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| Home Front: WoT |
| Massive Backlog, Long Waits for Green Cards |
| 2005-07-23 |
| While I want us to screen out Islamacists, MS13 members and other undesireables, this country thrives on the energy of good immigrants. The feds need to get their act together on this. If you don't want jobs going overseas - or if you want us to remain the most competitive country for the best of the best - support the integration of good people into our economy here. Hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers trying to stay in the United States find their journey halted somewhere along a maze of boxes, filing cabinets and cubicles of government contractors. The backlog of foreign workers seeking green cards, which allow immigrants to live and work in the United States permanently, numbers more than 330,000. In September, the Department of Labor set up a center here and another in Dallas to quicken the first step of processing for employment-based green cards. But while the federal agency said it has spent time and money to ease a complicated traffic jam, immigrants, their employers and lawyers have been growing impatient. "It's too long," said Rajesh Poudyal, who emigrated from Nepal 15 years ago on a student visa. His employer, a contractor for NASA in Greenbelt, applied for his green card in November 2001. "You don't know if it's going to be another three-year wait. You keep thinking, 'It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen.' " And yet it hasn't. Government officials say the wait has been too long for most of the immigrant workers hoping for their green cards. The oldest case is from August 1998. Jebus. On March 28, the Labor Department introduced a computerized fast-track processing system to handle new applications, doling them out to two centers. Between the backlog centers and the new sites, labor officials said, they have streamlined a multi-layered process that could have had some waiting as long as six more years. Now, they say, the backlog should be cleared within two years. Okee dokee .... In employment-based green card applications, the Labor Department essentially certifies that the employer exists and that the immigrant is being paid the prevailing wage for the job described. In most cases, employers must also prove that they sought to hire U.S. workers for the job but could not. As proof, they provide classified advertisements, competing résumés and summaries of their recruitment methods. From this stage, known as labor certification, the application travels to the Department of Homeland Security, which conducts its own review and decides whether to allow the immigrant to petition for residency status. Before the backlog accumulated, immigration attorneys say, labor certification generally took 30 to 90 days. Under the new fast-track system, labor officials say, the process should routinely take up to 60 days. But there is no such expectation for the 174,000 people awaiting processing here from about half the states, including Maryland and Virginia, and the District. reminds me of the Italian post office that just dumped a huge backlog of undelivered mail Besides 10 federal workers, the remaining staff of 100 work for Exceed Corp., the company that successfully bid for the backlog contract. Starting last year, all 50 states sent boxes upon boxes to one of the two backlog sites. Officials said that they hope to act on the applications on a first-in, first-out basis and that they have entered about 80 percent of the applicants' data into a computerized system over the past year. "In government terms, that has been quite a short amount of time," said Emily Stover DeRocco, assistant secretary of labor for employment and training. The backlog stems from the passage of legislation that allowed undocumented immigrants or immigrants who had overstayed their visas to apply for green cards if a family member or employer sponsored them -- but they had to do it by April 2001. The result was a surge of green card applications. The result has also been some resentment of workers who have not been in the United States legally from workers who have. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #6 Where does it say it will be quick and easy to get a green card or citizenship in the US? It doesn't so knock of the god damned whinning. We let them stay while the process is going on so what is the prob? They are lucky we let anyone in at this point. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-07-23 23:47 |
| #5 To hell with all these bastards. Send them all packing back to wherever they came from. Next time you get on a freeway at rush hour ask yourself how many more people, particularly from elsewhere, we need to have in this country. There isn't one problem, not one, in this country that wasn't more easily addressed in a country of 150 million people than in a country of 300 million. Ship 'em back and close the door for good. If we need more people here, they're easily made at home here in the U.S. by unskilled labor who enjoy their work. |
| Posted by: mac 2005-07-23 20:31 |
| #4 gotta take care of this process - make it reasonable for people willing to go through it. Don't reward the fence-jumpers |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-07-23 16:14 |
| #3 Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates has repeatedly advocated removing caps on H-1B visas. Ah, yes, the unlimited labor market, no more supply and demand to contend with. H1Bs started at under 10K authorized and has grown care of both parties to over 200K per year. So why in the hell study computer science at all in America, cause the big companies will just hire foreign. Been in the game. First HR prints a help wanted listing that is a page long with qualifications [of which one or two humans on the planet might have most]. When no 'qualified' individual is found, they get an H1B visa authorization to hire foreign. There is no follow up to see how close the hired person matches the original listing. Its all a HR game. Companies complain they can't find people with 'experience', but won't employ Americans so they can get the experience. Companies complain they can't find the right skill combinations, but won't pay for the training. Damn, seems the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines not only pay for your time but also train you. However, Mr. US Business will not pay for training cause you might move on with the skills and the company doesn't want to issue a contract of obligation cause then the labor moves from resource to liability. If you want unlimited labor, I want all barriers to products and services removed too. All those little Congressional paybacks to protect companies from international competition. I want full enforcement of Sherman Antitrust so that all cabals to rig prices are literally put out of business. As for the Hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers trying to stay in the United States, thank all the illegals and their apologists who skip the line and divert resources from your applications. |
| Posted by: Hupavith Gletle6588 2005-07-23 15:54 |
| #2 The facts are the managers of this department are totally incompetent. Fire them. I they can't get this work done quickly and efficiently fire them. The Secratary of Labort needs to be fired as well. Apperently the "Department of Labor" doesn't know how to work. These approvals shouldn't take days, months or years, They should be able to be made in minutes. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-07-23 12:58 |
| #1 These are the types of immigrants we want to welcome to our shores - LAW ABIDING and productive. Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. George Bush wants to give virtual amnesty to millions of people who violated federal law and entered the US illegally. Pissing in the eye of every single one of these people. I say if you want a guest worker program then fine - but dont give any out until every single legal immigrant (including those who have not filed yet) have been given their turn. It takes nearly 5 years for a petition for a relative (non-citizen son/daugher) to even be looked by the USCIS |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-07-23 12:25 |