Green cards used to be the highest priority for immediate members of family living in foreign lands. That was until the Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) was overwhelmed by the President’s order to shift attention to give deportation deferrals to young undocumented immigrants.  This is all well and good, but the department charged with this responsibility is so flooded with applicants for the deferral program that American citizens waiting for green cards are waiting more than a year for their families to be reunited.  One parent is in America while the kids and the other parent live in Australia.

My son, Matthew, is married to a Polish women and has waited eight months, for the I-130 form, to pass through the Citizenship and Immigration Services department. The I-130 form, cost $430, has now moved to the State Department and then on to the consulate.  The next part takes the longest time and deals with my son’s domicile or permanent home address.  He must prove that this is his address after living in Poland for 18 months.  The passport only counts to get you back home, but not for domicile.  The list includes a drivers license, which needs to be renewed from Poland, at great expense, mostly for certified interpreters to decipher to Polish and back to English, the eye exam.  A voter registration card.  Who has one of those?  Church membership document.  Who has one of these?  Three years of tax returns certified by the IRS. Adding my son to the utilities bill is one of the easy things that look good, and then filling out joint sponsorship documents, proving employment (your income must be 125% of the US poverty level), plus our tax returns, and swearing to be responsible for that person for forty quarters or ten years.  These are some of the difficulties facing our citizens because congress will not revamp our immigration service that is 50 years past obsolescence and counting.  Our weak kneed, gutless, pathetic congress is obsolete in it’s self and needs replacing.  Immigration is one of the largest issues this country has at present. The house majority leader, Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, has just announced that immigration policy will not be addressed this year. This, after saying he would address this growing crisis, only weeks before.  I hope we remember who or what party holds this nation hostage.  The arrogance and  ineptitude is like a cancer.  Throw them all out and start again.   Published each Wednesday at least.