Mina90

1 minute ago, IDWAF said:

Great news, minus the part where we have to pay for their stay with our tax dollars.  Hopefully the incarcerations will be short while they are deported quickly.

The article says it's meant to be temporary until they can obtain a long-term detention facilities. 

It also says there's been 52,000 arrests in the first quarter of this year, which is a sharp increase since last year. They are really putting the "zero-tolerance" policy in effect.

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has acquired new space in federal prisons to house immigrant detainees — more than 1,600 beds."

"A facility in Victorville, Calif., will house the most detainees — 1,000 — while locations in Seattle; La Tuna, Texas; Sheridan, Ore.; and Phoenix will hold between 102 and 230 detainees."

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/08/618182740/ice-to-send-1-600-detainees-to-federal-prisons

Wow.  I haven't followed the news in a while but I keep hearing bits/pieces of this. Seems like they are really enforcing this and really cracking down those trying to get across illegally. 

Any thoughts on this?

4 hours ago, Amelmahbub07 said:

We did our wedding ceremony and honeymoon in UK. In BD we didn’t do anything just we register our marriage( Kaji came our house with marriage registry book he filled the form with some name and information given to him and then we sign). Thats it

 

It still should be fine.

Don't worry, it shouldn't be an issue. My husband and I had a religious wedding and and another big wedding in BD where we had our official marriage registered in BD. Just stay honest and it should be fine. Good luck!

1 hour ago, TBoneTX said:

Mina, did you report this person at the time?

Rather than suffer in silence, hit the Report button when someone violates the Terms of Service.

This includes occasions when someone imports drama into another thread.

I did report one of their posts, but not all. I guess I should have reported all of their posts but I thought I would just let it go, but that member seemed super ticked off at my topic and at me. I suppose I should report the other post in a different thread that he brought the drama into. 

9 hours ago, Captain Ewok said:

Hi Mina!  Thank you for being a VJ'er for the last 6 years!  I'd love to help shape the community tone.  Any suggestions on how moderators or other members can help filter out the noise?  I'm open to helping!  If there are things I could do let me know!

Hi Captain Ewok.

Thanks for your response. I had a person who first insulted where my family is from (I was born/raised in the US), he thought my verbiage was off so I must be a fake person or something because my people don't speak the way I do and somehow that negated what I said in a topic. This member called me an idiot and said I have a peanut brain. Which was uncalled for because this person has no idea I am a Biologist, a mother of 1, my husband is a software engineer and I come from a family who are all educated. I normally don't like bickering with anyone, but that truly bothered me. That user is also going around on other threads bringing up my thread (that I had closed because I didn't want any argument to ensue). He is bringing down my reputation here on VJ as well.

Is there a better way to fully block someone? The "ignored users" function seems a little rudimentary since you can still see the person's profile and such. I think maybe something more like what FB has where if you block someone, they can't see you at all or you can't see them at all. Also, I think it would be nice if someone who is habitually rude to others, that when they are reported, if Mods could look into their past posts and if they see a collection of negative responses, then maybe a ban may be in order? I'm just throwing some suggestions out there, I am unaware if any of these are already in practice.

Hey all,

I'm really tempted to leave this site for good. I posted a topic earlier about a concern I had which was immigration-related plus it was linked to my husband's job. I had some great feedback from most folks who put my mind a little more at ease but I encountered some people who are just so negative and just like putting others down. I know we can just report those people but it's like a never-ending supply and someone who just has nothing nice to say appears. Perhaps I'm taking this a little personal because I was attacked personally, but I shouldn't have to be subjected to such on an immigration forum. I thought this place was open to anyone who wanted to share/discuss/ask about something immigration related (or even off-topic in that section), but here, I feel some people are just interested in policing what others should or shouldn't post. Some even go to the extent of being the judge, jury and executioner. 

I try to help people as much as I can even with a busy schedule as I've been through this whole process over the course of 5 years-start to finish, so I know how stressful, frustrating, time and energy consuming it can be. Whatever little help I can offer to those that need it, makes me feel good. I follow many threads on this site and continuously I see so much venom spouted. I know @Captain Ewok made this a family-friendly site but I don't see so many friendly responses on here nowadays nor treat anyone like family. I feel a little disappointed. VJ has been so close to me because I used this site when I had no idea what anything immigration related was and all the knowledge I have now is thanks to this site. I'm not saying people need to pretend to be nice or friendly, but I think there should be a better way to filter out the negative people. 

Mods, at this point, I think it's best we close this thread as I think its run its course. 

I was hoping to discuss this issue and it has been discussed to my satisfaction. 

I don't want any bickering to arise, so I think it's best if we close it.

Thanks all!

10 hours ago, Chair_force1 said:

I’m talking about federally vested employees cannot be laid off.  General schedule  employees can not be laid off.  I’m not speaking of any other type of employee 

Okay. That wasn't the clarification I was asking for, but thanks. 

Earlier in the thread, we discussed this and kind of came to the conclusion that this may be contractors being let go.

5 minutes ago, Chair_force1 said:

 

Can’t layoff full time government GS employees,  only if there is government  shutdown can furloughs be given.  Can’t only layoff hourly workers or contractors 

A little confused by your statement. We know it's hard to lay-off Fed Ems, but contractors are easier to lay-off.  Do you mean they CAN lay-off hourly workers/contractors? My husband isn't hourly, he's salaried.

2 hours ago, geowrian said:

The way USCIS allocates their funds is by buckets. I think there's only a handful of them, but I can't find the document explaining this off-hand. Beyond those generic buckets based on the type of services to provide (most of which are 100% funded by fees), allocation to specific locations, departments, projects, priorities, etc. is at their discretion. Just because all form X processing is funded through fees doesn't mean they will allocate exactly the right amount of funds into processing form X, especially if there's a shortfall in the budget. They also could be shifting priorities to other activities or other locations. We don't really know what or why something is being done unless somebody who is in those middle to upper management roles tells somebody about it. Unfortunately, non-management (and lower management) only see the results, not the plan...which can lead to some inaccurate conclusions (and sometimes accurate ones!).

That's quite interesting. I always know you're super informative geowrian, but you always surprise me with the amount of knowledge you have. 

Unfortunately, I know, that unless one is in a higher up position, usually, we won't really know why things are really being done. 

Just now, Cyberfx1024 said:

My 17 month old LOVES Mickey so we have DirectTV record all the Mickey episodes so we can watch them later. I love having a full house because it is never a dull moment until they go to bed and we rest.

 

Filipinos are the same way as for good friends and family. When we lived in CA they were apart of a group of 4 families of us that always used to hang out and invite each other over for everything. So we always made sure to either have Halal meat/food or just vegetarian food/pizza for the them to eat if it's a pizza party. That way everybody got alittle bit of something to eat.

I hear you on that!

I always admire people who take care of the little things for others to try and make everyone happy. 

I have many Filipino friends/former co-workers who are the same, so I agree with you on that, always family/friend-oriented.

12 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

I completely understand as well since I have a 11, 9, 4, and 17 month old in my house. We watch more Mickey Mouse than we do any actual programming for us.

 

Where we lived at before in CA we made friends with a Bengali family and the husband was in charge of programming for the Bengali channel. We liked them a lot and sad we had to say good bye to them when we moved.

My, you have such a full house! I hope to, one day, have that.

My son loves Sesame Street and Spongebob. LOL

Not to brag, but us Bengali folks will usually bend over backwards for the people we bond with.

3 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

+1 and I totally agree with you on this. BTW if you subscribe to Bangladesh TV here in the USA I know a guy helps produce programming for it.

Thanks!

I appreciate the offer, but we barely watch TV since we have no time. Especially with a 13-month old baby, it's almost impossible, haha. 

1 minute ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

I think what's happening out in the real world is starting to infect what's going on in here as well. I have certainly seen it but I never try to be judgmental unless it is seriously called for and I can think of a couple right off hand.

I can understand people's frustration with all that is happening around us right now in the real world, but it doesn't mean that people should throw their frustration on people over the internet. I have strong feelings against illegal immigration but I try to not let that cloud my judgment. I try answering in a neutral fashion as much as I can because most people are people I've never met and I'm trying to help/understand them over a virtual medium. I know some people (especially those trying to circumvent laws) do deserve firm responses but that's not what's happening on this forum. It's mostly people who feel some sort of entitlement are putting others down who aren't doing anything illegal. For example, that one member who brought up where my husband/family/I am from, which was really uncalled for as though that had something to do with our intelligence/knowledge, the matter at hand, or that it made my statements invalid somehow. That's why I felt a little irked. 

Just now, yuna628 said:

Unsure, our first experience with the Dover place was for biometrics. It's right next to a Food Lion and I think a pizza place? We were very puzzled at why we were sent down there, as it's an even longer distance to drive (2+ hrs and lots of tolls) than it would be to reach Baltimore. It sounds from the article like they would be shifting some services up to Philly, but I'm pretty sure that Dover told us their only real purpose was for biometrics.. and that was back in 16'. I was expecting they'd call us to Dover again for ROC biometrics, and that we'd go make a day of it at the beaches.

Haha, at least it was near a pizza place so you could eat after a getting biometrics done lol. 

Rehoboth Beach is nice to visit, if you happen to get called there for ROC.

1 minute ago, Tenreyro said:

Thanks for letting us know. I read once that they started building in Maryland a new headquarter for USCIS, maybe they are allocating regional resources on that construction. Hope everything goes well with your family, and your husband's job is safe. 

 

@Mina90

Hahahaha, I loved how you described it. But yes, there is an epidemic of those. They invited themselves. There are some of us left that try to help and try to put in other person's shoes.

 

Hope you have a nice day.

I heard that too, but not sure why they'd be laying people off for that, I would imagine they would just relocate the folks currently working there. Thank you for the wishes, they're much needed! 

Yes, I've noticed too many proud/judgmental people emerging on this site nowadays and it kind of baffles me because we all went through or are going through this difficult process. It would make sense to stick by each other's side and build each other up instead of tearing each other down.  I don't know when it became a competition to see who could insult someone first. Regardless, I still think this is a helpful site for the most part and know there are many who still are willing to participate in friendly discussion and give help to those who need it. 

Enjoy your day as well!

3 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

The Delaware branch is a place I'm familiar with. It's not closing per say. Merely it will continue to act as an ASC for biometrics, but it will conduct no interviews or anything like that. Which is odd because I didn't think they did anything like that over at that branch (it's literally a small place in a strip mall with no hint as to it ever being an official government building) and half the time it's pretty dead.

 

Now I had heard last year they were going to be building a massive complex in Camp Springs, but that's about it MD-wise.

It's kind of interesting they stuck a small office for immigration related work in a strip mall. I've seen DMVs be in malls but not for immigration. Maybe that's all the space they could find when they originally needed it? However, if they stop conducting interviews there, I wonder if it will place more pressure on nearby field offices to pick up the slack?

1 minute ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

Ahhh ok. I am IT as well but I am move over to Telecommunications.

The thing is, my husband said that his department said they're already funded (even though I thought they were self-funded but I guess not fully), so they shouldn't have to worry about lay-offs.  Maybe you will be fine since you're applying for the tech side of it.

1 minute ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

My job is more technical than actual interviewing or other parts of the USCIS. So the 3 step process doesn't really apply to technical jobs at all, it's more about experience.

That's great. My husband is a software engineer, so he is in the IT side of things but had made friends with other parts of USCIS (which are ones that have been doing the lay-offs). 

6 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

Is your husband a Contractor or a actual Federal Employee? I was actually speaking with one of them yesterday to see if he could get the ball rolling in regards to an interview with the USCIS.

I hope you get the job though regardless of everything. 

From what I understand, it was a 3-step interview for my husband to get this job, but that may be different for different positions in USCIS.

Just now, Cyberfx1024 said:

Is your husband a Contractor or a actual Federal Employee?

My husband is a contractor. He was aiming to become a Fed Em but with all this going on, I don't know if that's foreseeable in the future, at least not at USCIS. 

Just now, Rocko20 said:

Layoffs don’t necessary mean more delays  . I would imagine that there are many measures implemented to keep the ball rolling. Millions of Americans and future Americans are affected 

Most certainly, however, each day it seems more and more people are going. If they get rid of most workers, who's left doing the work?

By no means am I saying that this will for sure cause delays, I'm saying it may have an impact. Hoping that it won't and I'm hoping no more lay-offs.

Just now, Cyberfx1024 said:

I completely understand as well since I am a Federal employee as well. But I will have to ask around at a couple of people I know who work with USCIS right now to see if they have heard anything about it being a possibility of a wider layoff than just in that office.

 

Also it is kinda disconcerting because like I said I am trying to get hired on by the USCIS myself so this kinda sucks.

Please do, if you have any info, let us know because we are truly concerned about it. My husband is already looking for another job just in case.  

One person on here said that the Delaware branch is closing...that doesn't sound too good. I am wondering if we will hear about a wider lay-off in the future when it's all been done. I just hope not.

Just now, thepanda said:

I am on the other hand grateful for this information and I am aware that this is only coming from your husband. I do not base my hope or expectations in your statement. Thank you for sharing! I think it is very interesting information and we will see what will happen. Let's hope for the best that it will not influence our applications.

Thank you.

This is what I was hoping for, a discussion and I thought it would be good to share. 

I said earlier that I THINK this may have something to do with immigration reform since that was MY reasoning and hoped it would NOT affect petitions, but some people on here turned into a fest of "hearsay", where I'm from or my husband is from and such and such (which by the way is laughable since this IS a site for immigration). 

Ladies/Gents, I want to make something clear. I'm not new to this site, I've used it for over 6 years and still follow immigration updates now. I try my best to help others when I can and if I don't know how to help, I stay out of it and let the experts help. I have been through this entire process from start to finish for my spouse so I know what it's like, I get all the frustration. However, this does not entitle anyone to be rude or condescending towards me, my husband, or my family.

This information I shared with you isn't something that just happened right now, it started over 1.5 months ago and is still continuing which is what alarmed me and I thought to share.  If you think it's fake or don't want to believe, that's fine, no one needs to.  Let's try to keep it civilized though. 

Thanks.