More exposure

[owenkrout]

I am willing to pay the fee for a couple of Soapbox Alerts on the Congress.com webpage. I propose to start with the following. Let me know if you think it could be made better. BTW, I stole most of this from the CFL opening page, hope there are no objections.

 

In July 2002, the US Department of State implemented a new policy for Chinese and Russian immigrants, requiring the hopeful immigrant's name to pass a security background check. From the period of late July 2002 until sometime in mid-December 2002 no family based visas where issued in China or Russia. This resulted in many thousands of families being placed in an indefinite limbo while they awaited their visas. Recently, some visas have begun to trickle through the system. However, it has been an agonizingly slow process.

 

Initially, we were told that new security background checks would only take two weeks. Later, we were informed that coordination issues among various government agencies performing the checks would cause additional delay, and we should expect delays of 6 to 8 weeks. It has now been over 20 weeks, and still many families remain separated.

 

We try to be patient and understanding of the enormously challenging task that the United States Government faces in simultaneously keeping us safe and reuniting us with our families. However, it is difficult to be patient when thousands of student and tourist visas are being issued in many countries, including China and Russia, but family visas are held in indefinite suspension.

 

Our emotions have run the gauntlet. Sadness. Depression. Frustration. However, one emotion we have maintained during this entire ordeal is hope. Hope that the U.S. Government will come to understand the anguish its people are suffering as a result of being separated from their loved ones and act quickly to resolve the delays.

 

Help us to prod our seemingly uncaring government officials into accountability. The very visas that are being granted quickly are those which have in the past had a history of abuse. Family based visas and immigrants from Russia and China , such as those we are waiting for, do not have a pattern of security risks. Please register your support of us in our quest to be granted equal fair and equal treatment.

[owenkrout]

Copy all you want. To the Senators, Congressmen and such, I would include more detailed request for action. If I do a second post to congress.com, I will step it up to requested action. I will work on letters to Senators, Congressmen, Powell, Hardy, White House, Tom Ridge (Homeland Security Head) and anyone else I can think of in the next couple of days.

 

(Chorus of "To Dream the Impossible Dream")

[Mick]

Go for it Sir Owen. May you sally forth in search of justice with a spirit of chivalry and a dose of daring!

 

Great letter.

[Guest jennifer_lam]

owenkrout, Thanks for what u did!!!

[OrionM31]

Maybe what we should do is contact Rush Limball about this. Maybe HE can light the political fires that are needed to see things get through. If we can get the support of someone who has a high profile like he does, we may yet get the voices of the "black hole gang" heard.

 

Phil

[AngryTexan]

Orion,

Hope this does not offend you in any way, but I think Rush Limbaugh would be about the last person on the planet, next to Ashcroft, to ask for help in getting our Chinese loved ones here. He and his buddy Pat Buchanan think that a fence needs to be erected along the entire length of the U.S. - Mexico border. Limbaugh is about as anti-immigration as they come, particularly when those immigrants do not happen to be white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

[owenkrout]

I find Rush throughly annoying, not so much his opinions as his personality. But I am willing to take help from about anyone.

[Joseph-1]

Orion,

Hope this does not offend you in any way, but I think Rush Limbaugh would be about the last person on the planet, next to Ashcroft, to ask for help in getting our Chinese loved ones here.  He and his buddy Pat Buchanan think that a fence needs to be erected along the entire length of the U.S. - Mexico border.  Limbaugh is about as anti-immigration as they come, particularly when those immigrants do not happen to be white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.          

I havent heard WASP in Years. How Ironic.

[owenkrout]

Since the group seems to like it, I will post this on Congress.com tomorrow. That will be the magical two weeks that they asked for. Since new pick-up letters have again slowed to to a trickle, they obviously did not meet their own deadline again.

 

I post the follow up for your review tomorrow. I also encourage everyone to e-mail and/or fax their Congressmen, Senators, write letters to your local newspapers, TV stations, anything that you can think of to turn up the heat on these bums. We have seen from experience that as soon as the heat goes down, they get lazy again.

 

James tells us that Powell quoted from his letter. Good, at least he is listening. Fax or e-mail him also. Hit Ashcroft, Ridge, the White House. Isn't your loved one worth some time and some expense?

[OrionM31]

Orion,

Hope this does not offend you in any way, but I think Rush Limbaugh would be about the last person on the planet, next to Ashcroft, to ask for help in getting our Chinese loved ones here.  He and his buddy Pat Buchanan think that a fence needs to be erected along the entire length of the U.S. - Mexico border.  Limbaugh is about as anti-immigration as they come, particularly when those immigrants do not happen to be white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.          

AngryTexan, you're not offending me in anyway. There is a difference in this case. In this case, we don't have Chinese people sneaking over the boarder. They aren't hiding in RV's or in the trunk of a car. They are trying to follow the process that it written by law to come to America. And I think even though people may find Rush Offencive, he is willing to listen and maybe help. It can't hurt, can it?

 

Phil

[PJ]

Owen,

 

No prob, please feel free to reuse/copy/modify whatever verbiage you like from the intro page. One suggestion: perhaps you could include a link to the forums here, so that anyone who would like more "current" information on the delays could come here and see the impact the policy is having on so many people's lives.

 

Thanks,

 

P.J.

[Jatuke]

Some Chinese might not be "sneaking in", but they definitely know of ways to bend the system. My fiancee told me that her barber paid 150,000 RMB for a "service" to obtain a student visa to attend a "beauty school" here in California. She said that the barber will be going to America in March, after applying for the "student visa" last week. The "head" of the "beauty school" is a lady, and she went to Guangzhou last week to accompany the barber for the application. I've heard of many of these Chinese "visa services"; most are scams, but some are "legit" in the sense that they know how to bend the system.

 

In short, this sucks for us who play by the rules...but "it's better to be safe, than sorry"

[OrionM31]

:quote:

In short, this sucks for us who play by the rules...but "it's better to be safe, than sorry"

:end quote:

 

I deffinatly agree with the above statement. We are just starting this process and all the things that are happening to everyone else has me a little concerned. I guess my wife and I will take it one day at a time.

 

Phil & Ru Fang