UPDATED: This post has been updated on July 08, 2007 at 22:300 hours.
In light of the whole fiasco with the rejection of I-485 applications, all Indian citizens affected have decided to resort to a new phenomenon. Send flowers as a silent form of protest.
In a recent Bollywood movie, sending flowers to prove your point and get your voice heard was the modus operandi used by the lead actor, following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
So in similar fashion, TOI informs all that July 10 has been selected as a day to send flowers to Emilio Gonzales, the director of USCIS.
If you have been affected and would like to participate, send flowers to
Dr. Emilio Gonzales
Director, USCIS
111 Massachusetts Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20529
This address has been corroborated from web searches. If you have any updates on this, please leave them in the comments section and I will update the post accordingly.
UPDATE:
The following is information from touchdownusa.org.
Date of delivery should be 10 July.
Select Occasion: “Sympathy”
The message(You may use a different message but please don’t be rude in your message):
Option 1: All the best for future Employment Based visa estimates.
Option 2: I understand your agency does all it can to the best job it can. I also hope you empathize with the frustrations of a legal immigrant. A small token of peaceful protest and hoping for the best.
Option 3: Dear Mr. Gonzalez, Legal skilled non-immigrants are sorry that you are having such a hard time in determining priority dates. All the best for future employment based visa estimates.
Delivery location type is Business, US Citizenship and Immigration Service
Address:
Emilio T. Gonzalez
20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20529
Phone number: 202-307-1565
I would love to send flowers ,its such a sarcastic way.But just wondering if we should waste $20 apart from the 1000$ we have already lost in the fiasco.May be free thorms will be appropriate.Anywhere they sell thorns freely?WOuld love to send them to these motherf*****
$20 is no big deal, if you think of what you have already spent. It is our way to show protest. Or may be support AILA, so that they could fight for us
Hey Guys,
I have sent the flowers but they could not deliver as the address was incorrect.
PLease use this address:
Emilio T. Gonzalez
5th Floor
20 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest Washington, D.C. 20529
Please continue to send flowers. This is a brilliant idea and it will definitely make some wave. It will cost some money but it will be money well spend.
Regards
Viceroy Lord Wavell and his assistants laughed when M.K. Gandhi told them that one day they will be forced to leave India. What they did not understood that they were not politicians, they were bureaucrats. When the political power behind peaceful civil disobedience was unleashed, a nation took shape, and what Gandhi told Wavell became a reality.
Something similar repeated in United States recently when thousands of legal immigrants were given a cold shoulder, despite of their merit based claim for an American Green Card. They decided to apply Gandhian way of peaceful protest by sending thousands of flower bouquets to USCIS, an American agency responsible for immigration and citizenship. Instead of offering an apology, USCIS chief decided to again ignore the immigrants and simply issued a statement that the flowers will be forwarded to the injured service members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Once again a bureaucrat miscalculated the power hidden behind a peaceful protest. Now the power behind flowers is becoming a media mainstream story. NY Times, Washington Post, Reuters, Yahoo News are a few to name. Bollywood, has recently issued a statement providing its full support to Immigration Voice, the non profit organization behind the flower campaign.
An American way of fighting injustice “A law suit” is on its way, the usual rallies and demonstrations are about to begin. However, in America, its first time after Martin Luther King Jr., that someone has tried to apply Gandhi’s way to fight injustice. It is yet not clear that what would be the outcome of this campaign, but there are rumours that USCIS is already discussing internally to reverse the discriminatory decision which caused this embarrassing flower campaign against them.
Its amazing to witness that 60 years after Gandhi’s demise, his ideology is still relevant. We are sure its gonna remain relevant till there are Lord Wavell’s in this world. Lord Wavell’s can momentarily laugh thinking that unorganized immigrants are helpless, but when the peaceful protest will demonstrate its political power, they surely will realize what Gandhi and Gandhian ways are all about.
Here’s the funny thing… this nation’s heroes recovering at Walter Reed were overheard as saying that they were appauled to recieve flowers used in some futile attempt by immigrants (undocumented and otherwise)who feel “ENTITLED”.
Glad you all the extra money to waste on this type of ridiculous activity.