Bureaucracy can mean two things. One meaning is neutral as in, “It requires a large bureaucracy to run something as complex as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).” The other meaning is pejorative, “If it were not for all the bureaucracy, things could get done much cheaper and faster at USCIS.” When bureaucracy is used pejoratively, the usual gripe is that the bureaucratic rules and procedures are not there to streamline functions to make things more efficient, but rather as…

In the same mail delivery as the previous frustrating mail, comes this one. A client comes to me after is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She applied for a student visa extension and heard nothing from USCIS. Then ICE arrested her. (Years later, the extension is still pending).  We went to court a few times. The ICE attorneys were supposed to find out what happened to her student visa application. The woman was married to a United States citizen. When…