But why should we reward those who cheat the system?
I’m guessing you would want to ‘deport’ someone from your house if they broke in one night – be it a criminal or a innocent homeless person looking for shelter – so how is illegal immigration any different? This country is our collective home…
I would love to see the immigration system reformed and could live with some sort of path to citizenship for those here illegally. As part of it, I would hope they would end birthright citizenship and strongly enforce laws to both remove any illegals and ensure those employing illegals are punished.
I do have to say, that many immigrants are far more conservative on this issue than many of us posting on this thread.
It takes A LONG TIME to come and stay in this country legally. The bureaucracy is terrible. The wait times scary.
Legal immigrants who have waited a long time, paid a lot of money (visa costs aren’t insignificant) and completed a mountain of sometimes contradictory paperwork often FEEL ANGRY about the lack of consequences for the tens of thousands of people who skipped this whole process.
I have sympathy for illegal immigrants - I think there’s tremendous hypocrisy in the US about this - but I also respect the frustration legal immigrants feel in the face of tolerance for not obeying our own laws.
This is a complex issue.
“It takes A LONG TIME to come and stay in this country legally. The bureaucracy is terrible. The wait times scary.”
Honestly, it depends who you are. It’s not a very fair process for all. I’ve known several rich asians who were granted citizenship 4 months after first applying. No hassles, no worries. Often in this country, we sell citizenship to the wealthy.
@romanigypsyeyes I don’t know what I would have done, I am a 3rd generation American and so I’m rather unaware of what is involved. However, I would not have buried my head in the sand and hope to never be discovered. I would find a lot more peace in being above board. If her husband was OK to be here, maybe he could be working towards citizenship and then she would also be legal? I don’t know. But I do know the stress of doing nothing would be worse,for me, than trying to do something.
Of course, if we simplified legal immigration and allowed more of it, there would be less illegal immigration. With legal immigration easier, fewer would intentionally immigrate illegally since the could immigrate legally instead; with simpler procedures, fewer would end up with illegal immigration status due to mistakes (both their own and others’).
Immigration (both legal and illegal) is a hot button for many, since many see it as a proxy issue for race/ethnicity.
Robots are being used to pick fruits and vegetables now. (Recent article in the Times). So that ‘who will be the farm workers’ thing will no longer be a thing.
The reduction of those jobs will automatically reduce illegal immigration. If there are fewer jobs for them to take, fewer will try to immigrate illegally to work those jobs.
Indeed, the number of unauthorized immigrants has been slowly declining since about 2009, after rising up to then.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/27/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
“It’s not a very fair process for all. I’ve known several rich asians who were granted citizenship 4 months after first applying. No hassles, no worries. Often in this country, we sell citizenship to the wealthy.”
@doschicos True, that!
Another reason why law-abiding (but NOT rich) immigrants feel like they’re among the few who play by the rules.
I am very conscious that all of my great-grandparents, and all of my wife’s grandparents, came here as legal immigrants under a system that made it easy to be a legal immigrant. I see no value, none, in the current Kafkaesque monstrosity of a legal immigration system that can be easily gamed by those with lots of resources and is completely capricious for those without. The notion of upholding the law just because it’s the law, when it otherwise lacks any reason for respect, doesn’t cut it with me. We would be up a creek without our immigrants, legal and not. Look at Japan. Look at Russia.
By the way, I have no problem with easy immigration for people with lots of money and lots of education. I just think that there should be some kind of realistic immigration process for people with nothing but hard work to offer. Like all of my children’s forbears.
I also have no problem with deporting gang members. I wish more resources were being devoted to that and fewer to the low-hanging fruit of people who are so law-abiding they show up for their ICE check-ins. Reading about immigration these days is like reading about the Gestapo. Sure, Germany in the 30s and 40s had actual criminals, too, and some of the law enforcement effort was directed against them. And procedures were strictly followed. But that didn’t make everything OK.
“I’ve known several rich asians who were granted citizenship 4 months after first applying. No hassles, no worries. Often in this country, we sell citizenship to the wealthy.”
You probably meant permanent residency, i.e. a direct path to US citizenship in 5 or so years.
The reason it’s the law to come here legally is the same reason it’s the law to immigrate to any country legally. There are no countries with literal and figurative open borders… none.
Being able to track who is living in your country is perhaps the most basic requirement of being a sovereign country. When you have no idea who is living within your borders, it makes collecting accurate census data nearly impossible, which in turns makes it difficult for governments to plan and create budgets. Not to mention the risks of increased crime and terrorism.
While it may seem heartless to crack down on those here illegally, it’s also important for these people to respect the laws of the country they are immigrating to. Respect works both ways after all.
“You probably meant permanent residency, i.e. a direct path to US citizenship in 5 or so years”
Nope, definitely citizenship. Granted, some were here for studies or other reasons for a time. But, from the time they applied for citizenship and time they receive it was only mere months. It wasn’t for green cards at all.
It is equally or more heartless to continue the push and pull of human beings through dangerous terrain, with murderous criminals, to work at menial labor. As birth rates have fallen in Mexoco, even more desperate people are being exploited - people who are much less likely to take a step up into success here in the U.S. – if they survive the journey at all. Support for illegal immigration is the farthest thing from compassionate.
I’d like to know the process, @doschicos. Even those arriving on IR (immediate relative) visas take some time to get citizenship. Children adopted overseas do become immediate citizens, but often the application and other forms have taken years on the front end of the process. My niece’s husband’s visa took 2+ years, but he of course was from that dangerous place, Canada. The K visas, for fiances, don’t result in citizenship just a green card. Niece didn’t use the K visa process, but an IR one. If he wants to become a citizen, he has to start that as a separate process.
I do not think there is any possibility for someone to get US citizenship in 4 months as doschicos has indicated. It has been a few years since my wife obtained hers but as far as I recall it is not possible. If it is, I hope doschicos can refer to the provisions that allow this. I believe this is incorrect.
In several cases, these are people who studied here as students (on student visas). I’m very familiar with how things work and how long it can take so I was surprised myself. These folks have both a high education and high assets. I know them well and they have no reason to be dishonest about there experience. They, themselves, were surprised by the speed of the process and were laughing about it.
But the USCIS says one must be a permanent resident for 5 years before becoming a citizen. Exceptions are spouses (3 years) and military, and a child under 18 of a US citizen or adopted by a US citizen. It’s not that they are lying to you, but perhaps short cutting the process in relating it to you how they became citizens? Money buys visas and permits, but not citizenship.
https://immigration-law.freeadvice.com/immigration-law/citizenship/naturalization_requirements.htm
Perhaps they had EB-5 status prior to receiving their citizenship. I know they did not work here other than on campus research type jobs. They do own property in the US. I would imagine their time studying counted towards there residency requirement.
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/26/170358985/investing-in-citizenship-for-the-rich-a-new-road-to-the-u-s