STF NA MÍDIA

have aided terrorist groups.
For example, immigrants
once affiliated with organizations
that battled the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan or
took up arms against the Sudanese
government, both
efforts the United States was
sympathetic to at one point,
have been unable to receive
green cards, Ms. Hughes
said.
Many of the cases do not
even involve violence by the
green card applicants, but
rather lending assistance to
political or military factions,
she added.
Without a green card, immigrants
cannot become citizens,
must apply to travel
outside the country in some
cases and can have a more
difficult time with employment.
“My kids keep asking me
why I am not a citizen like
they are,” said Shefqet Krasniqi,
a project manager for a
New York City construction
company. “I am living ashamed.
It doesn’t make sense to
think I would harm a country
I owe so many things to.” He
left a war-ravaged Kosovo in
1999 and was granted political
asylum in the United States.
Mr. Krasniqi said he was
informed that his green card
application has been on hold
because of his association
with the Kosovo Liberation
Army, which he joined after
Serbian forces attacked villages
near his home.
The Homeland Security, Justice
and State Departments
are working to create special
waivers so the green card
applications can be transferred
to immigration courts,
where most requests for permanent
residency are likely
to be granted.
According to the citizenship
and immigration agency,
3,500 cases were cleared for
consideration last year, and
the agency has vowed that
the rest will be cleared by the
end of this year.
“Based on available information
and following a case-bycase
review, U.S.C.I.S. has
determined that all remaining
cases currently being held on
terrorism-related inadmissibility
grounds do not, in fact,
pose any threat to the United
States,” Christopher Bentley,
a spokesman for Citizenship
and Immigration Services,
said in a statement.
Francisco Saborit, who served
time in a Cuban prison
for breaking a sugar cane
cutting machine in protest of
Fidel Castro’s communist
government, has been waiting
more than five years to
receive his green card.
Mr. Saborit left Cuba in 2005
after being persecuted for his
involvement with prodemocracy
groups, he said.
He was granted refugee status
and has been living in
Miami.
But a 2008 letter from the
government initially denied
Mr. Saborit’s request, citing
subversion against the Castro
regime. His case has been
reopened, but there has been
no action.
Mr. Saborit said he is too
ashamed to tell his friends
why he still does not have a
green card after all these years.
“I am paralyzed in this country,”
Mr. Saborit said through
an interpreter. “I feel like I’m
a prisoner. I am really tired
of everything.”
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