US Immigrants protest Green Card delays with flowers
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Hundreds of legal, highly-skilled workers in the United States sent hundreds of flowers to the Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Emilio Gonzalez as part of a symbolic and peaceful protest over what they said was a "flip-flop" by the State Department and the USCIS on eliminating Green card processing delays.
Dr. Gonzalez announced on the USCIS website late last night that the flowers will be forwarded to the injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
In response, Immigration Voice, a non-profit organization representing skilled, legal immigrants, said that they welcome the fact that Dr. Gonzalez acknowledged the symbolic gesture of our protest and are overjoyed that these flowers will brighten the day of the injured service brethren.
Immigration Voice also said that it is their sacrifice for American freedom that has made this country great and such a desirable destination for multitude of people from around the world and that they wanted to say "Thank you and god bless you" to the servicemen.
Sources
[edit]- Xiyun Yang. "A Gift From Gandhi" — Washington Post, July 11, 2007
- Nina Bernstein. "A Floral Protest Over Job-Based Visas" — New York Times, July 11, 2007
- Paul Eckert. "Indian green card seekers in flowery U.S. protest" — Reuters, July 10, 2007
- Jennifer Bjorhus. "Green-card fight brewing" — TwinCities.com, July 10, 2007 (free subscription required)
- Indian Express. "Say it with flowers: Gandhigiri for US green cards" — Yahoo! News, July 10, 2007
- Chidanand Rajghatta. "Green card hopefuls to resort to Gandhigiri in US" — The Times of India, July 7, 2007