Hundreds of people across the nation are stuck in limbo as their cases "inch" through immigration courts. They hope to score permanent U.S. resident status, aka a "green card," according to The Washington Post, which reports that Ernesto Garcia, of Guatemala, who lost his job following a 2006 immigration raid on the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Greeley, remains jobless and is barely getting by while he waits for his case to be resolved. He's not lazy. He's just barred by the feds from working, a rule that Julien Ross, director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, deems a "sadistic" way to discourage those seeking to become Americans. It can take years for cases to be resolved, admits a spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review. Meanwhile, the state of Colorado killed a bill--yet again--that would have required verification proving potential employees are legal residents of the United States, according to the Rocky Mountain News. As for Greeley, it seems to remain the center of the nation's fight over immigration reform, as 5280's Robert Sanchez reported last August in "Pinched."