COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Lowest Number Of Green Cards Issued In The Entire Decade

A P Kamath in New York

Despite the increase in its budget, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is still finding it hard to process green card applications adequately. It processed 660,477 applications between October 1997 and September 1998. This revelation by the INS this week, along with owning up that at least 120,000 more applications could have been processed but for better processing resources, has angered many immigration lawyers and politicians in Washington.

This is the lowest number of green cards issued in the past decade, INS officials said, adding that it marked a 17 per cent drop from 1997 and a 28 pc decline from the previous year.

There are about one million green card applications pending before the INS. A year ago, the number was about 120,000.

"The 'S' in INS does stand for service. They may want to remember that occasionally,'' said Matt Tallmer, spokesman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He called the backlog "atrocious."

Rohit Turkhud, an immigration attorney, believes that the INS problems today are the result of many years of negligence and red-tape. Its mindset cannot be easily changed, he feels.

Representative Lamar Smith (Republican, Texas), one of the harshest critics of INS, demanded that the agency be broken into two divisions soonest -- one dealing with visa and citizenship applications, and the other with border violations. He demanded the agency "must stop punishing immigrant families," adding their patience and sacrifice demanded better INS service. The bill to dismantle the INS has not yet been discussed in the House.

The INS officials say green card applications were processed slowly because the agency was concentrating on citizenship applications. The citizenship applications rose dramatically in numbers in the past two years when many states began cutting educational and health benefits even to legal residents who have lived in America for decades. Worried by the burden of helping indigent green card holders, mayors of many large cities encouraged green card holders to become citizens and be eligible for federal and state aid.

India ranks third among the top 10 countries of origin for immigrants coming to the United States, the recently released INS statistics show. Last year, 35,482 Indians were allowed into America (5.5 pc of immigrants) while 36, 884 Chinese (5.6 pc) and 131, 525 Mexicans (19.89 pc) were allowed in legally.

The Philippines was the fourth with 34, 466 people (5.2 pc), followed by Dominican Republic, 20, 387 (3.1 pc), Vietnam, 17,649 (2.7 pc), Cuba, 17, 375 (2.6 pc), Jamaica, 16,146 (2.3 pc) and El Salvador, 14, 590 (2.2 pc). South Korea, which was last on the list, had 14, 268 people entering America (2.2 pc).

Next: Graduate Student Builds World's Tiniest Web-Server

Tell us what you think of this report