Judge Orders Permanent Resident Status for 22,000 Asylum Holders, Work Documents for All

AP Breaking News ^ | 13 Friday 2004 | Steve Karnowski

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to grant permanent-resident status to nearly 22,000 people nationwide and ensure that all asylum holders get the work permits they are entitled to. Issuing the mandate Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle called the government's treatment of asylum holders "nothing short of a national embarrassment." The order stemmed from a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of 150,000 asylum holders by the American Immigration Law Foundation of Washington, D.C.

Those who are to get permanent residency immediately have faced years of bureaucratic delays in upgrading their status, and Kyle called on the government to speed up the entire permanent-residency process. "We think it's a very strong opinion and should send a message to the government," said Nadine Wettstein, director of the foundation's Legal Action Center. She said the lawsuit was filed in Minnesota partly because of its large immigrant population. Wettstein said the ruling also means a shorter wait for the other roughly 130,000 residency applicants covered by the suit, but she estimated it will still take 12 to 13 years to clear the backlog for permanent resident status unless Congress changes the law.

A Justice Department spokesman in Washington said the agency hadn't seen the decision and would have to review it before deciding how to proceed. Delays in getting permanent residency mean delays in getting citizenship because a permanent resident must wait five years before becoming a citizen. Under federal law, the government can give permanent resident status to 10,000 refugees each fiscal year. But from 1994 to 2002, the government failed for various reasons to use all the allotted slots, leaving nearly 22,000 applicants on the waiting list. The government claimed the unused slots expired at the end of each fiscal year.

Kyle disagreed, saying the government is legally obligated to fill those slots. On the work permits issue, the judge said that the law clearly requires the government to issue them to all asylum holders, that it can't require them to reapply for those documents annually at a cost of $120 as it now does, and that the permits must remain valid as along as a person has asylum. Kyle gave both sides 60 days to negotiate a schedule for complying with his order, or he'll set the deadlines himself.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Mene mene tekel upharsin your honor.

[Semper Paratus]

What's to stop a judge now from declaring all illegal aliens citizens?

[Constitution Day]

My thoughts exactly.

[Xenalyte]

Why'd they bother with all that asylum crap? They coulda just come here illegally and gotten amnestied.

[Condor51]

The 2nd Amendment

[GrandEagle]

lawsuit filed on behalf of 150,000 asylum holders ...
asylum.... Their country was so bad that they ASKED if we would let them live here. Out of the goodness of our hearts we said "yes". Now they sue?
Send them back to where they came from.

[Crazieman]

Dems are right, the USA is under a oligarchal fascistic regime right now.

But they're pointing to the wrong people.

Lousy judges. Oops, can I say that?

[Semper Paratus]

The 2nd Amendment

I hear you. I live in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Massachusetts.

[af_vet_1981]

Kyle gave both sides 60 days to negotiate a schedule for complying with his order, or he'll set the deadlines himself.

• Impeach
• Remove
• Expel

[KantianBurke]

U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle

Who appointed this dirtbag?

[thoughtomator]

The work permit part has been BCIS policy for a number of months now. It's good to see they're taking care of the green card problem though, it's not right to grant asylum and then leave someone in that tenuous status long after they have demonstrated that they want to become Americans.

[SAJ]

Equally, what's to stop a president with some stones from saying:

''The judge has made his ruling, now let him enforce it.''?

After all, we did at one time have such a president, specifically Andrew Jackson, who dismissed one of Marshall's more egregious power-grabbing decisions with those very words (well, to be precise, he said ''John Marshall'' instead of ''the judge'').

[Scenic Sounds]

Who appointed this dirtbag?

Who was President in 1992?

[citizen]

---U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle---

Another Liberal judge?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Judges need to stand for election.

[Guillermo]

Refugees generally would go back if they could, but they'd likely be killed if they did.

But you're such a tough guy, that wouldn't frighten you, would it?

[KQQL]

Assylum autmatically gives people right to work in the US, I just looked it up...

He's ordering something which is already given by DOJ to all Asylees.

Work Authorization Automatic for Asylees. The new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it concurs with a June 2002 opinion that asylees/refugees are authorized to work whether or not they have INS-issued work authorization documents.

[KQQL]

BEFORE YOU ALL GO BASHING ASYLEES IN THE USA... here are some of the facts...

REMEMBER lots of Christians who are beaten/bashed/tortured in the world , get asylum from their muslim countries in the USA.

In most cases they are in the USA, to stay alive or they would be dead in their respective countries,

These people are not ILLEGAL ALIENS ...........

---

[Guillermo]

The vast majority of morons on this thread can't seem to comprehend that.