Flower Power

The agency reversed course and announced it would accept green card applications through Aug 12 from people with approved labor certifications. 

Vikas Choudhury spokesman for Immigration Voice which organized the Gandhian protest, patterned after a episode in Lage Raho Munna Bhai, said the “flower campaign” had proven very effective in bringing the “plight of legal immigrants waiting for visa numbers” to the American public.

The flower campaign was organized to protest a USCIS decision reversing its earlier announcement on June 13 that employment visas were current, prompting tens of thousands of immigrants to scramble to complete their paperwork by the July 2 deadline set by the agency. On July 2, however, the agency declared that no visas were available and that it would return all submitted application, setting off the protest. 

Immigrant groups charged that the agency was seeking to delay the applications to benefit from a planned 255 percent increase in application fees set for July 30, which would create a $250 million windfall for the agency.

Nearly 5,000 people sent truckloads of flowers to Gonzales, who forwarded them to injured service members. Extensive media coverage of the novel protest tactic prodded the agency to reverse course and accept the applications it had intended to return. However, no visas will be available until Oct 1, as this year’s quota has already been exhausted.