Bait-and-switch

Back in 2007,before the second circuit court hearing, the lawyer that was handling Khalid's case called to inform us of some good news. At least it seemed to be good news at the time; basically it was an answer to our prayers: the government was allowing Khalid to adjust his status to that of legal permanent resident. We couldn't be happier. I remember being in the kitchen preparing dinner when Khalid rushed in with an enormous smile on his face.

He said "guess what?"

I replied "what" in an unenthusiastic manner thinking that Khalid was excited only because of a big fishing trip coming up.

"Rather than going through with the second circuit court case, the government is allowing me to adjust my status!"

"What?" I repeated in a bemused tone.

After he sufficiently convinced me that I had heard him correctly I remember breaking down and sobbing. Khalid could not understand my reaction. I was supposed to be happy not wailing like a mad woman.

"I hope your crying because you are happy?" he asked doubtfully.

"Yes, yes I'm happy. I just can't believe they are allowing this to happen! It seems too good to be true."

It wasn't until a few months had passed, and after subsequent consultations with other lawyers that my foreboding was found to be completely warranted.

Due to some procrastination and mistakes the lawyer we had at the time did not file for adjustment of status by the government dead line. Of course we were devastated and resigned to preparing for the approaching hearing of Khalid's second circuit court case in July. Essentially, we were preparing for the worst.

After speaking with another lawyer months later it was plain that we had been duped by the government's offer of adjusting Khalid's status. If we had filed the adjustment of status waivers during that time period we would have been unequivocally denied. Because Khalid would not even be considered for that waiver until 15 years after his "conviction" of reckless endangerment had taken place (As a reminder: Khalid was convicted--actually railroaded-- of reckless endangerment after attempting to defend himself against some thugs that were threatening him while he was working as a taxi driver in Utica back in 1994.)It would be another six months before he would officially became eligible to file for the waiver.

In fact, not only would we have been denied, but there would have been no other option other than having Khalid travel oversees and reapply for the adjustment of status in his native country of India. Of course, we all know that would be impossible since India does not recognize Khalid as a citizen and therefore will not issue him a passport or the travel documents.

The naked truth: the government lied to us and had no intention of adjusting Khalid's status. Instead, the government's intention was to deny his claim and make sure that he could never file the waiver again while residing in this country.

So, I think that I should be forgiven if I react to the recent "happy" news making its way through all the Facebook immigration groups with the skepticism inherent to anyone who has had lengthy experience in dealing with government promises of immigration reform. I just don't believe it until I see it.

If you would like to read about the details of this latest promise I included a link at the bottom of this post.

If it's true then I'm very happy for the my friends who will benefit from this program. But Khalid and I have been fighting this anti-immigrant ideology for far too long (for Khalid its been almost ten years now--for me six years!) that we don't easily fall for the government's bait-and-switch techniques. There always seems to be an ulterior motive in the background of all their promises.

Hopefully, THIS time we will be wrong.


http://news.change.org/stories/major-progress-administration-to-grant-deportation-relief-amidst-mounting-criticism