I really hate immigration......

It is bad enough that PAP's have to wait what seems like forever to receive their I-171H. It stinks that trying to get an I-171H costs a small fortune. It stinks worse that waiting to adopt has gotten longer and this small fortune has to get paid TWICE!

Immigration reform and amnesty has been a hot topic recently. I will not get started on it because many opinions vary and I am just not sure I can intelligently speak about it because I DO see both sides.

I have a friend who has now been directly affected by all this immigration crap and I am steaming mad. Read on.....

My friend participates in a hosting program. This hosting program allows orphan children typically not eligible for adoption overseas to spend some time in the US with a host family. These children have come for the past few years and many of them stay with the same host family year after year. The host families are very generous. They give their time, resources, and energy to host these children and give them a few weeks of bliss.

Our own US Consulate has denied all of the children in this hosting program this year of their VISA's to come to the US for a few weeks. I guess there is fear that these children would not be "returned" once their stay is over. It is complete and utter bullsh*t. This hosting program is not in the adoption business. They require their host families to sign acknowledgments that the children are not adoptable and the hos families have to abide by all of the program's rules and stipulations.

All I can think of is how this is hurting the children (and the host families). This hosting program is a cultural exchange program in which both sides have their lives enriched and opened up. These children have so little to look forward to and ask for so little that to take it from them is just cruel. This is their chance to experience things they never have had (like a birthday party) and see many things and open up their world and OUR OWN US CONSULATE is denying these children of that.

I wrote the Consulate and got a letter back. It was quite formal and stated the reason for the denial of VISAs was due to so and so this section and adoption that......it was crap.

Tell me why it is so hard for people to get VISAs and I-171H's yet so many live here illegally and now want amnesty? Tell me why we pay through the nose for these things, but it is something like $10-15 to apply for citizenship? Tell me why we are penalized for going through the proper legal channels?