Statement by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). Re: Immigration and Naturalization Service delays. Event: Congressional field hearing in San Jose, CA. Date: February 25, 2000. Source: Office of Zoe Lofgren.

This is a hearing about delay at INS and its human cost. We truly wish we could accommodate all the concerns about INS raised with us in recent days. We have heard from people with other sorts of complaints about the INS including dozens of people who had compelling stories to tell about delay, lost files and the like. We have only the hours from 10 AM to 2 PM today to enlighten ourselves about the human impact of delays in the INS processing system. I know that there are people from Congressman Farr's district who have concerns about a situation where, in their opinion, the INS was not too slow, but too fast in deporting a convicted felon. I know that there is at least one family of farm workers too fearful to appear in public to expose themselves to media attention and possible INS retaliation. I am aware that an Executive from a local high tech firm, someone so successful that he paid 40 million dollars in taxes last year to our American government, was also fearful of INS retaliation and so is not present to testify. We don't have sufficient time to invite everyone in this room to speak today. But we do have a way to make sure everybody is heard. To all of these people, and the many people in this room today who have stories to tell, we have devised a system where your written testimony can be received and reviewed. If you have prepared it, please leave it with us here at the noon break. We have forms in the back of the room for those who wish to write a statement now.

I want to thank my congressional colleagues from the Bay Area for making this hearing possible and especially my Co-Chair Congressman Sam Farr who had the inspiration to hold this hearing in the first place.

The inefficiency of the Immigration Service, particularly when it comes to naturalization and adjusting the status of immigrants, has greatly concerned me and my colleagues in the California delegation.

We have met on a regular basis with Commissioner Doris Meissner to air our frustrations and to find some fair and expeditious way to end this human tragedy. Each of us, individually and jointly, has received reassurances and promises from INS that things were getting better and soon. But they haven't. Instead, they've gotten progressively worse in the five years I've been working on this problem. I am working hard at being patient but my patience has gone unrewarded and now my patience is exhausted. I'm irate about INS's seeming indifference toward our constituents, our staffs, and even ourselves, the Representatives of the Bay Area. Congressional offices have been allocating between 50% and 85% of their district staffs' time to help constituents deal with this agency.

This hearing is about the poor and the powerless. Four years ago, at a town hall meeting at the John XXIII Senior Center in downtown San Jose, dozens of seniors were totally at their wits' end over INS. From stories about naturalization to family immigration, they told me about their living nightmare. They explained they had to have their fingerprints taken over and over again for the naturalization application, about INS delays, that files were lost, that phones went unanswered, and more. I asked INS Commissioner Meissner why dozens of elderly immigrants had to show up before dawn at the INS office to have the same processes repeated over and over again because of INS's inability to process the paperwork INS had already received but lost. I asked why should immigrants have to wait ten years to get their citizenship. Why should family and business visas that could be processed in a few days take a year or more? Some weeks ago I held another town hall meeting at the same Senior Center. This time, instead of the dozens I'd met the last time, we had hundred s of seniors. The stories were worse than before. These are the poor and powerless, and they're asking us to help them.

Next, I want you to consider those who are not poor and powerless. Linus Torvalds, considered a hi-tech hero by so many, is the inventor of Linux and he helped develop the new chip rumored to be the "new, new thing". Linus is an H-1B visa recipient. There are some who believe we have admitted enough persons under H-1B. Well this is the kind of person we might exclude if we stop H-1B visas. This astoundingly accomplished person has filed for permanent residence under the "outstanding scientist category." I find it incredible that the INS still hasn't gotten back to him on his application. He called my office because no one in the INS would tell him what was going on. He needed papers to get his driver's license. He wanted to visit his parents in Finland, but he couldn't. The INS finally told my office that, if all goes well, they may actually open up his file and look at it in the last quarter of this calendar year 2000. That's three years to open a file. If there are errors in the application, he will have to start over from scratch. That's the current practice.

In an era when FedEx can tell you on-line precisely where your package is, why can't the INS office tell you anything about the status of an application pending with INS for years?

In an era when you can secure a home loan and obligate yourself on the World Wide Web for hundreds of thousands of dollars without standing in line, why is it that the best you can do at an INS website is to download some form so you can fill it out by hand, stand in line in the rain, and wait half a decade for an answer?

When 50 scribes with quill pens can't get the job done, the answer, in the year 2000, is not to bring in 50 more quill pens.

People from across the world who choose to come to this great country have a contribution to make. They want to make it here. INS compromises the promise of this great nation and the hopes of these petitioners when it fails to respond promptly and clearly.

We hope, today, to learn more about the human impact of this situation. We hope, also, to hear from the collective voice of Silicon Valley about potential approaches that could yield remedies and allow this agency to work smarter, better and more efficiently.

I know that the thousands of employees who work for the INS are frustrated and upset, just as are the people here today. If we can create a system where the work can get done efficiently, everyone will be better off. Our community, our economy, our families and those who are employed in this troubled agency.

We can not allow INS to make a nightmare out of the American dream. Now, some housekeeping items. When we have hearings in the Immigration Subcommittee in Washington, we ask witnesses to limit their oral testimony to no more than 5 minutes. We ask that Members of Congress limit their opening statements to five minutes and we ask that, after testimony has been received, that each Member of Congress limit their questions to a five minute period. We'll try to adhere to those same rules here in San Jose today so that we will succeed in hearing from all of those who have been willing to come forward to speak with us today. Finally, we owe thanks to the county of Santa Clara for their courtesy in arranging for this hearing room and for providing the coffee you will find in the entry way.