Immigrants caught in green card limbo

In the wake of the defeat of a compromise immigration reform bill last week, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff observed that the next step is to enforce the laws currently on the books.

But what happens if those laws are flawed?

Case in point: yesterday the government abruptly issued an edict barring new applications to obtain green cards until October 1^st. the State Department said that a massive backlog exists with visa applications, but immigration lawyers believe that the government’s decision does more harm than good:

"There are people who flew to the United States so they could apply and had their families fly back. They paid attorney fees," (Crystal Williams, associate director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association) said… Williams said several workers within Citizenship and Immigration Services told her and other lawyers that the agency had staffers working through the weekend to resolve pending cases…A spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, denied the weekend work occurred or that there was a push to use up the visa numbers.”

This is not the first time the State Department has suddenly changed rules regarding immigration; last month travelers were confused over modifications to passport requirements.

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Christian Science Monitor, Yahoo! News

Image- WVVA