Brissa's story highlights troubled system

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The Journal Star’s six-part serial “A Home for Brissa” gave readers a look inside the process for legal immigrants. It was an eye-opener.

The system is overloaded, sluggish and Byzantine. Its complexity makes it mystifying. Immigration reform cannot ignore its shortcomings.

As the serial written by Cindy Lange-Kubick depicted, Brissa’s case was special in some ways.

Brissa entered the United States illegally as child, brought here by her mother. Later Brissa was adopted by Jessica and Jason Placek of Wilber. That wasn’t enough to make her legal. She still needed to find a way through the snarl of red tape to stay with her adopted family.

But Brissa’s story also was typical of the problems that would-be legal immigrants face.

At the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, Mexico, where Brissa eventually got her visa, the average wait for spouses and children of U.S. citizens to get their visa interview is 18 months to three years. A sister or brother of a U.S. citizen would have to wait 10 to 12 years.

The delays at Juarez are found throughout the system. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in April had more than 420,000 immigration applications that had been waiting more than six months to be processed. The Labor Department, which also processes immigration cases, has a backlog of 235,000 cases, some of which date back five or six years.

The problems are not reserved solely for the poor and unskilled immigrants. Brilliant and educated workers also encounter frustrating delays. “I truly think if Albert Einstein were in my office in 2006, he would be saying, ‘I’m going to Canada rather than wait any longer,’” immigration attorney Judy Bourdeau of Kansas City told the Associated Press.

Brissa was lucky to have the indomitable Jessica as her advocate. Jessica burrowed through the complexity, and found a helpful expert in Max Grave, and a powerful ally in Sen. Chuck Hagel.

After months of uncertainty, hundreds of hours of research and thousands of dollars, Brissa finally got her green card, and in short order her Social Security card. She’s now a legal resident of the United States.

Her story illustrates, however, the frustration and difficulties that await those who get in line for legal immigration status.

Improvement in that process is urgent. The system ought to be easy to understand. Decisions should be fair and rational. Routine applications should be processed in a timely fashion.

If Congress is serious about reducing the number of illegal immigrants in the country, one of the most important things it can do is show some respect for the immigrants who want to do the right thing.