Green Card
According to a Los Angeles Times report, the number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. declined by almost 1 million in 2009, marking the second consecutive year of decline and the sharpest decline in decades.
Regardless of the declining overall numbers, there is still a large number of immigrants entering the country, as well as those living here that are looking to find ways to join the workforce. While this blog does have a Hispanic focus, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean are by no means the only source of illegal immigration.
This morning I came across an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, “How hard is it to get a black market green card in San Francisco?”, in which the author sets out on a sunny Saturday afternoon with the goal of getting a Green Card by the afternoon. Enlisting the help of a Mexican friend and posing as a Canadian looking for documentation, he heads over to San Francisco’s Mission district.
The fee structure outlined in the article amounted to about $110 dollars, and the process took around four hours and was of course much less painful than dealing with any of the numerous Green Card lotteries or even the U.S. Government. It should be noted, however, that while much faster and easier, it is of course illegal and can result in a myriad of penalties, including prison for falsification of documents.
The article is worth a read, since the author, Harmon Leon, finds out exactly how easy it is to obtain a Green Card in San Francisco and most likely in most other major cities. At the end of the article, there is also a link to the author’s book called “The American Dream”, which looks like it too might be an interesting read.
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