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Brown in America

Flower Power: Techie legal immigrants win a reprieve

By: Santosh :+: Under: Brown in America, Immigration
On: ⋅ July 18, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Remember when immigrants on a high-tech visa, including a large number of Indians protested against the USCIS by bombarding them with flowers? Well, that seems to have paid off.

Flowers, not brickbats
img: via TouchdownUSA.org

Before we proceed, please bear with me as I pull a Daunte Culpepper and quote Gandhi again, this time in elation .
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Faced with growing criticism, by their sudden volte-face to stop accepting petitions for the green card, the USCIS finally relented and reversed their stance again.

Rescinding a notice from early July, the Homeland Security Dept.’s U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will accept applications from employment-based green-card hopefuls for advancement to the final phase of the process until Aug. 17. Advancement to this “Adjustment of Status” step means that these workers—many of whom have been tied to one employer under visas as they await green cards—will now have the freedom to switch jobs and accept promotions. They’ll also be one step closer to staying in the U.S. for good.

In case you were wondering if this was the result of the “gandhigiri” style of protests by the immigrants.

“The public reaction to the July 2 announcement made it clear that the federal government’s management of this process needs further review,” said USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez in a statement.

Of course, we would be fooling ourselves if we thought that this turn of events was solely the result of the protests by the immigrants. Think Cisco, Oracle, Sun, Microsoft had no hand in behind the scene happenings?

Then, on July 14, 500 workers from Cisco (CSCO), Oracle (ORCL), Sun Microsystems (SUNW), and other companies marched in the streets of Silicon Valley with signs reading “We Played By the Rules, Now It’s Your Turn” and “Justice for Legal Immigrants”

The Administration was also under pressure from pro-immigration congressmen, law firms threatening legal action, and tech companies that employ many of these workers, including Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle, and Cisco.

Ending on a positive note - this chain of events signals the arrival of the H1B community, majority of whom are Indian, on the political stage in Amrika.

The high-tech immigrant community, which had not been a significant political force before, coalesced in part because of Immigration Voice. The group has a Web site that invites members to participate in discussion forums and exchange ideas and strategies for their campaign.

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