jack smith 2 has left 25 comments

jack smith 2 comments on United States Immigration Policy

Everybody pretty much gets in... The problem with US immigration policy is that just about everybody gets in sooner or later if they do not die in the Sonora desertor on a capsized boat from the DR en route to Puerto Rico.

Legally or illegally, those that really try are getting in sooner or later. Marriage, family reunification or by crrossing the border.

You cannot have any real POLICY without enforcement and their is little enforcement.

AMERICA will not be pretty when there are 500 millionn people HERE!

jack smith 2 comments on Experience with US Embassy in Bogota.

Orchid Andy, you said you spent $7,000 on lawyers fees to get your wife to the US? I feel sorry for you because you could have done it yourself for a lot less. I did it myself.

It is a shame that your brother in law can't get here when there are so many illegals here walking around with no cares in the world. The liberal press talks about how they "live in the shadows" Hahahaha! Where is the INS or ICE when they wave those Mexican flags in the streets?

FYI We are supposed to have a selective immigration policy. That means the Congress decides who gets in and who does not. This is why so many get a NO in Bogota. The problem is that Bush Sr., Clinton, and W will not ENFORCE the 1986 Immigration Act which gave amnesty to millions. If the law was enforced maybe your brother in law would already be here?

Illegals are destroying our public schools and hospitals are closing in California because a STUPID supreme court says we have to treat the ILLEGALS! We have citizens here with no medical inssurance and they barely get by yet go to some public clinic and their is Juan and Maria and their 10 kids getting service before the CITIZEN! UNFAIR!! Thank the Democratic Party and some REPUBLICANS like BUSH! It is a system out of control! Before you had illegals in CA and LA New York and Miami and maybe Chicago. Now they are in every state save for just a few. Boise, Omaha, Minneapolis and Seattle. Why? Cheap labor! But then they pollute our public schools and destroy our hospitals and yes %30 of the people in our jails are illegals. The ccorrupted politicans in Mexico just want to dump them on the US! The third richest man in the world is Carlos Slim of Mexico worth $30 BILLION! We export jobs to China by shutting our factories and import uneducated ILLEGALS mostly from Mexico and Central America!

In time it will destroy this country! Poco a poco!


I support a BRACERO program! That means SOME Mexicans are allowed in to work in farm industries but NOWHERE else. When the harvest is over HOME THEY GO! Now, they don't go and Maria comes in illegally and they have 3 to 8 kids who should not be citizens!

My wife, who has her green card can already try to get her faamily here and why? I don't want my wife's family here!

Why does a nation of $300 million need any Colombian architects anyway?

It is a situation that is out of control and our politicians don't care. Mexico, Colombia et al need to take care of their own people period!

Finally, how many AMERICANS in this forum want to move to Colombia but other than teaching English or starting a mail order bride agency can't find anything? But we in the US should accept any illegal and educate them while our poor citizens see their wages go to hell because some illiterate Mexican or Honduran will do the work for nothing?

Always comes down to money does it not?

Yes, my wife was lucky to get a fiance VISA for I am an American but this stupidity has got to stop! No more immigration period and if some architectural firm in Florida can't find a qualified American then that is their problem!

jack smith 2 comments on Experience with US Embassy in Bogota.

As an American I find it kind of insulting that your relative wants to go to Florida to work for the company there and I AS AN AMERICAN CANNOOT EVEN WORK THE WINDOW WHERE ALL THE COLOMBIAN NATIONALS ARE WORKING! The State Department would rather hire Colombians to do the dirty work for cheaper unless they, State, employ their NEPOTISM clause and give the job to a relative which they can do and do do!

The State Department website even talks of a case where aa MEXICAN NATIONAL employee was convicted of obtaining visas illegally for some Colombians in Mexico City!

Nevertheeless, why should some Colombian get a tourist visa when we know that %40 of the illegals here in the US crossed no border but obtained some sort of vissa and never went home. I know cases of Colombians who did recieve TOURIST visas yet they spent the whole time limit in the US before they went back. When the consular people see a "RICH" Colombian spent six months in the US they can only figure one thing. They worked in the US on a tourist visa which is ILLEGAL. Tourist means tourist! Not worker!

If they stopped givng out visas all together for a couple years I would not complain because we have no workable immigration policy in this country. Too many illegals all the way around!

Enough is enough!

jack smith 2 comments on

First the AUC and then the ELN and then the FARC? Seems to me as if Uribe has calculated that he could get most of the Para's to disarm since they were originally nothing more than vigilantes trying to do what the government could not and that is take on the FARC.

ELN seems to be weak and wants to negotiate.

The FARC seem to be the hardcore thugs in all of this and as bad as Pastrana was, spending more time out of Colombia than in the country, the FARC showed they want no peace what so ever. Refusing to show up for meetings and always attacking small towns and such during the Pastrana term. Pastrana showed before he left office that he had had enough and sent in the military.

The government has to take control of Colombia if things are ever to improve for the good of the majority. There will always be a certain amount of corruption and or drug trafficking but if Bogota can someday control the countryside then you could see a more peaceful Colombia and a more prosperous Colombia.

So negotiatee with the Paras and get them to disarm. Convince the ELN to do the same and then militarily crush the FARC since FARC refuses to talk seriously about peace. Pastrana showed Colombia that if nothing else!

I have felt for years that the US military needs to take on the FARC with the top crack Colombian military units. This would be no Iraq! I think it should have been done years ago instead of sending billions down in the form of Plan Colombia. Get it over at once!
30,000 US troops would clean up the FARC in a few weeks and then the government could do the rest. The drug trafficking is always going to be there but it has to be controlled and even tolerated to an extent.

This is what I think and I could be totally wrong in my analysis.

jack smith 2 comments on Juanes concert cancelled in Des Moines

Shakira is nothing to write home about.... Shakira represents how a short and cute but not HOT Colombian with a mediocre voice, if she hooks up with the right promoter, can sell a lot of records! Obviously, Shakira is not my favorite, but she ent nowhere until EMILIO ESTEFAN promoted her and this is the key...knowing the right people. There are probably 10 potential female singers in Colombia better than Shakira. Better singers and better bodies but because EMILIO will never promote them they will stay as national talent and nothing more!

Shakira's luck......anyway Paulina Rubia is 100 times better...

jack smith 2 comments on Juanes concert cancelled in Des Moines

Shows you how bad ILLEGAL immigration is the US! The fact that Juanes would even hit Des Moines simply shows how bad ILLEGAL immigration is in the US! Could be ticket sales were poor in Des Moines since most of the Hispanics there are MEXICCCANNNOOOSSSS?

Maybe they thought the Mexican immigrants would buy Juanes tickets when they want their Tigres del NNNOOOOORRRTTTEEEEEE!

Just guessing here BTW Too bad Latin America can't take care of it's poor and has to dump them on the US. So proud to be Mexican but can't live there and have a future and then too many come to the US and cry racism when they find out that things are not always so easy here in the US of A!

The USA is not going to be a good place to live in 50 to 75 years when there are 450 million to 600 million people here and this illegal invasion, day by day, represents just that! I will be dead so what do I care right?

Juanes is pretty good but give me Paulina and Patty Manterola anyday!

jack smith 2 comments on Help with the Cedula

It was beat up pretty badly.... It was old and beat up so she tossed it.....we are hearing that any Colombian consulate after receiving a copy of the passport and a wait of a couple weeks to verify with Bogota will invite her to appear for a new one and $ and this is fine unless you live in a place where there is no consulate.

In order to issue a new one they have to verify the old one so hence the delay.

I am going to see if we can send the information to Bogota and do it there since we are going to be there anyway.

I will say it again if one has a Colombian passport which you need the cedula to obtain then why the comotion over the cedula?

Their rules but pretty stupid in my book! She has a Colombian passport and a US resident alien card which is hard to get so why the hassle?

I will be glad when she gets her US citizenship and we will throw the Colombian passport and the Cedula in the trash! We will too!

jack smith 2 comments on Re-Entry into the US with a Green Card???

Make sure she has that cedula card? We went back to Colobia in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Each time the wife had her resident alien card and Colombian passport and no problems til the 20004 trip where they wanted to see this cedula card. A national identity card which we anti-illegal immigrant folks want here in the US and all the illegals carry in their countries of origin but don't want in the United States cause they are afraid of more deportations if a national card is issued here in the US. Ironic it ain't it?

Make sure she saves her cedula aand travels with it as we are finding out!

jack smith 2 comments on ATMs in Bogota Airport

4 or 5 on the second floor! Up on the second floor of the International terminal, before you pass through security for a DEPARTING flight, there are 3 to 5 ATM's in a little room off the main hallway. Davivienda, Colpatria and I forget the other banks represented. I usually use BanColombia ATM's myself.

We usually just change $20 at the exchange window right after they clear your luggage at customs on arrival and if you turn to your right after you pass the aiport door there is a taxi office there too and they tell you the fare to your destination.

Why carry US dollars? I could be wrong but I believe the exchange rate is better with cash instead of a ATM unless your bank does not charge for ATM's like mine does charge. Colombian ATM's usually have a limit of like 500,000 pesos EACH withdrawl so $3 to $5 charges each time add up.

We like the BanColombia branch office in Salitre Plaza in that department store Olympica or Exitos I can't remember the name of the place?

If you need a list of ATM's in say Bogota, find the website for say, BanColombia or whichever, and they can tell you where they are located! They can inform you of withdrawl limits. It is best to withdrawl the maximumm eeach time to avoid those charges IF you have them.....

jack smith 2 comments on Cali becomes more and more dangerous

Maybe...? I left Cali on Sepetember 8th, 1999 and have not been back there nor do I care to go back because Cali has very little to offer a US guy except for yes the Calenas! We have been back to Colombia every year since except for last year. Cartagena once and San Andres Island and Bogota the other 3 times.

Bogota cannot be safer than Cali in my opinion for the fact that there are more people there so hence more thugs? More women too so why go to Cali although I did but would not if I did the girl search thing over again. This topic I will skip since it seems to be of great debate over and over again?

Cali was my first Colombian destination and although I had been to many other Latin countries I wwas amazed at the lack of security in Cali's airport back in 97 compared to what I had seen in Caracas and Honduras during the central American conflicts. For a nation at civil war there was little if any beefed up security in Cali back then from what little I saw.

We were in Bogota when Club Nogal bomb went off a few years back.
When the sun goes down in Colombia we tend to stay indoors and likee some of you have said, if you vist for a week or two you probably will have no trouble but when you live there is when one sees undesirable things? We still refuse to travel in the countryside....I read things here of FARC checkpoints and who neeeds the risk?

jack smith 2 comments on 'Granddaddy' of Colombia paramilitaries surrenders

What happened to Carlos Castano? Anybody ever find the body, dead or alive, of Carlos Castano? AUC leader?

jack smith 2 comments on

This program has destroyed the US flower industry and has done nothing to stop Cocaine production in Colombia...LOOK 85% OF THESE FLOWERS ARE GROWN RIGHT UNDER THE FLIGHT PATH INTO EL DORADO AIRPORT NOT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE WHERE THE COCO LEAVES ARE GROWN...THIS IS A WALMART PROFLOWERS.COM RIP OFF OF THE US TAXPAYER.....

Look down to your right as you approach El Dorado's airport and see how your US tax dollars are making a few rich while hurting a US industry and cocaine is as easy to get as ever......the Colombian website for this Colombian company admits that %85 of their flowers are from Bogota and Medellin and right next to Bogota's airport to get them to Miami in 2 hours....FREE TRADE WITH POOR COUNTRIES ONLY MAKES A FEW RICH AND EVERYONE ELSE LOSES!

jack smith 2 comments on Immigrating 15year old sister? Whats the length?

What makes you think we need your friend's sister, mother, father and whomever else HERE anyway? Tell them to stay in Colombia we now have 300 Million PEOPLE here in the United States and we don't need anymore immigrants! It has got to STOP before our way of life is DESTROYED! The day is coming!

jack smith 2 comments on visa denial

Oh yes we can split up a family and the day is coming and we YANKS don't care about what you Limey's do! We are being invaded by ILLEGALS that are destroying our public schools and HOSPITALS are going broke treating illegals....if ILLEGAL parents are deported too bad if the citizen kids get deported too! Let Mexico send their poor to Great Britain!

Our way of life is at risk as our population soars past 300 million!
BTW What kind of kind ARAB immigrants do you have in Britain that like to put bombs on the tube? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

jack smith 2 comments on Avianca - Domestic So Expensive?

wait until you get to Colombia to buy your domestic ticket....the price is HIGHER if you buy it in the USA......same thing when we to to San Andres Island....if they find out I am a GRINGO the price goes up!!!!!

jack smith 2 comments on Something Needs to Dramatically Change on This Website

Bxunika Why shouldn't the fellows who go ar have gone to Colombia either just looking for love and or marriage post here? Unfortunately, most of the world is afraid of Colombia due to the poor image of la coca.

I would not generalize about the marriage agencies in Colombia and or the women or the men. I have been in another Colombian forum and I met a few Americans in Colombia at these places and they are a very varied lot as are the women in Colombia. I met quite a few women in Colombia from 18 to about 35 and yes some were way too young for me but that was just me. No chemistry! No different than dating here!

Bxunika, every fellow who goes to Colombia has his own personal reason for going. Yes, some go to get "serviced" and others go just to give it a chance. Around %50 of the fellows are divorced and yes are tired of American women. The problem Bxiunka is that we are very closed in the USA. We go from car to building and back to car. In Latin America, people walk, they take the bus etc etc. It can be easier to meet women in Latin America if you speak the language. I do! But even if he ddoesn't marriages can work. I know a guy married to a Honduran and he was set up and he spoke no Spanish aand she spoke no English and they have been married like 18 years and have two kids. In ffact, I know quite a few Hispana/Gringo couples going strong!

Bxiunka, we did an informal poll a while back to see what marriages had lasted between gringos and Latinas...gues what Bxunika? It was about a %50 divorce rate...about the same or maybe a little lower than it is here.

Finally, Bxiunka, way too many Latin women have told me that they like the GRINGO because he is more loyal and will not cheat as easily as the Don Juan Latino macho? I don't know how much of this is true but I believe there is something there....?

Anyway, the guys here in this forum who have gone to Colombia 5,10,15 times have a lot to offer this forum. I would get over your hangup and find another forum if this bothers you. I visi this forum once in a while then I disappear.......adios!

jack smith 2 comments on Desperate for help, divorce before 2 years!!!!

Go home! Well, did you marry him for love or because you like the USA because you had been here on a student visa and you like it here? Maybe a little of both?

Like the lawyer said you can apply for some type of sympathy visa. US law towards women and minorities looks at you as a victim, yet the INS or State Department does not really know why you married that guy now do they? I think it is time for you to go home myself but since he did marry you legally you are entitled to go back to Colombia with HALF of everything that he owns. Not a bad consolation prize if no visa to stay!

Young lady, get a good lawyer and you will be OK and NO you wil not go back to Colombia if I was betting. You see, we are inundated with MILLIONS of illegals mostly MEXICANOS and the INS called ICE is a big joke as is George Bush's immigration policy plus if we have no immigrants then all these immigration lawyers would be out of a job right?

If the guy cheated on you then he is a jerk but who knows really what you were thinking when you married? Our immigration laws are no good becaude hardly anybody gets deported anymore. Hell, I have 15 of them living just up the street and where is ICE?

Get a good lawyer and be willing to shell out some bucks and come out to Colorado and we will teach you to ski this winter porque tu no te vas a ninguna parte!

Suerte y mucho mucho AMOR!

jack smith 2 comments on need advice I.C.E. Revoking a Colombian's visa Ongoing Criminal Investigation

Keep after them.... Pink_Lotus were they here in this forum as Tinto suggested? Just curious, how long have you lived in Colombia and what kind of acting have you done? Your story sounds like the kind that Spanish Television Univision and Telemundo in Miami might like to hear as well as NBC Dateline, and or 60 Minutes. You said somebody at the Embassy was going to help you and where did that go?

That freak Gloria Trevi I mentioned above really pissed me off. You see, my wife has Spanish television going night and day. I had heard of this singer over 15 years ago and I knew she was a fugitive from Mexican law and then she was caught in Brazil where she ws hiding withher lover promoter Sergio Andrade who was accused and CONVICTED in a Mexican court a few months ago. I have no doubt that Sergio Andrade will never enter the US again because he raped like nobody knows how many teenage girls. However, the Mexican system, rotten and corrupted basically let him off for time served and God only knows who he bribed to get out? Gloria was in jail in Brazil but upon extradition was let go and again who was paid off and how much?

When I heard that there was a dead child involved in Brazil under questionable circumstances I started a personal war in which I called Senators and Congressman and newspaper reporters where she was supposed to give concerts to "reinvent" her career (Like Michael Jackson will do?) The GRINGO press didn't know about her she only sings in Spanish and I was trying to inform them of her case! Maybe in Latin America you can leave a dead 32 day old girl and nobody cares but that is big time scandal here in the US! Pink, I was told by one Congressional aid that State could not deny Trevi the visa because she was not convicted as I mentioned and again Samper was a precedent where State had revocked a VISA only on accusations! Condeleeza Rice could revoke these doctors visas yesterday if she wanted but it is done without a legal conviction! I called State in Washington and left a message for someone supposedly in charge of the Consular (Visa section) and I asked why she was given
an arts visa to enter the US when there were so many outstanding questions about the death of her child, a 32 day old baby that Sergio fathered (among many others by how many wanna be teenage stars he promised careers?. Gloria seemed to never really care and would not answer questions about the baby girl. The tried to spin it if you will?

Pink, it can be almost impossible to get people in positions of power to pay attention but you must try. I called and left voice messages and emails and reporters and Congressman didn't sem to care either BUT I later heard she missed a concert in Texas because she was held up at the Mexican border by ICE over VISA questions. Did my call to State have anything to do with that? Probably not but State was not going to respond to my voicemail as a rule. As I said, her concert sales were flat and she has basically disappeared from Spanish television.
Did my efforts calling Las Vegas reporters and the mayors of Dallas et al help put pressure on them to drop her? Maybe and maybe not but if you drop this like someone mentioned above then these bums will do it again and that is what they expect being Latin and being in Colombia where people called government don't care. That is why so many want to run to the US although they think it is just for a job. Our system generally works and theirs stinks!

1. Contact the Embassy again and even Email the Ambassador and contact the consular section at State in Washington. Contact your local Congressman and Senator in the States although I am not sure what state you hail from?

2. Get a lawyer in Colombia and the US and look for one in either immigration or international afffairs in the US.

3. Contact the Miami Herald, NBC Dateline, the Bogota papers if you think it will help put pressue on the Colombian and US authorities to do something if they are not doing anything already. Univision and Telemundo as well. If you have scars show the reporters! Ver es creer!

If these guys are the frauds as you say then they may have lied on their VISA applications. I believe this alone would be enough for revocation but you have to prove it and State has to investigate. This is where your lawyer comes in and the press if later need be?

Finally, be careful because these guys could be capable of anything if you have been threatened. Do you have good personal security?



Don't do anything dumb as I mentioned above!

jack smith 2 comments on need advice I.C.E. Revoking a Colombian's visa Ongoing Criminal Investigation

He lied on documents? If he lied on his VISA applications that might be grounds to revoke a VISA! You need to keep after the Consulate and contact your Granny's Congressman in SC!

jack smith 2 comments on need advice I.C.E. Revoking a Colombian's visa Ongoing Criminal Investigation

"other offers to help..." "non legal offers like what" Sicarios? Don't do that! You don't want to go there!

jack smith 2 comments on need advice I.C.E. Revoking a Colombian's visa Ongoing Criminal Investigation

another comment....... I have seen little Mexican stores here in Denver, Colorado that sell Pencillin ILLEGALLY! This can be bought over the counter in Mexico so they bring it here and do it illegally. My point is that although things may seem easier and cheaper medical wise in a place like Colombia we have controls and laws in the USA designed to help the patients and the system as a whole. If what you say Pink is true I hope they never enter US territory again either but getting medical services there without some legal protection is risky. I have thought of having LASIK there but decided against real quickly and my Colombian wife didn't think it very prudent either. I do believe, as I said, until you get a conviction in a Colombian court, State will not revoke the VISA. If State revoked the Visa just based on your word only then what kind of system of law would State follow? (I personally HATE the State Department for I think it is made up of a bunch of elitists and I can't apply for a job there either as a US citizen! Long story....
Have you talked to them? Can you even find a phone number as they hide in their building? FSOS practically work in a jail if you think about it but they get out at night.

Anyway, I hope you get justice IF what you say is true because they deserve their day in court too but do contact the powers that be about this......

jack smith 2 comments on need advice I.C.E. Revoking a Colombian's visa Ongoing Criminal Investigation

Tough road here..... Yoy want their VISAS revoked and this will be next to impossible UNLESS you can get them convicted in a Colombian court of law. I say this because you are accusing and they have not been convicted of anything in ANY court of law just yet so State has no grounds to revoke the visas?

Are you familiar with the case of Mexican singer Gloria Trevi? She either killed her own child in Brazil or was at least an accomplice in hiding the body of her 32 day old daughter while a fugitive from INTERPOL....she was never convicted of any crime so she was back in the US this year trying to reinvent her singing career....nobody bought her concert tickets so she basically has disappearred....THANK GOD!

The State Department could revoke the VISAS but only in rare cases could it be done. President Samper had his revoked over accusations (ONLY) of receiving narco$$$ in his campaign...so the precedent is there, but again, you are accusing only and where is the proof?

Show State some proof and maybe something could be done but heck anybody can accuse anybody and where is the judicial process....see my point?

I am NOT a lawyer but I think I am correct here in my analysis?

jack smith 2 comments on ¿Qué le diría usted a la gente que se quiere ir del país?

Quedanse en Colombia o vayanse a Canada? Favor de no venir a los Estados Unidos? Nuestros salarios estan bajando porque pobres Meexicanos estan llegando listos para trababjar casi gratis y nuestras escuelas estan fracasando gracias a la ola ILLEGAL! Vayanse a Canada. Canada tiene mas espacio que EU y solo hay 30 milliones de personas alli...y Miami ya no es Estados Unidos! Asi es.....Estados Unidos no va a ser un buen lugar para vivir cuando hay 500 milliones de personas y nuestros politicos tontos no pueden abrirse los ojos a lo que estan haciendo estos ILLEGALES a nuestro pais. Esto ne es RACISMO sino la realidad de CIFRAS...Ecuador esta harto de ILLEGALES Colombianos en su territorio tambien y los Ticos no quieren a los nicas......

jack smith 2 comments on Uribe, un presidente sin ocaso

Pastrana? Heeeheeeheeeheeee Pastrana es un excelente candidato para la posicion de embajador....lei que el paso mas tiempo afuera del pais que adentro durante su presidencia.....pero Pastrana es un debil y realmente no hace sentido nombrarlo embajador o Pastrana y Uribe son buenos amigos?

jack smith 2 comments on Relocation to Bogota, Colegio Nueva Granada

Compensation? Are the teachers paid well at this school?