Absolute Monarchs in America's Embassies
JOHNSTOWN, Pa., September 11, 2018 (Newswire.com) - The following is an open letter from Peg Luksik, a conservative politician, pro-life campaigner, and family activist in Pennsylvania.
I am a Navy Mom. My son has served this country for over 13 years and is now a Chief with our submarine force. He is getting married on Sept. 29 to a wonderful young woman who is a Moldovan national. She has been here legally for about a decade, working on the timeline to become a citizen.
Was there some piece of information that we could have supplied if we had known it was needed? Or, were we looking at a situation where the "missing piece" of evidence was an envelope filled with cash?
Peg Luksik, Navy Mom
Her parents applied for a visitor Visa so they could see their only daughter get married. Moldova is not on any restricted travel list so no one anticipated any problem. They were denied. The letter said they did not sufficiently prove connections of property, family or employment to assure the interviewer that they would return to Moldova. It gave no specific information.
I contacted my Congressman and asked how and where they were deficient. The response from the State Department said that the decision had been made appropriately. Period.
We discussed our options and felt that they should apply again. Each application costs the couple $320 American, which is an average month’s pay in Moldova.
The second time we had 2 United States Senators and 2 United States Congressmen write in support. We included deeds to the 2 properties the couple owns mortgage-free in Moldova, bank account information, letters from each of their employers documenting long-term jobs, letters from the 80-year-old widowed grandmother and their son with 3 grandchildren explaining how the couple are intimately involved in their lives, a letter from the priest officiating at the wedding, the official permission from the United States Navy allowing my son to marry his bride, a copy of the wedding invitation itself, and receipts from the reception hall the couple had already rented for a second reception for the happy couple in Moldova in late October.
The legislative letters with all the attached documents were sent before the second interview. The Moldovan embassy did not acknowledge receipt of any of the letters until after one of the Senators called the State Department in Washington to investigate. Then there was an email from the Embassy saying that they had been having “technical issues” with their inbox.
The interview was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. The couple arrived about 30 minutes early. That office uses a “take a number” system. The couple’s number was skipped, and they were made to wait until everyone was seen – about 3 hours. That kind of intimidation won’t work in America because Americans speak up, but folks in the former Soviet Bloc do not talk back to any government.
When they were finally seen, the first statement was that they had already been told, “No!” so why were they applying again. And the second question asked them if they personally knew the Senators who had written on their behalf. They did not personally know the Senators.
They were denied again. And again, only told that somehow they did not prove property, employment or family connections to Moldova. The interviewer does not have to tell anyone how they were deficient. In fact, the official position of the State Department is that the decisions of any single interviewer are final. There is no objective standard that must be applied, no possible appeal of any decision, and no way for anyone to actually evaluate any decision of the bureaucrat. Members of Congress respond with a shrug, saying it’s sad that there is nothing that they can do about this.
That means that that one single bureaucrat in the tiny Embassy in Moldova is an absolute monarch, able to reward or punish at whim.
Was the second application denied and the couple treated so poorly because we got 2 Senators and 2 Congressmen involved and a message of “You can’t tell me what to do” was being sent? Was there some piece of information that we could have supplied if we had known it was needed? Or, were we looking at a situation where the “missing piece” of evidence was an envelope filled with cash?
We will never know because the absolute monarch in Moldova’s embassy does not have to answer any questions or justify any decision.
So what, exactly, has my son the Navy Chief given his entire adult life to defend?
Mr. President, you promised to drain the swamp. Well, here’s the swamp. Where are you?
Contact: Peg Luksik; 814-244-8948; luksik.peg@gmail.com
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Source: Peg Luksik