This spring, the number of family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders caught in a decades-long backlog at U.S. immigration agencies, reached 6.6 million.

What does this mean in real life? Children of legal immigrants are not allowed to even visit their parents in the U.S., parents can't visit their kids in the U.S., and according to David Bier of the (conservative!) Cato Institute, 1.6 million applicants will die before their visas are processed.

We know the undocumented migrants are treated like criminals. That's bad enough. But these are people playing by the rules. They are children and parents of Americans.

The U.S. Department of State has refused to embark on the desperately needed reforms and modernization that would make the department efficient and accountable.

Please ask Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State, to institute virtual interviews for family visa applicants. This would ease the backlogs at consulates around the world and ensure Covid safety for applicants and staff alike.

Consular processing for visa applicants has been a low priority at the State Department for too long. Blinken must ask Congress to significantly raise the budget for consular processing.

At the same time, applicants and their families must have the right to appeal a consular decision. Currently, there is no mechanism to ask for higher review or appeal. Citizens and applicants alike are denied their basic right to due process.

We live in a globalized world. Let's act like it, and show newcomers to the U.S. what American democracy is like when it works properly.

Thank you for your support.