The Immigration System is Broken

I spent an enjoyable time yesterday afternoon with my Uncle W. over at Oma’s house. He is in this country visiting and attempting to get his immigration papers through at last. I say “at last, because W. has been trying to emigrate from Germany since 1983. For the last 24 years, he has been caught up in red tape, and there is no end to it in the foreseeable future.

On paper, he looks as if it should be a no-brainer to let him into the US. He retired from working for the United States Government in Germany after 25 years of service. He was told that working for the government would speed up the process for him. His sister is a United States citizen and is willing to sponsor him for citizenship herself. He has an independent income both from the United States and from Germany, so he will not be a drain on the economy. He wants to come with his wife ans three children and buy a house and put his children through college. He is exactly the kind of citizen we should be rolling out the welcome mat for, but we aren’t.

He heads back to Germany this week. After 3 months in this country, his cause for immigration is now in a worse place than when he left home to come and visit. In spite of all of the pluses on his side, the bureaucrat at INS shredded his paperwork this week. She said that she can’t explain why, but she thinks he’s attempting to break the law in some way, so she was denying him. Then she pulled out her shredder and ran his papers through it. These papers have been on file since 1983! Now he must begin again. So, he’s going home to start the process all over.

We have contacted our senators and congressmen, but the only one who offered help was Sen Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. God bless him.

While the immigration debate these days is centered around those sneaking in illegally, perhaps we need to look at the system as a whole as irreparable broken. When qualified applicants are left in a perpetual limbo, and bureaucrats can shred documents because they “have a funny feeling”, and after 24 years the promise of citizenship is still years away, then we need to change things. We need to keep one eye on the people building the fence and the other on those manning the shredders and demand that someone fix this now!