It has always been the philosophy of this publication that the Internet is one of the greatest tools for democracy ever invented. The public has better access to information than ever before because of the Internet and organizations of every sort can much more easily exercise their first amendment rights. Forward thinking advocacy organizations have become very effective at lobbying on behalf of various causes by using the Internet to energize members and make it easy for members to communicate directly with lawmakers.

In the immigration arena, several organizations are already doing this successfully. Recently, we reported on the National Immigration Forum's web site at http://www.immigrationforum.org/. This month we report on the web site of the Association of Professionals for Spouse Reunification (http://www.apsr.org), another organization lobbying on behalf of immigrants. As the name of the organization implies, it focuses on a very specific cause - the long delay in spouse reunification often resulting from backlogs in the family 2A immigration category and the lengthy processing times in cases where citizens apply or spouses. The organization' purpose is very important and its site does an excellent job in delivering information.

The web site state's the organization's mission statement:

"There are over 600,000 US Citizens (USCs) and Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) who are separated from their spouses and children because of US Immigration Policies. Despite what most people believe, spouses and minor children of USCs and LPRs must wait outside the US until there immigration processing is complete. For the spouses of USCs, this processing time can take as long as 2 years. For the spouses of LPRs the waiting period is an unbearable 10 years for applications filed today.

It is APSR's mission to lobby congress for the passage of legislation that will make this reunification possible."

The site has several excellent news sections with articles on legislation pending in Congress, sample letters to Congressional representatives, and information on APSR's legislative activities.

The organization has succeeded in getting legislation introduced that would allow spouses to come to the US on student and visitor visas. The bill, HR 2664, has eighteen co-sponsors as of November 1997 and its entire text is on the APSR's site.

Membership in APSR is free and the organization places an online membership form at the site.