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Archive for February, 2007

Separated Utah family waits for visa news

Monday, February 5th, 2007

It pains Johana Thorsted to see her 2-year-old daughter’s memories of her life in Utah fading. After living in Guatemala for nearly five months, the child has forgotten how to speak English, and Thorsted worries those fading memories could include her daughter’s father, Aaron Thorsted.

"She doesn’t remember anything about the U.S.," Thorsted said in a telephone interview. "She speaks Spanish, she doesn’t speak English anymore. It’s hard to see my baby forget everything."

Thorsted, who had been undocumented while living in Utah, returned to Guatemala with her young daughter to apply for an immigrant visa.

Neither she nor her husband thought it would take so long. Thorsted was pregnant when she left. Now she says one of the hardest things to deal with is that her husband has yet to meet his infant daughter, who was born in Guatemala. Yet, she says, the sacrifice is worth it.

"I have my life in the United States, I have my husband and my kids," she said. "That is why I want to fight to have a visa."

Her husband, Aaron Thorsted, said he started the application process for Johana’s legal status shortly after the couple married in 2003, but it was put on hold when he was called to active duty with his Army Reserve unit and served in Iraq.

As a U.S. citizen, Aaron was able to apply for his wife’s immigration visa. But because Johana Thorsted had been living in the United States illegally, she faces a 10-year bar before she can return.

US Congressman Silvestre Reyes protests Immigration Fee Increases

Thursday, February 1st, 2007

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, protested the proposed 70 percent fee increase for immigration services in a letter to Citizenship and Immigration Services director Emilio Gonzalez Thursday.

“Over the last sixteen years, the processing fee has already increased more than four-fold, yet services have not improved and, in fact, have suffered. The agency’s long history of application backlogs and poor customer service do not lead me to believe that yet another fee increase will significantly improve the processing of applications,” the letter reads. “You have stated that the current fees do not cover the agency’s costs; however, it is not clear that this ‘gap’ in funding requires fees to increase by such a large percentage… (more…)

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Archive for February, 2007

Separated Utah family waits for visa news

US Congressman Silvestre Reyes protests Immigration Fee Increases

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