Thread by @HMAesq

There already is a wall, folks.

More effective than any physical barrier on the southern border. Keeps people out before they can even begin their journey.

You can't fly over it or tunnel underneath it. You can't sneak around it, either. And it's much, much harder to tear down.

It's the combined bureaucracy of several different agencies that keeps people out. Physical barriers are a small slice of the pie of exclusion.

But with due process, there is sometimes a way through. Perfectly legal, not unlike carving out a nice little door for yourself.

Today, a green card for our North African client was approved after a 4 year delay. He had been apart from his US citizen wife since 2013, and even though they followed the law to the T, repeatedly told they just needed "one more thing," the visa remained stuck.

Administrative processing, they call it.

We know it as security checks. For applicants from Muslim countries, we know it as "Muslim Processing Time."

buzzfeednews.com/article/talala…

The law generally doesn't allow challenge to the decision of a consular officer. But sometimes we can challenge the consular officer's *failure to make* a decision.

We sued, and today, before the court even had a chance to rule, the visa was granted.

One more family can now be reunited here in Virginia, and we couldn't be happier for them. The trajectory of their lives just changed by a stamp in a passport book. Security, hopes and plans for the future, and continued cultural pollination.

It's a great thing.