Immigrants refused green cards take to Gandhigiri

SAYING IT WITH FLOWERS: The USCIS was inundated with flowers sent by protesting immigrants.

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Keywords: Immigrants, Green Cards, US,

Washington: Indian workers in the US have resorted to Gandhigiri after the American government offered and reversed its decision to provide them green cards.

The immigrants sent boxes of flowers to US immigration authorities over the State Department's U-turn.

Up to half-a-million people - including thousands of Indians - will be affected by the move and they blame Emilio Gonzales, the man who heads the immigration services.

"Gonzales and his institution USCIS has done something really bad really wrong. And I think he must be really guilty and unwell so this is our way to tell them get well soon, our way to cheer them up," says an immigrant, Dhiren Gadhia.

The idea to flood the US Center for Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS originated online and rapidly gained momentum at an immigration forum called Immigration Voice.

Delivery services like DHL say they arranged for large trucks to manage the order.

“This morning we had about 60-80 boxes of flowers to be delivered so they had to put it in a bigger truck because they wouldn't fit in my van,” says an official with DHL, James.

But USCIS seems unmoved by this novel protest. It told CNN-IBN that it was sympathetic but not planning to apologise for wasting applicants' time. It will refund their application money.

“I've spend 25-20 hours filing out forms, spent money on medical tests, photos, tests, took time off from work to find out nothing's going to happen,” says Green Card applicant Sivakanth Mundru.

If immigration groups wanted to inundate the immigration offices in Washington with flowers of protest, they have apparently succeeded in doing so.

Despite torrential rains, more 'protest' flowers are expected throughout the day. The USCIS has however, come up with a novel solution and has now started re-routing them to an army medical hospital.