a little frightened...

and hating INS. My mom, who has been a lawful resident since we moved here November 1988, is battling to get her citizenship. This has been an ongoing fight since she first applied in 2001. We think INS lost her paperwork but is unwilling to admit to such carelessness so they're taking her around in circles. She'd decided that instead she was just going to renew her greencard again and not be a citizen. The problem is that she let her Czech passport expire thinking she was going to be a citizen by 2004 (when it expired). That would have given the government three years to do whatever it is they do for a process that is not supposed to take longer than a year!!! Ample time, if I don't say so myself. She cannot apply to renew her greencard until she gets a new passport from Czech, which takes at least six months. Problem is, her driver's license expires today and she can't renew it without showing proof of residency/citizenship. And if she gets caught driving without a renewed license, it's a felony and she could be deported. To say that I am a bit frightened is an understatement. I'm also really ticked. For all the illegals we have in this country, someone who pays taxes and abides by the law to have such issues is ridiculous. We have a lawyer to straighten everything out and they're talking with people in Washington to get them to approve a renewed license...we'll see what happens today. This really sucks...and I can only imagine what's going through my mom's head. So many reasons I love this country...but today all I can do is think about how much I hate our fucking government. Or rather, the people running our government...not the government itself. If only we didn't have idiots running this country, what a difference that would make. That is all...