What the F is going on in this beloved country of ours the US of A?
The GOP current leader in the ongoing primary intramurals, billionaire businessman Trump is overemphasizing on his gigantic motherhood statements on how he will deal with the trade imbalance between China, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Russia, etc; and of course most notable is how he will deal with illegal aliens, from building a wall at the Mexican-Texas border to some unworkable mass deportations of around 11 million (some say up to 18 million) illegal aliens currently spread throughout the 51 states (Guam being the 51st state, right!).
With so many issues this humble Guamanian columnist can write about, allow me on my maiden column to touch on what appears to be an outright fumbling or probably a case of plain and simple harassment on the part of the USCIS- United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
A family friend of mine is now in a quandary on whether or not they will make Guam their home and maintain the wife and children’s residency status. The wife is a green card holder but the husband is not. Apparently, due to the proximity with the Philippines, the husband enthusiastically comes to Guam to be with his family (his 11-year-old son and 4-month-old daughter) as the husband still has business interests in the Philippines. The family decided to move to the island early this year in compliance to residency requirements which requires residents to spend more time in the US should they not want to loose their residency status. Since February, the husband has travelled to Guam for a total of 6 times, with his usual stay of around several weeks to a month and a half in the island and he flies back to the Philippines where he spends around one to two weeks. In essence, in the 7-month period since February, the husband has spent more time in Guam than in the Philippines, with it appearing that he has spent a total of 5.3 months in Guam and close to 2 months in the Philippines simply because the fellow wants to spend more time with his family. Don’t you guys at the USCIS want to spend more time with your families? I didn’t think this would be such a bad thing, more so an illegal act or federal offense. It’s not like the husband is an illegal alien. In fact, every time he enters Guam, his passport is stamped with a 6 months allowable stay (you read it right 6 months) meaning a B1/B2 visa holder can legally stay on Guam or the mainland without presumably causing any violation on immigration regulations for a period of up to 6 months. However, due to the husband’s having to shuttle back and forth to the Philippines, he certainly could not use up the 6 months period. It’s not like the husband is on welfare when he is in the island. On the contrary, just look at the personal expenses being incurred by the husband on his back and forth travel, the expenses in the island on the family subsistence, rent, entertainment and related personal expenses, shopping, etc. The wife on the other hand, is a professional who is a nurse by profession and with expertise in the field of IT and can take on employment in these fields; however, the family opted to instead put up a business or businesses in the island so as to be able to spend more time with their growing children.
On the latest and recent entry by the husband to the island just last week, the husband was surprised when the immigration officer called him to a private room to what appeared to be some kind of an investigation. The investigation was not unpleasant, the immigration officer informed the husband that his frequent return to the island and having to spend more time in the island instead of his country of origin makes him some kind of a “presumptive immigrant” and that he should spend more time in his country of origin; and given this record of stay in the island, it could lead to the eventual cancellation of this (B1/B2 visa)! What the Hell is that?!
Here is a guy who simply wants to spend time with his family and two young kids and the USCIS is now making them have to choose between being separated vis-à-vis maintaining residency status. How IDIOTIC can this be?!?!
At the end of the dialogue with the immigration officer, the husband informed the officer that if they were to be given a choice, the choice is simple, they would rather go back to the Philippines or anywhere else they would be welcome and forget about setting up a business in the island, for as long as they as a family can be together as allowed for by law.
Is this the way we treat a law abiding and legitimate spouse of a resident? We allow them to stay for up to six months but when they don’t avail of it and they would rather come back and forth we tell them not to come back and not to spend as much time with their family? What has happened to America’s good old fashioned family values? And the US of A wants to control illegal aliens; is this a sick joke or what? Talk of irony among ironies, in the words of the famous author/playwright Oscar Wilde – “Irony is wasted on the stupid!”
