Immigration

I'm not especially invested in the debates about the immigration bill, but they do remind me of this anecdote about the current system:

On my way back from Eastern Europe a couple of years ago, I sat next a Romanian woman on the plane. Upon finding out that I was American, she told me that she and her husband, an Orthodox priest (she was a former novice herself) were in the process of immigrating to the U.S.A. She explained that her sister and brother-in-law were extremely motivated to immigrate, to the point of learning English and entering the visa lottery every year for several years. They had always failed to get a visa. This year she and her husband, as a lark, entered the lottery as well. They won. She was uncertain about what she would do in the U.S. although the church was trying to find a place for her husband in Maryland.

The poor sister is still in Romania.