Today while driving in my car listening to the radio I learned something that outraged me. I was listening to This American Life with Ira Glass. The show was entitled the "Audacity of Government" and presented two stories of how the expanding powers of the executive branch have resulted in widespread abuses of power.

One of the stories was about immigration law. It told the story of a Brazilian woman who was married to a U.S. Citizen and had obtained conditional lawful permanent residency. (If a foreign national obtains residency through marriage to a US Citizen the status is condition for a period of two years and until the conditional resident's petition to remove the conditions on residency is approved.) In this case the woman's spouse passed away while her petition to remove the conditions on her residency was pending. She had a young child who was born in the U.S. After some period of mourning, the woman went the the USCIS to explain the situation and to move on with her immigration process. At her meeting with the USCIS she was advised that her case would be denied and she would have to return to her country. When she told them that her son was a US Citizen she was told that "he would be allowed to stay."

What's interesting is that this absurd decision is not supported by any law. In fact, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that this very thing was ridiculous sometime in the 70s. So what did the USCIS do? It ignored the rules and made up its own new rules.

I have been seeing this unjust and outrageous activity becoming quite common from the USCIS. I've had cases rejected on grounds that were not supported in law for reasons and rules that were simply made up. And what is the remedy for this? Nothing, There is no right to appeal. There is no remedy.