Project Cosmos

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cosmos

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Let me start Project Cosmos with excerpts from one of my favorite books, “The magic of thinking BIG”, by David Schwartz. The book was first published in 1959 long before I was even born.

<Begin Excerpt #1>
Several years ago I witnessed an exceptionally impressive sales meeting. The vice-president in charge of marketing for this company was tremendously excited. He wanted to drive home a point. He had with him on the platform the leading representative in the organization, a very ordinary looking fellow, who earned in the year just ended just a little under $60,000. The earnings of other representatives averaged $12,000.

The executive challenged the group. Here is what he said! “I want you to take a good look at Harry. Look at him! Now what’s Harry got that the rest of you haven’t? Harry earned five times the average but is Harry five times smarter? No, not according to our personnel tests. I checked. They show he’s about average in that department.”

“And did Harry work five times harder than you fellows? No – not according to the reports. In fact he took more time off than most of you.”

“Did Harry have better territory? Again I’ve got to say no. The accounts averaged about the same. Did Harry have more education? Better health? No. Harry is about as average as an average guy could be except for one thing.”

“The difference between Harry and the rest of you,” said the vice-president, “ the difference is that Harry thought five times bigger.”
<End Excerpt #1>

<Begin Excerpt #2>
The basic principles and concepts supporting The Magic of Thinking Big come from the highest pedigree sources, the very finest and biggest thinking minds yet to live on planet Earth. Minds like the prophet David who wrote, “As one thinketh in his heart, so is he”’ minds such as Emerson who said, “Great men are those who see that thoughts rule the world”; minds like Milton who in Paradise Lost wrote, “The mind is its own place and in itself can make heaven of hell or a hell of heaven.” Amazingly perceptive minds like Shakespeare who observed “ There is nothing good or bad except that thinking makes it so.”
<End Excerpt #2>

<Begin Except #3>
Start out with thought of the great philosopher Disraeli, “Life is too short to be little.”
<End Excerpt #3>

I have started the thread “Ideas Boulevard” (http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=126447) in the hope that people can come up with ideas on how to collect more funds and run campaigns and other issues of interest to us. I am confident that we as a community have what it takes to solve our problems.

Linuxrox suggested that we christen Idea#3 from that thread as Project Cosmos. That’s why I started this new thread.

Project Objective: Contact all 100 Senators and 434 Congressmen
----------------------------------------------------------------
Prepare a one-page summary of immigration fees collected, number of people working on various cases, USCIS’s story for backlog reduction, etc. and present our side of the story, the effect on economy and
fax the summary sheet to all 100 Senators and 434 Congressmen. Each Senator and Congressman should receive at least 50 faxes all within a span of a week.

Total number of faxes to be sent: 26700 (534 * 50)
Number of faxes per person: 30 (6 faxes per day * 5 days)
Number of volunteers needed: 890

The key to success is a crisp one-page summary and the timing. I propose the week of June 7th. That would give us enough time to come up with campaign text, get volunteers. Also, the Congressmen and Senators would be back from Holiday weekend.

Initial Tasks List
---------------------
1. Collect information and prepare one-page summary
2. Prepare a list of all Senators and Congressmen with their fax numbers
3. Get enough volunteers
4. Provide volunteers with a subset of Senators and Congressmen to send faxes.

I will work on #1 and request help from some other folks for factual information and/or effectiveness of content. I will post a draft version by May 23rd for your comments and feedback.

We need a few volunteers to coordinate #2.

We need all your help for #3. Please sign up by posting your participation.

Let us take up #4 when we have finished all the important activities first.

Friends, please let me know what you think. If you think this is a good idea, please volunteer. If you think this is a bad idea, please let us know why and let us debate it. Also, if I have missed anything, please point out my errors. I am new to this sort of work.

Thanks for your time and support!
 
cosmos said:
Initial Tasks List
---------------------
1. Collect information and prepare one-page summary
2. Prepare a list of all Senators and Congressmen with their fax numbers
3. Get enough volunteers
4. Provide volunteers with a subset of Senators and Congressmen to send faxes.

I will work on #1 and request help from some other folks for factual information and/or effectiveness of content. I will post a draft version by May 23rd for your comments and feedback.

We need a few volunteers to coordinate #2.

We need all your help for #3. Please sign up by posting your participation.

Let us take up #4 when we have finished all the important activities first.

Friends, please let me know what you think. If you think this is a good idea, please volunteer. If you think this is a bad idea, please let us know why and let us debate it. Also, if I have missed anything, please point out my errors. I am new to this sort of work.

Thanks for your time and support!
Click to expand...


#1. As you mentioned prepare the draft.
#2. List already available
#3. ImmigrationPortal.org is consolidating the volunteers for such activities, we can take their help. But we need more volunteers. To volunteer send e-mail to ImmigrationPortal_Advocacy-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
#4. Let's request the help of volunteers when we are ready.
 
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Thanks, Cosmo

Thanks, Cosmo. I'm a WAC02217. Count me in.

The day Kashmir got approved was the most difficulty day in my long waiting time. I felt we lost an advocate, a fighter. But now we have some hope - people are standing up and taking actions.

I used to be a silent lurker on this forum. I'm hoping the magic approval will come to me without too much trouble. After 23 months waiting, now, I don't believe any magic. For my wife and for me, and for the fairness of everyone, I'd like to join the fight.

I'm in North Carolina. I'll take the initiative to send fax to Senator John Edwards and Elizabeth Dole and house representative David Price.
 
Count me in

Thanks, Cosmos, I'll do the fax.

My two cents here:

I think a generic letter won't help too much, we'll get generic answer for that, nothing will be changed. A letter has to be impressive.

If we can find US citizens to help us sending letters to senators, I think that will be a huge help. Because nobody would care non-immigrants, but no one would ignore a citizen's request.
 
FI485 said:
Thanks, Cosmos, I'll do the fax.

My two cents here:

I think a generic letter won't help too much, we'll get generic answer for that, nothing will be changed. A letter has to be impressive.

If we can find US citizens to help us sending letters to senators, I think that will be a huge help. Because nobody would care non-immigrants, but no one would ignore a citizen's request.
Click to expand...

A petition to get support of American citizens will be hosted shortly.
 
Good initiative. It's time for us to act. Count me in as a volunteer. Let people come up with their suggestions and ideas. We need to debate how effective this fax campaign would be. If we find that this is not going to be really effective, then we need to think about what else should we do and how we should represent our problems.
 
Is Project Cosmos a duplicate of Project Ocean?

Edison,

I just went through some Project Ocean threads. Looks like I may be inadvertently duplicating your efforts. The only difference seems to be that I was hoping to reach all 100 Senators and 434 Congressmen. Is there a summary post of the results of Project Ocean efforts so far?

Thanks!
 
Project Ocean

> Is Project Cosmos a duplicate of Project Ocean?

I don't think so.

> Is there a summary post of the results of Project Ocean efforts so far?

No.

Here is the original thread of Project Ocean that I started in October 2003:
http://immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=99973

Originally, I wanted to focus the amendment of INA about 5-year resident requirement for Naturalization.
However, we shifted our focus to I-485 backlog reduction especially at the CSC.

You can find the links to our fax/e-mail campaigns at:
http://immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=85662#post714068
Each campaign requested a specific item to a specific person.
For instance, the campaign #8b targeted Ombudsman Khatri for nomination of Don Neufeld to the anual report for Congress.
The most successful campaign got almost 50 participants.
Some campaigns got only 10 - 20 participants.
I stopped all campaigns in April due to a certain reason.

By the way, my I-485 got approved on 5/7/2004.
I will be back in the Project Ocean to pursue the original goal at the next weekend.
Also, I support your new BIG project, Project Cosmos.
Let's think BIG !!
-kashmir
 
First of all congratulations and thanks for following up on this idea.

Second, I will probably end up buying the book. It sounds interesting.

Third, I will volunteer for sending faxes. This to me is an effort in the right direction. We should also include the current injustice going on in CSC of not following the priority date.

Fourth, once we come to the stage, we should subscribe to a fax service like eFax which makes easy to send multiple faxes. This can become a great enabler of this project. I know somebody sent a link to a free fax service. I haven't tried that.

Fifth, I know from past experience and as Kashmir mentioned that its difficult to get volunteers to participate in this. But we should make it a long running project to keep this thread alive for maybe an year or more.

Its a great Theme - LETS THINK BIG !

-Warrior
 
Cosmos,

I am willing to join the campaign.

The campaign should be concentrated and numerous faxes to reach a senator/congressman within a stipulated time, maybe spread over couple of days for our cause to be looked into.

Apart from this we should start a similar campaign and target the top of the USCIS food chain and work our way down, including the ombudsman.

Also, could you bump-up your post about this project at VSC forum for better visibility. I nearly missed it.


Thanks
sgi
 
kashmir said:
...The most successful campaign got almost 50 participants.
Some campaigns got only 10 - 20 participants...
-kashmir
Click to expand...

I am a little surprised and a bit shocked at this number. The most successful campaign had 50 participants???

dsatish or Kashmir or any moderator,

Any idea how many people are registered users of this portal? Any guesses on the number of guests?

Thanks.
 
Finding US citizens

I am inclined to agree, finding US citizens who are concerned about this will help this campaign. So, one thing, is there a Family-based board on immigration.portal? It seems that a lot of the I485's are employment based, but I know of a family case being processed at the CSC. Asking those who have american spouses would be good. I've had my US citizen husband write on my behalf, and that's I sure one reason I am effective.

becky
 
COSMOS - though I have received my approval - but the agony of waiting 28 months in my AOS stage is not forgotten and I too will volunteer to send faxes and contribute to any other cause, just as we have done in the past, both in time and money.

I will keep a look out on the forum for any update on this project.

- GCDz
 
Fund raising - How easy is it?

Hi All,

The idea of fund raising is pretty cool. But is it really an easy task? The immigrationPortal.com online community is over 50K but the participation levels of individuals is pretty poor. It has been evident from the non-stressful events one can participate "Fax - Campaigns".

Unlike any other fund raising event which generally speaking, targets at a particular community or culture, Immigrant community is very diverse and an event has to please everyone alike. Finding events that would please this diverse community is very challenging job.

If the expectation is that, the people who are online will be the only participants, then the event will fail as lets say most of them have already contributed what they could and a repeat order is almost impossible.

But if we expect the people of immigrationportal.com and their family members and outsiders (in fact everyone) then again the event should be pleasing to one and all alike. It is tough.

I think there could be 2 ways to tackle this:
1) Associate with other major organizations that organize events to collect funds for other causes and do a "generic" event with them. These associations could be ethnic based like Indian, Chineese, Mexican etc., That way, we can come to an understanding with these organizations that part of the proceeds will be diverted to ImmigrationPortal.org and also, the "pleasing" a particular community part is also tackled. That can bring in some good $ to the reserve.

Good thing about this approach would be is, we can be part of many such events that would bring in more money (repeat orders, if you will) than if it were one event we organize and collect funds.

2) Along with the thoughts of fund raising events, we can identify all the organizations that are immigrant friendly and get donations from them. This needs a strong team to approach which has the capability to milk money out of these organizations/individuals (if any) and get donations from them.


I believe in Networking and the benefits it could get us. Leveraging the same, we can "Partner" with others to drive our point and cause. Partnerships will almost always result in WIN-WIN situation.

I appreciate Cosmos for starting this thread and taking the initiative. If what i said seems reasonable, then we can start churning out the logistics. What do you guys say?
 
kadamtal, your suggestions are very good. I think we should try and expand on that. I am all for it.

Also, I think we should move the fund collection ideas to "Ideas Boulevard" thread (http://www.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?t=126447). Whenever some concrete actions are to be taken, let's form a new project and work on that. Ideas Boulevard should be about brainstorming if you will.

Project Cosmos should be about contacting all the Senators and Congressmen.

I am actually working on a first draft. When I started this thread, I had not read the petitions about backlog. Now that I have read it, I will use some excerpts from the petitions as well. I hope you wouldn't mind. Of course, feel free to comment on content, style, etc. I will post the first draft hopefully by Sunday May 23rd.

Thanks.
 
Draft #1

Friends, here is my first draft. Please feel free to comment on content, style, possible errors. I started this thread before reading through Project Ocean threads and some wonderful efforts there. I have used some text from there too. The content is a bit theatrical. I have used material from speeches by President Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr. Please make suggestions for improvement. If you are more comfortable using the Project Ocean petitions, please go ahead and by all means use that. The key to success of this project is contacting all the Senators and Congressmen within a short period of time.

Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Senator ------ (Or Congressman ------),

When the first President, George Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he stood less than a single day's journey by horseback from raw, untamed wilderness. There were 4 million Americans in a union of 13 States. Today there are 70 times as many in a union of 50 States. The United States of America has lighted the world with her inventions, gone to the aid of mankind wherever in the world there was a cry for help, journeyed to the Moon and safely returned.

It was believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams.

The two-party system has served the US well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge when people came together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause. America is at crossroads of history once again. There is a spirited debate amongst both parties on how to better secure the last great hope against rising terrorism in the world. There is a spirited debate about how to create more jobs. There is a spirited debate about health care, social security, Medicare, and more, as there should be.

But let these debates not freeze the lives of hundreds of thousands of I-485 applicants waiting forever to better their lot and contribute even more to the American economy.

I want to tell you about a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who teach our children, heal us when we are sick, write complex computer applications, invent and innovate at workplaces across America —professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, doctors, lawyers, etc. This special interest group is, in short, a special breed called the immigration benefits applicants (particularly the employment based I-485 applicants).

I-485 applicants are law-abiding, decent, hard working men, women and children waiting for their status to be adjusted to that of a legal permanent resident. They pay over $5 billion (an estimated 500,000 EB applicants * $10,000) in federal and state taxes every year.

I-485 application processing time for most applicants has now increased to more than 2 years at all the service centers causing immeasurable hardship to all the would be immigrant families. Most of us are unable to buy homes not because our credit is bad. On the contrary, our credit is excellent. But bank managers do not understand our visa status (even though we are on American soil through purely legitimate means). If we don’t buy a house in good school districts, our children do not get the education they deserve. Career advancement has been hampered since the applicant has to remain with the same respective employer (or) similar job in order to benefit from this adjustment of status. The majority of the employers have taken advantage of these restrictions, created by the severe processing delays. Such restrictions again are impacting the livelihood of not only immigration benefits applicants but also the company they work for. The technological advances are far ahead of the immigration approval cycles. It is but unfortunate that we cannot learn more and be more useful to the company that we work for and to the country that we live in, simply because we are supposed to be doing same or similar job only.

I am writing to you today to dramatize this appalling condition. In a sense I am writing to you to cash a check. When the President and the Congress said that they believe that all immigration benefits applications should be processed within 6 months, they were in essence signing a promissory note, figuratively speaking, to which every immigration applicant was to fall heir.

It is obvious today that USCIS has defaulted on this promissory note. Instead of honoring this sacred sentiment, USCIS has returned the check marked "insufficient funds", literally and figuratively. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. It is frustrating, unfair, and plain wrong.

We seek immediate relief from this august body. Even the honorable legislators are accountable. But why is USCIS not held accountable for such a poor service to immigration benefits petitioners? There are over 500,000 employment based I-485 applicants waiting for their lives to be changed forever.

All we ask of you, honorable legislators, is that you direct USCIS to process all the pending employment based I-485 applications within the next three months and new applications to be processed within 6 months.

USCIS gives the lowest priority to processing I-485 applications. When we ask them why, the reply is always that they are working on some other type of application that has to be processed within a certain timeframe. Why not process I-485 within a certain timeframe? Why are they diverting the fees paid by the applicants (to the tune of $160 million every year and another $160 million appropriated by Congress specifically for immigration backlog reduction?

Let’s look at some numbers. I-485 case adjudication officers are paid in the annual salary range of 24K – 34K. Let us approximate this to 40K. Let us see how $160 million collected every year only from I-485 application fees is being used. Let us assume that $50 million is used for security checks including fingerprint and name checks by FBI. Let us assume that another $60 million is used up for miscellaneous purposes including computer upgrades, new software, maintenance, stationery, etc. There is still $50 million that is to be used for hiring case adjudication officers. With $50 million, USCIS should be able to dedicate 1250 case officers (50M / 40K) and they should be able to adjudicate 50,000 cases a month even if an officer conservatively takes 4 hours for a single case (2 cases per day * 20 business days in a month * 1250 case officers). This should be possible purely from the fees collected from I-485 applicants. In FY2003, they adjudicated only about 4000 cases a month. That’s less than one-tenth of what they should be doing. At one time in California Service Center, USCIS had only about 15 people working on 485 applications. How do they expect to clear the backlogs from over two years ago? This is injustice. Justice delayed is justice denied! Can someone validate these numbers please? ---------(continued on the next post)
 
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continued from the previous post

----(continued from the previous post)

Honorable legislators, do you not hear our cry for help? Unless you direct USCIS to process our I-485 applications in a timely manner, they are not going to do anything about pending applications, because they are not accountable.

Let us also not forget the immediate effect on American economy your action will have. As all the pending I-485 applicants get approved, they will be buying houses, furniture, electronic equipment, etc. The service industry will see an improvement as well. There is more. But at the end of the day, this is not just about economy. This is about what is fair. From time to time, you must be able to work on what is right, not just what is popular. And you have already shown your selfless commitment to that ideal by being a legislator. If you cannot help us, who will?

For the few that feel we have come to America and taken American jobs, I have but this to say. We have gone through very stringent and rigorously applied labor laws that ensure we do not in fact displace a qualified American from his or her job. We have followed every immigration law in the book and we have already qualified to become immigrants. The question is then that of the final adjustment of status. I-485 approval changes our visa status to that of a legal permanent resident after we have already cleared all the other requirements. It takes 2 to 4 years to get to I-485 stage after meeting state and federal labor requirements. Why then do we have to wait for another two years to become permanent residents?

I-485 applicants seek freedom from the shackles of immigration processing delays. We are not asking for special favors. We are asking for timely processing of I-485 petitions.

From new freedom will spring new opportunities for growth, a more productive, fulfilled and united people, and a stronger America—an America that will lead the technological revolution, and also open its mind and heart and soul to the treasures of literature, music, and poetry, and the values of faith, courage, and love.

America is often looked upon as a great monolithic land mass with a vast centralized economy. It is neither of these things. It is two hundred and eighty million people who make up something more diverse, more complicated, more exciting, than any other nation on earth.

If we look to the answer as to why, for so many years, America achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was because here, in this land, Americans unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth.

When our immigration benefits applications are held in abeyance for over 18 to 24 months, when our lives in a limbo state, how will our minds be free? Granted, we were not born here. But for how long will that be held against us? Are we children of lesser gods?

We too have a dream. That one day we will be free at last.

We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed us and rest of the world. You meet heroes across a counter—and they are on both sides of that counter. Most of them are decent hard working Americans.

But you know some of them are immigrants too. There are entrepreneurs with faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They are individuals and families whose taxes support the Government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. There are heroes amongst us too.

We will not wallow in the valley of despair. In spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, we still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. It is a dream that is alive and well.

We have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." We have a dream that one day we can work for any employer that we believe will utilize our services to the fullest and compensate us accordingly. We have a dream that we can buy a house anytime we want as long as our credit situation is good. We have a dream that we can give our children a good education because we can afford a house in good school districts. We have a dream that an immigrant application is approved within 6 months subject to visa number availability. We have a dream today. We have a dream that one day we will be able to say “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

This is a nation that is vibrant, robust, and alive. But there are many mountains yet to climb. The legislators will not and should not rest until every American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity. It should include immigration benefits applicants as well.

To quote President FDR, “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given, of other generations much is expected, but this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” This generation of Americans will create history. This generation of immigrants will make America a greater nation than it already is. Let this Congress take action to help the immigrants realize their dreams and create an environment where genius and potential of the immigrant mind is unleashed for the good of mankind.

God bless America and God bless us all.

Thank You,

Your Name
Street Address,
City, State, Zip
 
cosmos,
It is toooo lengthy. The congress men / senators may not read it at all. I think that the second post can be completely eliminated. The first post itself is enough. Also there is no need to give the details about how much CIS is collecting and how much they are spending. So the text in the red color may also be eliminated. Wait for a day or two and see others suggestions, and based on the suggestions ,bring our version 2.0
 
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