A Few Almost Final Thoughts on Immigration
Yesterday, I learned that the government agency in charge of these things has approved an application to stay in this country for a person that has been in and out of status more than a few times over the more than twenty five years since she left the Dominican Republic.
The latest application process has taken over two years and before that about eight years with a different process, and about ten years for an earlier application process. It has been a long and winding road for this person and people that have been associated with her. It has also been expensive. Immigration lawyers have been expensive, lazy, not very helpful, and quite possibly crooks in this particular case.
"En la boca del lobo" I surprised my self in doing what I have done over the last few years.
To get the ball rolling we visited an immigration office. Visiting the office with a person that has a deportation order is at best dicey. The system gave us an appointment and we made some plans about where her daughter would go if Mom was taken into detention before being sent home to the DR. The guy at the window was nice and gave out a paper with names and numbers of places that gave free legal advice. He said her case was so old, that it had been transferred to the DOJ for action on her deportation, but because she had bonded out 20 plus years ago and had no problems with the law there was little chance they would be making an early morning visit to come and get her.
Off to get legal advise we visited various refugee agencies. No luck and very little progress made. If you paid some one previously or you were not a member of a nationality that automatically gave you some legal status you got the bums rush.
In a fit of madness on a federal holiday,(luckily) we went to the Krome Avenue Detention Center to try to see a "judge" regarding the situation and again try to move the process forward. We were again lucky the place was closed but we were given the address of an office that coordinated voluntary deportations. I was a little unnerved as the guard searched my vehicle for explosives. We probably fit the profile for crazy.
A quick trip to Miramar the next day gave us another 800 number to call. The security guard was helpful. He suggested that Patty stay in the car and that I enter the building to talk to the guy at the window and get some more info before we decided what to do. Women were being detained much further away from Miami, and so we made a strategic retreat.
The next few days were miserable. It took that long to get through on the phone to speak to someone and find someone that could speak Spanish and listen to the long version of the story and verify application dates, receipt numbers and put the timeline together. We also learned that not all computers and databases are equal and were told we needed to go back to the original immigration office we had visited and speak to a supervisor and use this person's name and internal phone number, he would try to help because her case had possibly been mishandled by her lawyer and the agency at various times during the previous eight years. To be continued...
The latest application process has taken over two years and before that about eight years with a different process, and about ten years for an earlier application process. It has been a long and winding road for this person and people that have been associated with her. It has also been expensive. Immigration lawyers have been expensive, lazy, not very helpful, and quite possibly crooks in this particular case.
"En la boca del lobo" I surprised my self in doing what I have done over the last few years.
To get the ball rolling we visited an immigration office. Visiting the office with a person that has a deportation order is at best dicey. The system gave us an appointment and we made some plans about where her daughter would go if Mom was taken into detention before being sent home to the DR. The guy at the window was nice and gave out a paper with names and numbers of places that gave free legal advice. He said her case was so old, that it had been transferred to the DOJ for action on her deportation, but because she had bonded out 20 plus years ago and had no problems with the law there was little chance they would be making an early morning visit to come and get her.
Off to get legal advise we visited various refugee agencies. No luck and very little progress made. If you paid some one previously or you were not a member of a nationality that automatically gave you some legal status you got the bums rush.
In a fit of madness on a federal holiday,(luckily) we went to the Krome Avenue Detention Center to try to see a "judge" regarding the situation and again try to move the process forward. We were again lucky the place was closed but we were given the address of an office that coordinated voluntary deportations. I was a little unnerved as the guard searched my vehicle for explosives. We probably fit the profile for crazy.
A quick trip to Miramar the next day gave us another 800 number to call. The security guard was helpful. He suggested that Patty stay in the car and that I enter the building to talk to the guy at the window and get some more info before we decided what to do. Women were being detained much further away from Miami, and so we made a strategic retreat.
The next few days were miserable. It took that long to get through on the phone to speak to someone and find someone that could speak Spanish and listen to the long version of the story and verify application dates, receipt numbers and put the timeline together. We also learned that not all computers and databases are equal and were told we needed to go back to the original immigration office we had visited and speak to a supervisor and use this person's name and internal phone number, he would try to help because her case had possibly been mishandled by her lawyer and the agency at various times during the previous eight years. To be continued...
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