On any given day, Levita Rohlman may have individuals or families from one of dozens of countries walking through her office doors, their hopes high that she will help them or their loved ones gain sure footing in the United States.

As executive director for the Catholic Agency for Migration and Refugee Services in Garden City, Rohlman tries to "navigate people through the immigration process," a process that she said is brimming with bureaucratic red tape.

"The paperwork is intense, complex, whatever words you can think of," she said. "I used to say it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. I don’t say that anymore.

"Our ancestors spent two, three weeks on the ocean, then went through the inspection site at Ellis Island and were ready to go."

But today, she explained, if a person who is a permanent resident of the United States wants to legally bring into the country a spouse or minor children, the back-log is from five to seven years.

Ellis Island opened its doors to immigrants in 1892, serving as a gateway for approximately 12 million people over the next 50 years. Among other guidelines for being admitted, immigrants could have no communicable diseases; they had to know somebody living in the United States; and they had to have money in their pocket.

In 1924, the government imposed a quota system to stem the influx of immigrants; they also began requiring passports. In the years to follow, Ellis Island would become as much a detention center as a gateway.

The quota system has survived to this day and is a primary reason for the huge backlog, Rohlman said.

"It’s terribly difficult for a family to be separated for five to seven years when they have a human right to be together," she said. "Each country is allowed a seven percent quota every year. It doesn’t matter if it’s little country or big. Each country is the same. That’s why Mexico has a deeper backlog. It goes back to 1996.

"The backlog is what springs illegal immigration."

Sister Janice Thome, O.P., works directly with struggling immigrants through the Dominican Sisters Ministry of Presence. Along with Sister Roserita Weber, she does everything from deliver food to providing transportation.

"Gaining legal entry is so difficult in Mexico because so many people want to come," Sister Janice said. "When they apply they may stand in line several days, pay several dollars and then go home. When they come back, they have no record because the clerk pocketed the money. By the time you apply again, the quota may be filled.

"To become legal if you entered illegally is almost impossible until your oldest child who was born here turns 21," she added. "Then they can apply for you. If you entered the country illegally and then marry an American citizen, you have to go back to your country of origin for one year."

Why the large influx of immigrants from Mexico and Central and South American countries?

"The number one reason is their children," Sister Janice said. "One woman told me, ‘I never wanted to come to this country. Then I got married and when I held my first baby, I wanted her to have education. Where we were living, she wouldn’t have gotten through the third grade.’

"My ancestors," Sister Janice said, "came so that they could have life for their children, and that’s what these people are doing. My ancestors worked hard to help themselves, but nobody put them in jail and nobody deported them."

And of course, many immigrants come solely for the work.

"Some of them, once they get more on their feet, will send money back to their village to dig a well or build a school," Sister Janice said.

Meanwhile, many immigrants become caught up in what Sister Janice termed a "dinosaur system with no heart."

"I just met a family whose dad works from six to 10-hour days, five to six days per week for $300," she explained. "The employer knows [the worker] can’t complain because of his status."

Compounding the excessive time it takes to process an application for citizenship is the fact that many who have been here numerous years weren’t informed of the process—or did not understand it— and never submitted their application.

Every day, Rohlman and Sister Janice see the fear in the eyes of immigrants, from those hiding from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as they fight a losing battle to become a citizen, to those wanting to be reunited with loved ones, to those simply wanting to feed their families.

A 2003 joint pastoral letter by the bishops of Mexico and the United States reads in part, "…Aspects of the migrant experience are far from the vision of the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed: many persons who seek to migrate are suffering, and, in some cases, tragically dying; human rights are abused; families are kept apart; and racist and xenophobic attitudes remain. …

"We speak to the migrants who are forced to leave their lands to provide for their families or to escape persecution. We stand in solidarity with you. We commit ourselves to your pastoral care and to work toward changes in Church and societal structures that impede your exercising your dignity and living as children of God. …

"The Church recognizes that all the goods of the earth belong to all people. When persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right."

"I think what makes things change," Sister Janice said, "is when you get to know a family and their circumstances, and get to know how honest and hard working they are and ask, why should they be in this mess."