My story started in 1995 as I was entering the United States through the gates of JFK airport in New York City. I was off to a new life, which seemed to be unfolding rather slowly and less encouragingly than I had hoped. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approved my entry into the US following an invitation from one of my oldest sisters to resume my studies in Boston. Coming from a medium-sized family of ten from the Ivory Coast, I couldn't have asked for more, since Boston is regarded as the Mecca of education around the world.
t never crossed my mind that my pursuit of happiness would be jeopardized, but I was to face many obstacles along the way: my student status with the local high school was not established on time; I lost a sibling; and I even lost the one place I called home. It is possible that my life here in the US for the past eleven years could have turned out better and been more productive, but I basically spent it vagabonding and surviving to the best of my abilities.
Before I emigrated, the idea of coming to Boston had fascinated me, although my dad never fancied it much. Together with now-deceased brother Armel, my dad and I worked through intensive exam preparations ten times before I received my sister's invitation to come to the US. I still hold those studious days as sacred, and they were also the only bonding experience I ever had with both my father and my brother. I excelled in school and passed my exams, as had Armel. We were all very proud of our accomplishments; in fact, I seriously thought my academic excellence was the reason I was selected to go the US to do even better. My father and I had considered the university, and I had treasured the idea of becoming a PhD holder just like him.
At that time we knew little about what my future in the US. would be like. I n fact, it became clear soon after my arrival that the other half of the family had other plans in mind for me. Whether the plan was determined by either my mother or my sister, or both of them, I still do not know.
I hope that my personal story sheds some light on questions of reform and dysfunction of the ancient US immigration system. Many people today seem to be focusing on reforming an aging system from the outside; but most of the people in my shoes, those with direct experience, would instead like to see some things fixed once and for all by improvement from within, through internal procedural reviews and constitutional supervision of the people inside those federal offices.
A basic question that needs an answer is whether reforms should focus on keeping immigrants out, or on helping and regulating the many who are already here and seemingly settled. It seems that no one takes into account the many physical, mental, and financial hardships that come along with trying to make a life in a new country, because unfortunately there a few crooked individuals whose actions undermine the efforts of the honest majority. Is the immigration system becoming increasingly infiltrated by corruption? Or are we striving as hard as we can to abide by the America's laws?
My own experience includes being classified as an illegal immigrant in the US for over a decade, although I still had a work permit handed to me lawfully by the USCIS. Also, on three occasions, I was prevented from crossing the border to visit Montreal, Canada in order to resume my studies and see its wonderful historical grounds. At other times, I was denied re-entry to the US after losing two siblings. Although I knew some immigrants were allowed to exit the US and re-enter, the officials at the JFK Boston office assured me that I would be prohibited from coming back to the US to pursue my residency for ten years if I tried to do the same. I found it outrageous and really emotionally destructive, but unfortunately it is the truth.
I couldn't possibly be the only person in the commonwealth or within a larger area who received such recommendations. A lot of applicants already within the country are amazed, baffled, and left feeling helpless by their experiences. I did and still do have my wounds to heal and lost time to make up, as well as a sense of validity by way of a tag number. There continue to be numerous irregularities and discrepancies overlooked by USCIS officials. This situation is not constitutionally right, equal, or fair at all. During my opportunities to roam and visit our local federal offices, I observed many glitches and errors.
Meanwhile, although the US expends financial and technological resources to improve and reinforce its borders against illegal entries, our federal offices have no state-of-the-art technology or surveillance in place. It makes you think, especially after the towers fell on 9/11, that if a random terrorist group should breeched those non-secured walls, it would be up to the central authority in Washington, DC to authorize "run for cover" tactics or defensive options and strategies. Where is the real overriding security? Is there a clear chain of command, procedure, or timeline in place for such a situation? It should make you, the public, cringe a little, to think that we do not know the answer; yet I guarantee you that most of the officers at JFK would have no clue. It illustrates that the priority in effect is simply Money First, then Security.
In my investigative travels I also found that the local government here in Massachusetts is not able to directly help local people, such as people in my situation. Need I repeat it? The power comes from Washington, DC! The mayors, the state representatives, or even the governor do not have a direct liaison with the federal authorities to communicate the urgency of a citizen's situation, never mind those of immigrants, regardless of their legal status. That is another main reason why my case went dormant for eleven years, in addition to the fact that--oops!--it was also closed for two years without any notification to me by either mail, email, or telephone, even though I had made sure to provide the USCIS with my current address, both by mail and through a visit to the local center, filing the right form(s) and getting them updated.
I have had the pleasure of meeting applicants from other countries and hearing their opinions on the subject of the USCIS. I met and mingled with folks from places like Serbia, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo, Senegal, Liberia, Morocco, and Algeria, all of whom have had similar experiences and bad luck. Some had to wait for several years while they were allowed to study, yet not work, or vice versa; others had to wait a decade; and some, due to a lack of stability in their stays or financial statuses, had to wait even longer. Their experiences varied, based on factors such as their country of origin and the category (ies) into which they fit according to the origins and statuses of the people who sponsored them into the US. It is not red tape could put big some heavy brakes arid to see how nonsensical red tape after nonsensical on people's plans and alter or damage people, children, projects and healthy dreams, and could even tarnish simple good will.
Clearly our local and federal officials are not technologically where we expect them to be at this day and age. We have been waiting for improvements to be implemented for years, even after the high terror alert levels of 2001 to 2003 and the terrorist threats made via video since then. No one seems to care that millions of people strive each day to get legal status and are obeying the law in their efforts. It seems to indicate that someone somewhere is making a profit from the taxes paid by many illegals that are allowed to work and have social security cards and numbers, although there is no valid database that documents their existence.
It is important to say, however, that the one improvement we have seen in recent years has been the quick internet accessibility introduced by the USCIS and other federal agencies. That access is free and open to all via http://www.uscis.gov. You can use the new website serves to gather quick information, download forms, get the rates of the various applications (most of which range from $175 to $5000 each) rather than obtaining them the long way of joining the long lines that form at the USCIS office between 4:30 AM and 6:30 AM to wait for the doors to open and go through the electronic search process. The USCIS website, however, still does not enable you to resolve the loopholes and unnecessary constraints that arte such stumbling blocks for most of us already in the country. In my opinion, it helps only to confirm that those loopholes actually exist, and that there is even a website that serves to cover the long and untimely proceedings.
Well, for the small difference it makes, this is my little story: the story of how my life has been put on hold for over a decade. I represent myself in the story, and perhaps I also speak for those others silenced by fears and the risks of unlawful deportation. It is imperative that we all seek to enforce and demand rightful practices of the constitution that brought us to America at the first place. We are all immigrants one way of the other and that is why we ought to demand that the USCIS and other agencies abide by the same laws and regulations we all have to abide by on a daily basis. Our human rights are first of all, and then come our civil right within the US, and our existence is to be reckoned with sooner or later. When we think reform, we also are to think of those irregularities within a system already established, and then of the billions of taxpayer dollars to go towards border patrols and illegal immigrants' raids--strategies that do not help in fixing the true problem.
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