SFO INS Worker Mocked Me

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a

Member
Hello,

I am very angry. I went to get iEAD card
at SFO.

However, I went two days before the 90 day
period was to pass. It was an honest mistake,
the RD on my EAD and I485 are different.

The rude INS worker pointed this out to me,
shook his head side to side and said "Thank
you come again" with a fake Indian accent.
He was definitely mocking me, the way he shook
his head and all.

Has this type of behavior happened to other?
Should I bother reporting it?
 
reply

there r good people and there r bad people
there r happy people and there r people who hate their job
sometime u have to face unpleasant incidents like this where people r rude or misbehave

You have to go ahead and move on - not hold on to these small incidents in life.

I remember the story of a man who emigrated to Australia

He had to find a place and when he was not able to find a place he asked someone who gave him instructions and he went as per the instructions and finally reached back to where he started from.

This was in the first week of arrival in Australia

But he was an intelligent desi and he moved on in life and is an excellent Doctor there.

Dont hold on to it - move on
 
Good one!!!

rsrgc,

I liked your example. Indeed it is good piece of suggestion and I will try to practice it in my life too!
 
Sorry to hear that!

Well rsrgc is right- because keep thinking about it is only going to keep you tense! It aint going to harm anyone else! However, I think it won\'t harm if you just wrote a letter to the INS (I believe you can find out information on it on www.ins.gov website) explaining the scene and if you remember that character\'s name/id/any info on him/her!
Problem is that many of these people are ignorant, or illiterate, or blessed with both! And then some just don\'t have what it takes to deal with so many foreigners on a daily basis and they\'re still hired by the INS!
Look at it this way- its not going to last all your life- hopefully soon you\'ll get past this nightmare of dealing with the INS! :)
 
DesiInDistress

No - I do not agree with you. Please do not complain to supervisor.
Each an every person has bad moments in life

American method is if you do not like the behaviour of an individual -tell him so - but do not complain to his supervisor - and move on in life - dont hold that incident for a long time in your mind
 
AngryDesi,

I bet you are madder at you than at him for putting yourself in this situation. I have been in situations like that myself. You oughta know that these INS officers maybe do not make as much as you do and that probably rankles. There maybe a few that harbor ill will maybe even hatred towards immigrants. As long as you are in the right they will be courtesy personified. Do you remember the mocking, nay insulting comments faced by the H1B folks who were arrested by INS agents in San Antonio a few years back. Those are the situations when all pentup negative feelings come to the surface.
I know, your issue now is you think you have been treated shabbily and humiliated and you need redressal. You have 2 options as already pointed out by rsrgc and goldengate. Lets examine each option.
1) You let it slide.
     Wait for a couple of days and you may realize that your anger has dissipated. You may realize that it is not worthwhile generating negative emotions in yourself, family and friends for the actions of one person. Moreover, this person does not mean anything at all and will never have a bearing on your life. You may never come into contact with person again. So, is it worth losing your peace of mind and happiness over such an insignificant person? Like rsrgc pointed out, it takes all kinds to make a world. We take care to not to get ourselves into situations where we meet angry, bigoted and negative people. But, sometimes it becomes unavoidable. You just put it behind you and move on. Think forward to a time 5 years in the future. At that time would this incident have had any bearing on the course of your life? The answer you would come up with is No! But, I can assure you that you will not forget. Unfortunately bad incidents have a tendency to take up indelible spots in our memory. Next time do not give anybody else a chance to treat you like that.
2) You draft a letter and complain to his Supervisor.
     This approach is fraught with complications. First do you remember his Name, Id number etc by which you can isolate him out of the dozens of folks who work there? Even if you did who would you address your letter to? Even if you addressed it to the right person what are the chances it will reach him/her? Lets say your letter reached the correct Supervisor. I am sure S/he is bound to bring this up with the errant employee. This is what supervisors do. Now, is this errant employee going to agree with what you said? No! He will defend himself with the perfectly credible argument that you were pissed off at being turned away and are trying to get back at the officer. It becomes a case of He said, She said. Nothing really will come of it. Such situations happen all the time in Customer Service situations. The supervisor will eventually have to dismiss it especially if this is the first complaint of its nature against that officer.
3) A third option is to get a lawyer involved and file a formal complaint. That involves a lot of money, energy and time. You will be bled dry fighting a corporation which INS really is. Its not like you can prove anything conclusively. The most you can get out of option 2 or 3 is an apology. I really don\'t think you are going to get even that.

I understand your outrage and anger and emphatize with you. But, I suggest that you let this slide and move on. Your aims and goals are far bigger and much more important than getting involved further in this mess. It may feel cowardly to not do anything and lump it but that is the practical and prudent thing to do. Hope you get your approval soon and move on.
 
You should complain.

rsrgc,
Yuo can write a letter to SFO INS or congresswomen to complain about that because the INS employee is totally not professional. Everyone should be respected before God!
Writing a letter also helps you to pass this nightmare.
 
This forum is heating up

Lately we\'ve had polygamists, dosa fighters, and now racist behaviour. Always by first time posters. Anyway, I think this is not a matter to be discussed or vented here, look into your conscience and do what you thing is right. Best thing could be to end with racism, second best thing is to prevent racists from expressing their ideas. I\'ve met immigrants that are racists themselves towards other people, it is a very complex problem.
 
Huracan

I like your thoughts about new handle single posters and Polygamists, Dosa Fighters and Racists
 
Huracan may be right

I resisted the urge to seriously get involved in the polygamist and dosa-stealing threads as I was pretty sure that they were frivolous posts, especially the dosa guy. That sounded like something out of Seinfeld or Friends. It probably had to do with that George character in Seinfeld. I also vaguely remember an episode with Ross in Friends and his Thanskgiving leftover Turkey sandwich.
 
But, this post is very believable just because this kind of thing definitely does happen. Even if this particular incident is made up, the discussion really applies to immigrants\' experiences here. Hence my detailed post on this.
 
The sad thing

is that behaviour that the one described happens, perhaps more often than we are aware. Working in Silicon Valley you bet I work with many other immigrants. I was talking a few days ago with a coworker from India, who has been here for more than 10 years, and he described me a couple of such racist incidents, but none with public servants. Anyway, it\'s just that with so many "pulling your leg" kind of postings lately I am becoming very suspicious of certain postings. There have been some other attempts to start flame wars in other forums in this website. It would be good if Angry Desi shares some of his other experiences so far, plus the customary RD/ND and category.

My 2 cents.
 
I recently heard an incident

from my coworker about an incident 4-6 years back.

The co-worker is a mexican and he gave a speech one day to the whole office.

Another co-worker passed a comment that \'Good for a mexican\'

The co-worker who passed the comment was fired that very day for \'Racism\'

I work in a wonderfull company where the owners are extremely modern in their thinking and they were among the first people in California to start a \'smokeless\' environment and a \'casual dress style\' approach.

You will find amongst the bad part of life some good and some extremely wonderfull incidents also.
 
My details ...

Thanks guys. I\'m going to let is slide. I was very upset
having waited in line for hours only to have this person
mock me. It is very degrading, we migrants contribute a
significant amount to this country.

There are many many lurkers who don\'t want to get too involved
in this board.

My details are:

EB2 (RIR)

EAD RD 12/08/01
EAD ND 01/03/02

I485 RD 12/06/01
I485 ND 01/03/02

I\'ll go again on Monday,
apparently it is 90 days after
EAD RD, not I485 RD.
 
I have an incident in my office to relate

At my work place all the managers currently involved in a project get together for a meeting once a week. This meeting is attended by managers, business unit folks, IT VP\'s and Business unit VP\'s. I have a lady from India working for me in my team. At one of these meetings 2-3 years ago one old school manager wanted to refer to her and did not remember her name. So, he tried to describe her and said "that girl with the dot on her forehead". Immediately, the whole meeting went quiet and I could see outrage on the faces of other attendees especially so with the ladies. Some of them looked at me and offered what seemed like a silent apology. Anyway, the meeting completed and a little while later this manager came to my office and was very contrite and apologetic. He explained to me that he did not mean to offend me or anyone else. Knowing him he seemed to be very sincere in his apology. I personally did not think it was such a big deal. I knew where he was coming from. He used that description quite like "the guy in the blue suit", "the person who sits across from Mike on the 3rd floor" etc. But, folks in a corporate setting are so sensitive to cultural issues that they thought it was far more serious than I felt it was. I really did not ascribe that to racism, just poor choice of words and lack of understanding.
 
yamagu, do you see anybody here condoning mistreating of another human being...

refer to rsrgc\'s first post in this thread. There are good people and there are bad people. Don\'t you think the "you" in your statement is very general and sweeping. There is no country or place on this earth which is completely fair. The point of this thread was how to address one person\'s experience. Lets not get into a flaming discussion on the ills prevalent on this Earth.
 
People in India

I dont know all people in India

I can vouch for people of Bombay (now called Mumbai)

Maumbai\'ites are more conscious of an economic class system compared to the religious caste system.

Naturally a person earning x per year will not associate with person whose income is 20-30 percent of x per year and vice versa.

I think even in US it is fast becoming or already is an economic class system.
 
huh.... what a discussion???

coool down guys.. another indian throws pigeons out of the hat.. that is the reason india is yet to prosper with the so-called "GREAT" children like us. Look rsrgc. What is he trying to tell? We indians hate our own existence. We slap ourselves in telling who you are? There is no economic class sytem or religious caste system. Coming to Bombay.. i felt like laughing. Bal is in bombay and people in bombay think of economic class system. That is the best thing world expect out of bombay. These systems are advertised and followed by so-called indian opportunists. Coming to American system, it is not the system that is running the america. It is the people mentality which stood like strong pillar for america. If americans also think like indians, the INS guy wouldn\'t have behaved as he did with our friend, AngryDesi. So friends, forget the systems in india and do some thing to the country in your own way and help the country to prosper in all fields.

Dear friend, AngryDesi, even i would have felt like that and exactly behaved like you. But dont let yourself slide on this. When you get a chance, you got to screw these kind of people. Now without green card, we are kind of slaves. But life after green card, you got to live like an american. Just think over.... how many times you might have got horned while walking or driving from those lousy american drivers (especially white girls/women). If you see any other white doing the same thing, dont hesitate in teaching the same lesson. Dont ever try to treat your own people like you were treated by the other country men. I have seen on various occasions an indian men/women never greet (forget greeting dont even smile) when you face them at shopping malls but the same person will laugh with all holes to our american friends. SO, REMEBER DONT EVER LET URSELF DOWN IN FRONT OF OTHERS... BUT DONT HESITATE TO FEEL BAD IN FRONT OF YOUR OWN PEOPLE. Last but not the least look at the americans, how they openly declare on whom they workship (on a dollar bill they print "WE TRUST IN GOD"). In India, after having several thousands of years of history, we are still in confused state about whom we suppose to workship. Coooling down guys.... Leangthy expression. RIGHT!!!. what to do .. me too an indian.. talk more and do lessssss.
 
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