Today I visited an immigration service in America that offers free legal advice and handles your immigration case for you, they claim to have an almost 100% guaranteed success rate on their website along with other services they offer like free housing, groceries and cash for eligible people.
As you all know by now I recently arrived in the USA and due to the white house recognition of the situation in South Africa against white minorities Trump has offered us asylum and an invitation to come to America as refugees, so I have taken up this invitation and responded to it.
Upon entering the building a tattooed black security guard with long dreadlocks gave me blue covid mask (weird, its not 2020) which I put in my back pocket. While at this institution I quickly noticed that I was the only white person in the queue and one of the only white people in the entire building and the only one who could speak proper English, most of the staff was non white and even the few white staff members you could tell by their appearance and mannerism that they were most probably left wing liberals, this is my assumption.
When I filled out my form at the counter with an overweight black female with a round nose ring in between her nostrils and a bit of a beard (she needed a shave) she seemed surprised that I was applying for immigration when she saw my form, but the two Muslims in the queue before me who could hardly speak English and who didnt even make a proper appointment (walk ins) she didnt seem surprised that they were there for immigration even though the signs on her glass sceen clearly said "no walk ins, bookings only". They sent the male back home to make a booking but allowed the Muslim woman with her head covering and here small daughter and son to stay behind, they were going to make a plan for them. I noticed that the signs on the walls were written in Arabic, Spanish and English, some of the signs had warnings not to misgender staff members or to call them derogatory names or insults, the sandal wearing Muslim male in front of me said "hello sir" to the black female receptionist which she politely ignored, the pictures hanging up on the walls in the waiting room were of a black boy and an Asian girl.
By now you must be thinking what I was thinking.... As I sat there the Muslim man who entered before me started making a phone call in the waiting area in Arabic with a big smirk on his face, I don't want to make judgments but it didn't seem right to me.
We were then taken to another waiting area, there were other people there before me, a black male and a hispanic lady, I then heard one of the legal experts call the next person in line "Mohammad you can come" and a youngish Muslim guy was taken into the cubicle. When my turn came a white male called me to his cubicle, I asked him if I could close the door, he said I could close it or leave it open but with the crowd outside I felt more comfortable talking with the door shut.
When the man saw my passport said South Africa he immediately seemed uncomfortable and wasnt giving me any eye contact while talking to me, always looking to the side and his body slightly angled away from me, he was also a bit jittery, he didnt seem very interested in helping me and said they couldnt take my case and actually recommended I go back to South Africa and hire a lawyer and apply for refugee status at the US embassy in South Africa, he used the excuse that it was because I am a dual citizen of another country, a citizenship I received at birth in a country Iv never lived in, a country that my wife and kids are not citizens of and who cant speak the language, somehow I got the feeling that this wasnt the kind of advice he would normally give his clients but I accepted it. After some time of me explaining the discrimination and laws in South Africa and where me and my family came from he did loosen up and warmed up to me, he began to face his body more directly towards me and gave me more eye contact and I could see he felt more at ease now. Without him having to say it I got the message that he wanted to help me now but that the institution he worked for wouldn't be happy to take my case, he gave me contact details to other places that would be able to help me and gave me as much legal advice as he knew how, for example, if I filed for asylum although it might take 10-15 years after 6 months I will get a work permit and will be able to live and work in the US until my case is heard possibly 15 years later, he also said the government would not hold it against me if I did some illegal work, it wont affect my case.
He admited that my situation and the South Africa thing is something he has never dealt with and he didnt really know what to do as its never happened in USA that a president shut down all immigration and asylum applications around the world and ONLY receiving from 1 country and of 1 particular race white South Africans, it seemed unfair to him. I did apologise to him about the other immigrants that he has been helping for years and that their cases have been closed but I thanked America for recognising whats going on in South Africa and said that I take it as if God is finally giving us a turn now and that Im not the one responsible for the other immigrants who are now left out it has nothing to do with me, he gave me a little smile.
I also explained to the man that the reason we chose America is firstly because we have some family here and one who is a full citizen, secondly because USA and South Africa are quite similar in the sense that we both speak english and that the style and layout of the countries are similar so it makes for an easier assimilation compared to going to Russia for example.
Me and my family will still be filing for asylum but without any professional legal assistance, we will submit the forms ourselves ASAP, I might call one or two places that he gave me tomorrow but Im not going to expect any fireworks.
In closing, although I am an immigrant myself trying to seek asylum I am concerned about the kinds of immigrants I saw entering America, where are the Irish, the English, the Australian etc? I almost felt like I was back home in South Africa.
As you all know by now I recently arrived in the USA and due to the white house recognition of the situation in South Africa against white minorities Trump has offered us asylum and an invitation to come to America as refugees, so I have taken up this invitation and responded to it.
Upon entering the building a tattooed black security guard with long dreadlocks gave me blue covid mask (weird, its not 2020) which I put in my back pocket. While at this institution I quickly noticed that I was the only white person in the queue and one of the only white people in the entire building and the only one who could speak proper English, most of the staff was non white and even the few white staff members you could tell by their appearance and mannerism that they were most probably left wing liberals, this is my assumption.
When I filled out my form at the counter with an overweight black female with a round nose ring in between her nostrils and a bit of a beard (she needed a shave) she seemed surprised that I was applying for immigration when she saw my form, but the two Muslims in the queue before me who could hardly speak English and who didnt even make a proper appointment (walk ins) she didnt seem surprised that they were there for immigration even though the signs on her glass sceen clearly said "no walk ins, bookings only". They sent the male back home to make a booking but allowed the Muslim woman with her head covering and here small daughter and son to stay behind, they were going to make a plan for them. I noticed that the signs on the walls were written in Arabic, Spanish and English, some of the signs had warnings not to misgender staff members or to call them derogatory names or insults, the sandal wearing Muslim male in front of me said "hello sir" to the black female receptionist which she politely ignored, the pictures hanging up on the walls in the waiting room were of a black boy and an Asian girl.
By now you must be thinking what I was thinking.... As I sat there the Muslim man who entered before me started making a phone call in the waiting area in Arabic with a big smirk on his face, I don't want to make judgments but it didn't seem right to me.
We were then taken to another waiting area, there were other people there before me, a black male and a hispanic lady, I then heard one of the legal experts call the next person in line "Mohammad you can come" and a youngish Muslim guy was taken into the cubicle. When my turn came a white male called me to his cubicle, I asked him if I could close the door, he said I could close it or leave it open but with the crowd outside I felt more comfortable talking with the door shut.
When the man saw my passport said South Africa he immediately seemed uncomfortable and wasnt giving me any eye contact while talking to me, always looking to the side and his body slightly angled away from me, he was also a bit jittery, he didnt seem very interested in helping me and said they couldnt take my case and actually recommended I go back to South Africa and hire a lawyer and apply for refugee status at the US embassy in South Africa, he used the excuse that it was because I am a dual citizen of another country, a citizenship I received at birth in a country Iv never lived in, a country that my wife and kids are not citizens of and who cant speak the language, somehow I got the feeling that this wasnt the kind of advice he would normally give his clients but I accepted it. After some time of me explaining the discrimination and laws in South Africa and where me and my family came from he did loosen up and warmed up to me, he began to face his body more directly towards me and gave me more eye contact and I could see he felt more at ease now. Without him having to say it I got the message that he wanted to help me now but that the institution he worked for wouldn't be happy to take my case, he gave me contact details to other places that would be able to help me and gave me as much legal advice as he knew how, for example, if I filed for asylum although it might take 10-15 years after 6 months I will get a work permit and will be able to live and work in the US until my case is heard possibly 15 years later, he also said the government would not hold it against me if I did some illegal work, it wont affect my case.
He admited that my situation and the South Africa thing is something he has never dealt with and he didnt really know what to do as its never happened in USA that a president shut down all immigration and asylum applications around the world and ONLY receiving from 1 country and of 1 particular race white South Africans, it seemed unfair to him. I did apologise to him about the other immigrants that he has been helping for years and that their cases have been closed but I thanked America for recognising whats going on in South Africa and said that I take it as if God is finally giving us a turn now and that Im not the one responsible for the other immigrants who are now left out it has nothing to do with me, he gave me a little smile.
I also explained to the man that the reason we chose America is firstly because we have some family here and one who is a full citizen, secondly because USA and South Africa are quite similar in the sense that we both speak english and that the style and layout of the countries are similar so it makes for an easier assimilation compared to going to Russia for example.
Me and my family will still be filing for asylum but without any professional legal assistance, we will submit the forms ourselves ASAP, I might call one or two places that he gave me tomorrow but Im not going to expect any fireworks.
In closing, although I am an immigrant myself trying to seek asylum I am concerned about the kinds of immigrants I saw entering America, where are the Irish, the English, the Australian etc? I almost felt like I was back home in South Africa.
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