Faux Pas By the Immigration Department

Angelika Even today, I am not spared from reporting on the American immigration department, with which we are, as is well known, on familiar terms. The press reported recently, that a flight school in Florida received a letter from the Immigration Office last week, regarding the individuals Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi: The change of their tourist visas to student visas was approved. Just to refresh your memory: The individuals mentioned are two of the terrorists who flew the planes into the World Trade Center in New York six months ago. The press release, which turned out to be true, led to tumultuous conditions.

Bush and his associates were deeply dismayed at how something like this could happen. Heads were gonna roll at the immigration department. Now, in defense of the immigration department, I must mention that they approved those student visas back in the summer of 2001 (before the attacks) and had informed Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi of this in writing. Unfortunately, it took another six to seven months to inform the schools, as the data had to be manually entered into the immigration department's computer system. This blunder did not surprise us, as we are aware of their antiquated computer system, and have experienced all sorts of hair-raising incidents with the immigration department ourselves. One could laugh at this absurd story, but we're still waiting for our Green Card. Because if the immigration department is now under increased pressure and vast restructuring takes place, everything will slow down even more for us.