NY Times covers GC backlogs in front page article

I urge everyone to send an e-mail to NY TIMES regarding this. The e-mail is letters@nytimes.com.

They say in their reply to my letter below:
"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 Letters must also include the writer's address and daytime and evening phone numbers (not for publication).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!!!

---------------------------------
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/nyregion/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 contact info)
 
just send out email. Let's all start acting now , instead of sitting around. Patience is indeed a virtue. However, there is always a limitation. The reason for most of us to immigrate to US is because it is a free country. There is no reason for us not to freely express our opion!
 
Just now forwarded the mail to New York Times used one of the templates available here.

Thanks.
 
E-Mail sent.
We should encourage everyone in all forums of all service centers to send this E-mail while the story is still hot.
 
Sent mail.

Dear NY Times,

I am one of I-485 applicants and Ihave 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/n.../06VISA.html?hp published April 6, 2004

Me and my family have suffered a lot due to the US CIS permanent residency backlog. Our I-485 case is pending for Over 26 months and we don’t know how much more time it is going to take till we get the permanent residency approval. We do understand the importance of threat to the United States and we congratulate William R. Yates, associate director of operations for Citizenship and Immigration Services, in Homeland Security on his statement “We have identified a number of persons who represented a threat to the United States."

But the processing trend is very much disturbing right now in CSC. We are hearing that cases that are filed in late 2002 and early 2003 are being approved leaving early 2002 cases, like us, without approvals.

Shall we request concerned persons to atleast work on the cases on the basis of the application received dates.

Regards,

(my contact info)
 
We should generate a thread of all the suffering we are going through. Everybody posts to that thread about how they are suffering because of delays. And then when we have enough replies we can send the link to the thread to New York times. I think 150 words is just not enough to yell at Yates and to tell them about our suffering. In each post you could urge them to follow up more on this story and expose USCIS and Yates lies.
What do you say to this proposal?

Can somebody start this thread? This should be common across four centers and when we have enough replies we can mail it to NY times. This story is starting to become hot. That backlogs are growing. I am sure this is in response to LA times. We have to take advantage of this right now.

Advantage of having our sufferings listed in one place is that we can send them to various media organizations.
 
Originally posted by desi-bartender
Okay, So I took the time and created these threads.
Can all of you go ahead and also update the thread?
California
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121021
Nebraska
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121023
Texas
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121024
Vermont
http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121025
Click to expand...
Hi, desi-bartender,
It's great your taking the initiative.
 
Another email sent

Added my own content:

Dear NY Times,

Your article about immigration delays at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/n.../06VISA.html?hp hits the nail on the head. Almost all legal immigrants are suffering terribly as a result of these delays. Families are getting uprooted; immigrants already in the US are postponing travel indefinitely for fear of not gaining entry back into the US despite being perfect law abiding, tax paying denizens. What’s appalling is the fact that the land of freedom, in reality, has turned into a land of bonded-labor for immigrants. Increased demand for security post Sept 11 is understandable, but not the huge processing delays. The additional budget of $160 mln allocated for immigration should have more than offset any shortfall touted as the reason. So what’s the real reason for apparent apathy towards immigration delays? Is it that the immigrant community does not have a voice as in voting rights, therefore, leave them at their mercy?

Regards,
 
Email sent, kept it short...

Dear NY Times,

Thank you for your article about immigration delays http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/n.../06VISA.html?hp. It is nice to know that someone still pays attention to the injustice heaped on us permanent resident hopefuls.

Please, please make sure that you follow up on the story to make sure something positive comes out of it. It has been our collective experience that things like this are brushed aside by the system because we are "politically powerless".

Best Regards
 
email sent..

****************************

Dear NY Times,

your article about immigration benefit processing times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/nyregion/06VISA.html is an excellent description of what law abiding immigrants must go through in order to be able to live and work in this country. they do not vote, and so their voice is not frequently heard.

assuming that United States believes in legal immigration being beneficial to the country, situation should change. USCIS officials should be held accountable for statements promising cutting processing backlogs. in particular, intermediate milestones should be established, and reevaluated as necessary (including funding).

in addition, to improve communication
- data measuring progress towards the goals (or lack thereof) should be made public
- time/cost breakdown between security checks and other processing should also be made public

these steps would go a long way towards integrating the legal immigrants into society and making them more productive contributors.
 
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