Asylee petition - are we up to it?

N

nofreedom

Registered Users (C)
Sometimes I think it’s just better to be quiet and wait. Reason: Well, few months earlier some of us tried to start petition online (http://www.petitiononline.com) and we specified email where people can send us suggestions about the final letter that will go to petition. RESPONSE: disturbing …. Only 3 emails and few posts out of 100,000 asylees. Are we up for it now???? If you are, I will provide an email again and let’s finally start this petition. We do not have anything else to loose. We are just talking and expressing our disappointments, but no action. Why don’t we create good letter, start a petition (when everybody agrees on letter) and then use same letter and just spam every senator and every congressman from each state. Every month one letter to each with the link to petition. Here is an idea … let me hear from you guys. Here is an email: asyleepetition@yahoo.com
Please send me what do you want to include in the letter and I will post the letter back for final approval. Let me know …
 
I share your sentiments. I will share an initial draft of the letter, which we can review and improve. Once we have an agreed upon format and content then we may be able to send to all senators and congressman. I am hoping that I will be able to take some time over the weekend to work on it. It is difficult to find time during the week because of work and family obligations.
 
RAsylee
Only one reply?? This is what I'm talking about. Most of the asylees are not interested or they did not read this. Moreover, I have received only one e-mail. Pretty scary .... O well, e-mail is still here guys start sending comments and suggestions ...
 
Why the cap should be eliminated

http://www.ailf.org/lac/2002/030402b.htm

These are also good reasons why asylee adjustment cap should be eliminated.

HARMS THE PLAINTIFFS AND CLASS MEMBERS ARE SUFFERING

263. Plaintiffs and class members have suffered, are suffering, and will continue to suffer significant and irreparable harm because of defendants' policies, procedures, acts and failures to act as described herein. This harm includes the harms alleged throughout this complaint, and the following:
264. Because defendants have, in many fiscal years, distributed far fewer than the 10,000 available visas, and because defendants have not complied with the requirement to allocate visas in the order in which plaintiffs filed for them, all plaintiffs and class members are farther back on the waiting list than they otherwise would be. As a direct result of their placement on the waiting list, all plaintiffs and class members have had to and/or will have to wait a significantly longer period to adjust their status. As long as defendants continue to improperly fail to allocate visas, to distribute visas out of order, and to include exempt asylees in the queue, all plaintiffs and class members will continue to suffer delays.
265. Because plaintiffs and class members have waited and will continue to wait significantly longer to become LPRs, they have been and are unable to stabilize their lives. Their status here has been and will continue to be indefinite. Some plaintiffs and class members have been and will continue to be afraid to accumulate assets in the United States because they fear they may ultimately be denied permanent residence status and may be deported. They have not been able to and cannot plan because they have not known and do not know when they will become permanent residents.
266. Some plaintiffs and class members have been and will continue to be unable to petition for family members to join them in the United States. For example, if an asylee marries a noncitizen who is a resident of some other country, the asylee cannot petition for his or her spouse nor bring them to this country. Single asylees cannot marry and sponsor his or her spouse until the asylee's status is adjusted.
267. Some plaintiffs and class members have been and will be refused jobs or passed over for promotions because they are not LPRs or not United States citizens. Many plaintiffs have lost significant work time and will lose significant work time while pursuing their adjustment applications, making inquiries at INS offices, meeting with lawyers, applying for renewals and refugee travel documents, and otherwise pursuing their delayed permanent residency.
268. Some colleges and universities have considered and will continue to consider plaintiffs and class members to be out-of-state residents and hence charged them out-of-state tuition. The plaintiffs and class members have had and will continue to have other hardships when applying for financial aid for higher education.
269. Because they have not become LPRs, plaintiffs and class members have been and are unable to travel freely outside the United States. Many plaintiffs and class members have been and will be afraid to travel outside the United States for fear there will be a bar to their reentry or they will not be permitted to reenter, even if they obtain a refugee travel document before they depart. Some plaintiffs and class members have declined and will decline employment opportunities that involved travel abroad. Those plaintiffs and class members who have been willing to travel outside the United States have had to apply for, wait for, and pay for refugee travel documents to assure their reentry. Many have paid attorneys' fees for their attorneys' assistance in obtaining refugee travel documents and advice.
270. Because they have had to wait and will continue to have to wait many years to adjust their status, and because of defendants' policies and practices as described herein, plaintiffs and class members have had to and will continue to have to submit to repeated fingerprinting and medical exams, at considerable cost and inconvenience.
271. Plaintiffs and class members who are exempt from the 10,000 visa cap have had to and will continue to have to wait years longer than required by law to adjust their status. They also have had to and will continue to have to obtain EADs and refugee travel documents and renew those documents repeatedly, at considerable expense and inconvenience, when they should not have had to obtain or renew EADs or refugee travel documents at all.
272. Nonexempt plaintiffs and class members have not adjusted as quickly as they should have, and have had to wait longer than they should have, because defendants did not exclude exempt asylees from the queue. Nonexempt plaintiffs and class members will continue to have to wait years longer than they should have if defendants do not exclude exempt asylees from the queue.
273. Because plaintiffs and class members have not and will continue to not become LPRs when or as quickly as they should have, their naturalization has been delayed. They have been and will continue to be unable to vote and participate fully in our democracy. They have lost job opportunities that are open only to United States citizens and will continue to lose such opportunities. They have been and will continue to be unable to petition for their family members to immigrate to the United States as immediate relatives.
274. Because defendants have misinterpreted the INA and applicable regulations, many plaintiffs and class members have had to and will continue to have to obtain EADs and pay for repeated renewals of those EADs, resulting in significant out-of-pocket expense, including attorneys' fees, inconvenience, loss of wages, and loss of employment opportunities. Some plaintiffs and class members have suffered and will continue to suffer lapses between receiving EADs because of INS delays in processing their renewals. These lapses have resulted in and will continue to result in loss of income and risk of lost of jobs.
275. Plaintiffs and class members do not know when they will be adjusted and believe that defendants will not adjust them in the proper, chronological order. Plaintiffs and class members have no way, other than through this lawsuit, to compel the defendants to adjust them in the proper order.
276. Plaintiffs' and class members' rights to due process of law and equal protection under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution have been and are being violated and will continue to be violated by defendants' failures and policies and practices as described herein.
 
this is a good start. I will put something together in next few days. Can we use this documentation? Any legal hurdles?
 
Some thoughts on this topic ...

My personal thought for this letter is that we need to emphasize on few things in this letter and keep it on a personal appeal level.

We want to make clear that we are not asking for landslide reforms in asylum process (Maybe stress that we have been through this process. Some have endured the applying and follow up for 7 plus years just to get the hearing and cases finally approved)

Maybe we want to keep this petition on a human level and appeal to the spirit of fairness and compassion.

Ensure that as asylees we are thankful for the opportunity this great country has provided us and are be working diligently for its success and greatness. Also that though we were not born here but we CHOSE to be here.

On the question what’s the rush for the LPR. Please mention technically one is not considered a legal immigrant until they have been adjusted. Which happens after the completion of the LPR process. Since we have to wait long for this process, it means we don’t get a sense of closure until the adjudication is complete

Make it clear that by requesting more visa numbers we are not sacrificing any security as all asylum applicants have to go through a mandatory FP session at the time of application. Then a follow up finger print checkup at the time of LPR approval

It is always good to show in this letter that this kind of situation had happened in past and add the example of May or June 1990 there was a backlog for 20,000 applicants which would mean a wait for four years based upon the 5,000 limit that was in place at that time. Visa numbers granted were increased from 5,000 to 10,000. Currently we have a backlog of almost 10 years. Appeal to the sense of reasonability as how much time is reasonable for waiting once properly filed an application. Establish prior precedence.
Another argument here would be that during the past 10 years a lot of visa numbers have been lost because INS did not complete applicant processing in time. If those numbers could be reclaimed that will grant some relief. This will be appropriate place to add this information directly from the INS web site and ask if it is reasonable to wait for 10 + years to just get a green card.


==
Adjustment of Status for Asylees
By law, only 10,000 asylees can adjust status to Lawful Permanent Resident per year; however, the Service is receiving 15,700-28,200 applications per year. As a result, as of May 10, 2002, approximately 96,600 asylee adjustment applications were pending. Through September 30, 2002, we are processing applications received on or before June 9, 1998. We anticipate that we will process the remaining pending applications according to the following schedule:
Date Received Timeframe to be Processed
June 10, 1998-Feb. 1, 1999 Oct. 1, 2002-Sept. 30, 2003
Feb. 2, 1999-Sept. 14, 1999 Oct. 1, 2003-Sept. 30, 2004
Sept. 15, 1999-Mar. 13, 2000 Oct. 1, 2004-Sept. 30, 2005
Mar. 14, 2000-Aug. 3, 2000 Oct. 1, 2005-Sept. 30, 2006
Aug. 4, 2000-Dec. 27, 2000 Oct. 1, 2006-Sept. 30, 2007
Dec. 28, 2000-Apr. 30, 2001 Oct. 1, 2007-Sept. 30, 2008
May 1, 2001-Aug. 16, 2001 Oct. 1, 2008-Sept. 30, 2009
Aug. 17, 2001-Nov. 26, 2001 Oct. 1, 2009-Sept. 30, 2010
Nov. 27, 2001-Feb. 20, 2002 Oct. 1, 2010-Sept. 30, 2011
Feb. 21, 2002-undetermined Oct. 1, 2011-Sept. 30, 2012
We emphasize that these dates are APPROXIMATIONS; unforeseen occurrences may delay processing. In September 2002, we will determine and publish the received dates to be processed between October 1, 2002 and September 30, 2003 more precisely.
If you move, please notify the Nebraska Service Center by sending a letter or Form AR-11, Change of Address Form, to:
USINS Nebraska Service Center
P.O. Box 87865
Lincoln, NE 68508-7865
Be sure to include your case receipt number or A-number. Please note that only address changes will be processed at this address. Non-address-change inquiries received at the PO Box cannot be answered. Also be aware that notifying the Center of an address change for a pending application DOES NOT satisfy the requirement to notify the Service of your whereabouts. Instructions for that notification can be found in the instructions for Form AR-11, Change of Address Form.
While your I-485 is pending, you are permitted to travel outside the U.S.; however you must have a valid Refugee Travel Document to reenter the country. You can apply for a refugee travel document by filing Form I-131, Application for Travel Document. Due to new security procedures, allow for 90 to 120 days prior to beginning travel to obtain a travel document.
As an asylee, you are authorized to work in the United States incident to your status. If you wish to receive a document from the INS that can serve as evidence of both your work authorization and identity, file Form I-765 with the Nebraska Service Center. Allow for a 90-day processing time.
For all other inquiries, call the National Customer Service Center at 1 (800) 375-5283.

===
The above information is directly from the INS website
http://www.ins.gov/graphics/fieldoffices/nebraska/asyleeadj.htm
====

We can also reference to other countries like Canada and Australia e.g. where a person is granted a permanent resident status upon the grant of asylum. Again here we may want to specify that our focus for this application is prompt adjustment of a group of people who have been granted asylum but are still waiting for adjustment to permant residence.

One thing missing is to find out the # of applications actually filed with INS. I have found the adjustments # from 1986-2000. The source of this information is directly from INS.

These are some things that I think we should consider in making part of this letter. All the other things that are part of the lawsuit can be accommodated either as an appendix, if they are in the body of the letter they will not assist in creating a link with the audience. One thing to keep in my mind is that this letter is NOT for us but to educate the people who are getting this letter. We can be much more successful if we emphasize on dealing with this issue on a human level as people can easily relate to it and are willing to help. It will be easier for people to help us when they realize that they are not jeopardizing any security checks (because of current state of awareness) for the country and also no one is getting unfair advantage and its low impact level on the whole immigration numbers for the year. (I think asylum % is less then 0.5%)


===

Note: All these suggestions here are up for consideration. I know I had rambled all over the place but I wanted to capture these thoughts
 
More stats from INS .. regarding Asylum applications

Here is more info. Hopefuly we can assemble the information in a manner that portrays that asylum is not granted to lots of poeple. We can also show that this is a very time consuming process in addition to the time we are spending waiting for our adjustment (I-485).

Here is a spreadsheet from INS

Fiscal Year 2000 Statistical Yearbook

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/statistics/00yrbk_REF/RA2000list.htm
 
What is the consensus of the group. Do we have enough points and/or stats to incorporate in the letter to the lawmakers?

I am curious to as what is the status of the letter being drafted. If there is something in progress and can use a second set of eyes to draft/edit, I will be able to help there.
 
u guys r good at writing. So why not u write sth, then we'll follow up by printing it, and sign it before mailing it?
 
Lets do it.

I agrre with Kelvin, let's do it.

I f we don't do things, nobody is going to do it for us. Come on guys. Let's put some interest on it.
 
I just received this letter from
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC

Letter1.JPG
 
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