Immigration Issue

I met with a woman today looking for a home. She's a single mother with a 4 year old daughter. She's from Sierra Leone and came over to the U.S. through a process initiated by the Red Cross and the U.S. Immigration Service a couple of years ago. The program is apparently set up so that U.S. officials can go over to Sierra Leone and execute a number of interviews with local peoples of the country who may qualify for refugee status.

Well, she's not able to procure an apartment home with us, nor probably any other property management institution in the area, and probably a good portion of the continental U.S. She has no form of valid photo identification issued by either the state or the federal governments. She was originally processed when she came over in New York, as were many others in her situation. She was then issued a photo id card for employment eligibility and told she would have the same legal rights as other immigrants.

Well her i.d. expired in '07, it is now April 24, 2008 and she is SOL here in the U.S. of A. with no dice. She can't get a driver's license, she can't open another bank account, and if the check card for her current checking account expires, well she may be screwed there too. She also cannot be approved for an apartment home because she can't really prove she is who she says she is. Tough problem, huh?

Possible Solutions??

I asked the woman to go to the immigration services office tomorrow. She insists that she must make an appointment first, so I urged her to do so for tomorrow, and not to take "no" for an answer. I asked her to show up there no matter what, and never to take "no" for an answer when it came to her rights. I asked her to get in front of an immigrant service official and put him on the phone with me. I will then explain her situation and ask him to get her an authorized letter extending the expiration date on her employment permit. We could then process her for an apartment.

Bigger Problem??

There is a much bigger problem here. I know she is not the only one in this situation, can I help them?? Probably not, but there could be a solution to at least part of the problem. This area is probably full of people in this poor situation, as we are in the DC metropolitan area. Is it possible, as much of a headache it may turn out to be, to contact the Red Cross and the Immigration Service and come together to house these people legitimitally? Could we come together with the other major property management institutions in the area and have the Red Cross and the Immigration Service set up clinics around the area where they can present their expired identification and be given extensions? Could we have property management representatives on hand to help these individuals find housing that they qualify for based on income? Some of them may even have been able to build credit with bank accounts they procured when they arrived here. Because of the real estate boom in the last few years, many property management companies have somewhat high vacancy rates, so...we have the homes, we should find a way to fill them with good people trying to live a real life...

Gerald A. Keating