From: John Boyer (johnboy@johnboy.to)
Date: Mon Jan 31 2000 - 20:53:28 PST
At 10:02 AM 1/31/00 -0800, Joachim Feise wrote:
>I usually don't post complaints about the INS here, for various reasons.
>But this article sums it up pretty nicely.
As a "Native American" my experience with the INS has been limited. And Boy
am I glad!
About ten years ago I had to go to our nearest INS office, in downtown
Atlanta, to do some paperwork with my vietnamese born wife Thanh. I forget
the exact purpose of the trip but it was my first real experience with that
side of our government.
Our day started at 5 AM, after making the 4 hour drive to Atlanta we
finally found the right building in the downtown area. Once inside we had
to stand in line to get into a processing center in the basement of the
building. The processing area was basically a huge room with maybe 50 rows
of seats. At the far end of the room there were 8 to 10 bank teller style
windows. The window at the far left was the cashier to handle all of the
fees. All of the other windows were for paperwork processing. Other than
the cashier and the guard at the door there was exactly ONE other worker in
sight.
They had this numbering system that said "Now Serving Number 32". Our
number was about 300. So we sat down and watched the room fill up.
There was this Rasta guy next to me that kept asking the Swiss girl in
front of us what kind of underwear she had on. But I digress,,,
So we sat there, skipping lunch, all day long.
At about 3:30 Mrs. Speedy Gonzales INS lady was "Now Serving Number 70".
The guard locked the doors, stating that no one else would be allowed in.
Then about 10 INS workers appeared from a door behind the counter. They
manned all of the windows and began processing paperwork like mad.
We were out of there by 4:30.
So while these assholes were in the back playing cards or God knows what,
they had a few hundred people waiting for no reason at all!
I was so pissed, then I was ashamed. That office is one of the first
glimpses many people have of our government. Just think about how much of
our government is operated that way that we don't see.
Anyway, my heart goes out to any of you who have to deal with those morons
at the INS.
Johnboy
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