyists, not demonstrations. Anyone willing to pay for this?

We started donating to ImmigrationPortal.ORG for that purpose.
Please visit www.immigrationportal.org and donate.
http://immigrationportal.com/showthr...hreadid=120765

[kashmir]

Project Ocean Campaign #12
Make Bill Yates Apologize !!
Target Number of Letters = 100

1. kashmir
2. ruxrux (also CSC forum)
3. sukla
4. (dsatish)
5. kailashr
6. (GreenCardMA)
7. wac022XXX (CSC forum)
8. kingAnil007 (CSC forum)
9. scotty

Not only post your comment here, but also send your letter to New York Times within 150 words !!
Once you send a letter, please declare clearly here to encourage others.
You can find my sample letter here.
Also, if you write a good letter, please post your letter.

CSC forum thread

[GC_YEAHRIGHT!]

I have sent an email as under"

Draft of the email sent this morning to letters@nytimes.com

"Dear Ny times.
This is in response to Nina Bernsteins article in the NY Times April 6th 2004 "Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span"
It is ridiculous that Associate Director, Yates uses the Post 9-11 security threat as the cause for these delays. In fact these security checks should be completed IMMEIDATELY rather than the 18 plus months that is now being taken to complete them. It is totally irresponsible and arrogant that our officials mislead the American public and give us a "false" sense of security with these glib arguments. Director Yates should apologize to the American people for taking so long to perform the "so-called" security checks on people ALREADY in the country.
Thanks

[cinta]

In parallel to individuaL donations, how about contacting Foundations. A successful contact can result in all of your donations put together and more..as a long term goal!

Examples: George Soros foundations, Teresa Heinz as in Heinz foundations. More are available all over the USA funding think tanks, institutions and non-profit organisations.
The MPI is wholly funded out of Carnegie Foundation..

[Edison]

Cinta good suggestion.

Just now forwarded the mail to New York Times used one of the tempaltes available here.

Thanks.

[compuser1973]

I have emailed Lynn Frendt Shotwell, Director, Government Relations & Legal Counsel at ACIP who was featured in the article and have urged her that AICP join us in the fight against the USCIS in the class action lawsuit that Rajiv has filed.

[Quietist]

I will send a letter to the Times from home tonight. But here is my draft, in case anyone else wants to adapt it for their own use.

Dear Editor,

Re: 'Wait for U.S. Residency Soars over 18 Month Span' by Nina Bernstein, April 6

It is with interest and sympathy that I read of the plight of Ms Gabriella Barschdorff and other skilled legal immigrants who are suffering from interminable delays in the processing of applications for adjustment to permanent resident status. USCIS associate director of operations William R. Yates is quoted as blaming the delays on 'security checks'. Yet adjustment-of-status applicants are already living in the U.S., and most have been here for many years. It is hard to see what an enemy of the United States who is already in the country can hope to gain by filing an adjustment application, unless it is the assurance that his application will not be examined for at least two years, giving him plenty of time to plot harm against Americans, thanks to the huge backlog of 'security checks'.

[Pineapple]

This is what I wrote to the editor:

Sir,

This is apropos of Nina Bernsteins' report on the ballooning backlog in processing permanent residency applications. ('Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span', NY Times, NY Region, April 6, 2004)

I'm surprised that statements such as 'We don't apologize', by high ranking officials in CIS are accepted with such nonchalance by the media.

The issue is not merely about service, it is also about security. If it takes over two years for CIS to process an application, it means that for all that time a potential miscreant is free to stay legally in this country under the radar of the law enforcement authorities. The implicit assumption in the 'Security procedures causing delays' excuse is that a potential terrorist is going to wait for his/her green card before commiting a foul act.

This line of thinking is patently absurd, and only serves to hide the bureaucratic incompetence of the very institutions and officials who are entrusted to screen dangerous individuals while providing efficient service to those who obey the law.

Effective security procedures should logically actually reduce the backlog.

[waytoolong]

To be taken seriously by NY Times - just point out that the Clinton administration had made a lot of progress (PERM, AC21, etc.) towards reducing the backlogs without jeopardizing national security. The current one is just feeding on public emotions to justify draconic measures and condoning heavy handed and unsympathetic attitudes of the DHS officials towards legal residents (many of whom are future citizens).

[kxw]

Email Sent.