newfie_duck's Blog

I am a legal alien here in MO and I am so tired of hearing all of the hype about illegal aliens and the " crack down " on them. I have been here legally for 9 years, and I still do not have my permanent "green card". The INS office is so backlogged, and the service is so sloppy I have not had an official card for 7 years. I came to this country with my 4 children in 1999, and have had nothing but headaches since. Not only is the process confusing, expensive and cumbersome to complete, the INS is not on it's game. We have had our cards mixed up, ( identification numbers on cards with wrong pictures and prints) cards arriving just before they expire, and cards being re-issued with the same mistakes not fixed. I have made numerous visits to the INS office here in KCMO, co-ordinating schedules with all of my family to go tgether as required, and missed time from work to try to rectify this issue. I am currently using my passport for immigration status proof, I have had it stamped numerous times, and am now on my 2nd passport for stamping. The first passport expired already since this process started. In my opinon, the government needs to first have an appropriate process in place, one that works, before they challenge persons with non compliance. In this day and age of national security, I would think that the INS should be more concerned with their own performance than deflecting attention and public attention to the mainly Hispanic illegal issues. It seems to me they are creating this hype and targeting a low risk (easily identifyable) group to distract from thier own short comings. If they have mixed our cards up, how many others have they made mistakes with? How secure are we if the "Green Cards" are not adequately issued? This can work both ways. Good people can be mis-identified as threats, and threatening people can be ignored because their "green card" seems accurate. How reliable is this system?