America's 'National Suicide'

The U.S. needs this man. But it won't let him in. The Orwellian tale of an immigration ordeal.

Newsweek: Lakshminarayana Ganti reached out to me in the spring of 2009, long after he had exhausted every other option. Sixteen months earlier he had been a young man on the rise, living in a waterfront Boston apartment, driving a new BMW, and working long hours for a startup bond-trading firm. By the time he contacted me, he was sleeping in the spare bedroom of his sister's house in a New Delhi suburb, trying to fill his time with cricket and odd consulting jobs. He had found my name through a Facebook group set up by young Indian and Chinese scientists and engineers who had built their lives in America only to find themselves involuntarily exiled in their home countries. I had joined the Facebook group in connection with research into visa delays in the aftermath of 9/11. Hi Ted, he wrote. My case has been pending since Dec 18 '07. Nope that's not a typing error. For a few months I was ok with the delay, and in my mind justified it as-greater good-national security/safety procedures, but 15+ months of background checks on someone who has a clean record? Impossible to rationalise. Regards, Ganti.