[Dryerase] Alarm!--Eye on the INS

[Alarm!Wires]

Eye on the INS
A weekly forum to discuss the INS and immigration policy

It’s the “simple” things

By Michelle Stewart
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

It is usually the simple things that slip through the cracks, then get 
you. After a long week of work (or play), you forget to take back the 
library book; or after the weekend  you don’t return the movie to the 
video store. For each of these “little things” you are penalized—overdue 
fees.

During a move, when you pick up your whole life and deposit it into 
labeled boxes, you often miss a few things. You might forget to grab 
something hanging inside a closet, or fail to take out the garbage (if 
you didn’t like the landlord). You might, also, forget to do the 
obvious: fill out a change of address card.

Just like with the overdue movie or the library book there eventually 
comes evidence of the oversight. You will notice the library book 
sitting near the front door (waiting to be returned) or you will receive 
a call from the video store (demanding the return of their property). 
When you forget to file a change of address card, you find you have no 
mail to open.

If you are an immigrant, forgetting to file a change of address form can 
have far more menacing consequences— and there are no warnings. There 
are no letters sent to you in the mail reminding you to do this task; 
there is no “courtesy”  phone call informing you of your mistake. Yet 
there is a penalty for the oversight—a stiff one at that.

This is what I got to deal with this week. It is the newly required 
“Change of Address” form to the INS office for all of us who are 
permanent residents.

The INS admits this is an old, unenforced law, but it has decided to 
enforce the law once again. The 1952 legislation requires all legal 
residents to report a change of address within ten days of moving. 
Without warning, the INS began enforcing the law in mid-July.

So what does this mean? What happens if you happen to move and forget to 
file this change of address form along with the half dozen other change 
of address forms? Well the penalty, predictably, is a fine or 
deportation. That’s right, for this simple thing that might slip your 
mind, in the chaos of moving your life from one place to another, the 
cost could be deportation. And those who are deported are not allowed 
back into the US for five to ten years. A  pretty stiff penalty for a  
rather minor infraction.

Yet this is the state of things. I am a permanent resident (formerly of 
Canada) and when I found out about the law, I cursed and grumbled as I 
went to the INS webpage and downloaded the form—I have definitely moved 
without informing them within the required time period. When I decided 
to cover this, I was originally going to posit that the 1952 law was 
archaic. Upon further consideration, it is actually decidedly timely. 
Consider that one of the achievements of  Immigration and Nationality 
Act of June 27, 1952 (according to the  INS) was  it “broadened the 
grounds for exclusion and deportation of aliens.” Then consider the 
historical moment we are living in today.

As each press report links another political group or country to 
Al-Qaeda, and the government continues its “War on Terrorism,” it is no 
surprise that we are turning back to laws of another paranoid era.  As 
the anxiety of terrorism is relived everyday on each television across 
the US, it becomes very clear that the law of the land (with regards to 
immigration) is embracing a means to exclude and deport all aliens. The 
post-9/11 paranoia is far from over, and continues to grow as the 
campaign against “terrorism” expands.

The BBC reported this week that the number of people seeking citizenship 
in the US was up 100% last year. This trend was reported immediately 
after 9/11.  Why the trend? The list is long and includes: 1000+ 
currently being detained, hundreds targeted for minor immigration 
infractions, the tracking of all tourists who enter the US, the 
widescale crackdown on student visitors... the list goes on and on. The 
choice, then, to naturalize is obvious for many.

So, as thousands flock to courthouses for public swearing-in ceremonies, 
the schools will fill with people studying for the immigration exam. 
“Who is the president of the United States?” will be answered in chime 
by many thousands, some of whom will admit they are filing in fear, 
others who will solemnly say they are patriotic and devoted to America.

Those of us who have not lived here long enough to qualify for the 
citizenship test contemplate our strategies, and think about the pros 
and cons of declaring a pledge of allegiance to an adopted country.  We 
pause, as we contemplate these questions, or as we fill out a change of 
address form (nervously), and remember that thousands of Japanese 
nationals and Japanese-American citizens were detained fifty years ago. 
Citizenship didn’t protect them back then; will it protect anyone in the 
future?

At the end of the day, in this historical moment, it is the little 
things that seem to catch us.

The Change of Address Form is found on the INS webpage. The form can be 
downloaded at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/ar-11.htm.
 
 All content Copyleft © 2002 by The Alarm! Newspaper. Except where noted 
otherwise, this material may be copied and distributed freely in whole 
or in part by anyone except where used for commercial purposes or by 
government agencies.

-----
The Alarm! Newspaper
a local weekly newspaper for an engaged populace

http://www.the-alarm.com/
info at the-alarm.com
P.O. Box 1205, Santa Cruz, CA 95061
(831) 429-NEWS - office
(831) 420-1498 - fax