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Statement of George Windsor Jones

Congressional Field Hearing on the INS

February 25, 2000

I've known my wife Rosa for 16 years. She lives in Mexico. We have two children together, Shantee, 13, and Ivy, 9. I am originally from Belize and became an American citizen in 1983. Both my children are American citizens. But my wife Rosa is not a citizen. She does, however, want to come from Mexico to California. I thought it would be simple. How wrong I was.

I support the family by working at my body shop, the George Jones Body Shop. Presently, our children are in Mexico. I have visited them in Mexico and we talk all the time. They want to come to the United States. I want them here. But they also want to be with their mother and she's in Mexico.

On July 1, 1998, I asked INS to permit my wife to come to the United States. I filed an I-130 petition. The only document I ever got from INS was a notice of action that my file went to San Jose. I received that document two days ago. I am not impressed. I am very disappointed.

But listen it gets worse. On the Notice of Action, they gave me a local number to call. The number is 408-291-7876. I called the number and this is the message I got: "The number you are calling 408-291-7876 has been disconnected." I only got this notice two days ago and the phone number is no good. The end of the recorded message says: "No further information is available." They don't even give me a forwarding number to call. But there is a second number on the form and, at about 6pm last night, I called their customer service line, 949-831-8427, and I got a busy signal. Hello. I have attached for your information a copy of the notice of action so you can confirm what I'm telling you today for yourself.

I may even have cause to be a little annoyed. I read the Visa Bulletin from Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren's office yesterday and it seems to say that the INS is up to cases filed in September 1998. Well I filed before that date by two months and I still haven't been considered. I don't think that's fair or right. I sure you hope you can do something about this, about my case and about how a lot of other people are being treated. I am attaching the two pages of the Visa Bulletin so you can confirm if I'm correct, that apparently they have gone past the filing date for my case without closing my case one way or the other.

Thank you for letting me appear and tell you about my troubles.

Bay Area Congressional Delegation Studies Chronic Delays at Immigration Agency

Statement of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren

Statement of Rep. Anna Eshoo

Statement of Jennifer Dineen-Ocon

Statement of Linus Torvalds

Statement of Jim Beall

Statement of Warren Leiden

Statement of Sunil Vatave

Statement of Deborah Kessler

Statement of Sister Marilyn Lacey

Statement of Heidi Wilson

Statement of John Barey

Statement of Jacob and Yetta Bromley

Statement of Debra Jaramillo-Coker

Statement of George Windsor Jones

Statement of Le Kim Ngo


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