<don’t foreign="" nationals="" leaving="" the="" us="" have="" to="" return="" their="" 1-94="" form?=""></don’t>
IF foreign nationals came to USA illegally, they don’t have I-94 form in the first place 
They have nothing to return.
@californiaaa
It’s true that nobody checks leaving the US, but you’re absolutely checked entering the US at any of those checkpoints. This is why illegal immigrant smuggling exists.
To whoever asked if foreign nationals leaving the US must return their I-94 forms: They don’t have to. They can take the I-94 form with them and use it a later date(s) as long as the form does not expire.
@austinmshauri, except these young people didn’t break the law. Their parents did. And Texas (along with several other states) decided not to punish them for the sins of their fathers.
The issue is not whether people EVER entered the US illegally (of course they did - 14 million are here now, many millions of others over the years) but what are they entitled to once they are here, or once they stay? The US government has decided that minors get a public education, vaccinations, some medical care, sometimes even food benefits. Adults get emergency medical care but often not much else.
The DACA ‘children’ may have been here through no fault of their own, but how long do the get to remain? Are they allowed to work? Do we educate them through college and then say “Oh, you are still undocumented, now over 26, and now it is really time to leave.” Do they forever get to say “Well, now I’ve been here 5 years or 10 years or 20 and I should get to stay. I have more of a right to be here than the person who has been waiting in line, with papers properly filled out and paid for, from Brazil or Mexico or Yugoslavia.”
The 10 or 100 or 1000 heading to UT or BC or MIT on full scholarships are outliers. Sure, they may contribute to society and be extra smart and extra deserving, but there are thousands of students who aren’t geniuses, who don’t really work hard (or do and just aren’t that smart), who are majoring in not so lucrative subjects at community colleges. What about them? What about the 16 year old who was brought to the US and won’t have the 3 years in to qualify for DACA? Is she any less deserving because her parents waited a year too long to bring her to the US?
Many of your questions are answered within the Texas law. Google will be your friend there. Likewise, your other questions can be answered by researching state and federal (or even local) laws. It’s complicated. It’s messy. It’s inconsistent. It’s American immigration reality.
US immigration laws have no teeth. There is no resource in place to implement those laws, therefore it inspires third world country residents to risk their lives to get to the US because there is a fairly high probability they could get to stay and their kids could have better future in this country. Some of those illegal immigrants (like Chinese) become slaves to illegal transporters in order to pay off their fees. They do it because they’ve heard there is a great rainbow at the end. Our system (or lack of it) is actually putting more people’s lives at risk. We also do not have an out for those undocumented children either. After college graduation, what could they do in this country? Just another worker without work eligibility, like their parents, except they are better educated.
Are you a US citizen/permanent resident? If so, then you don’t have to track your US entries/departures.
There is legal status. When your driver’s license expires, you’re not legally allowed to drive a car, period, even though you’ve been a safe driver for years.
^^And as soon as they are adults (or get a job) they are then breaking the law. I know it is a difficult position to be in to decide to stay or to return to their home country, but that doesn’t make them law abiding when they turn 18.
I don’t like the Dream Act or DACA because it is a patch on a system that doesn’t work. There is no ‘road to citizenship’ and I really don’t like the argument of getting to continue working or staying because they know no other way. It is often harsh to impose the law. We don’t forgive thieves who steal no matter how needy their families are.
“In the days of Emma Lazarus, there was no such thing as gov’t benefits-- no welfare, no food stamps, no free medical care. All immigrants were on their own.”
That’s not true. There were public relief programs in those days – they were just run by state and local governments rather than federal. Many cities had public poorhouses and public hospitals offering free or subsidized medical care. Chicago had a public almshouse starting in 1835 and a public hospital starting in 1843, and we’re much younger than the cities of the east coast.
My administrative assistant at my overseas assignment was grew up as an undocumented kid in the US. She was educated in the US, but couldn’t get a job after high school, so she had to move back home. Her life was better than if she had never left the country because her ability to speak English was a highly sought after skill in her native country.
“There is legal status. When your driver’s license expires, you’re not legally allowed to drive a car, period, even though you’ve been a safe driver for years.”
@GMTplus7 – that was not the logic followed by the representatives of Texas. Take it up with them, not me. I’m not in Texas, have never set a foot in the state except flying through it, have no stake in this debate. You do - so go for it. I’m sure the Texas state legislature will be all ears
This must be the only instance that a number of people approve of the goings-on in Texas outside of the state. 
The U.S. economy would collapse if all undocumented workers were to suddenly disappear. They do jobs no one else is willing to do. They deserve respect… and gratitude. It is hypocritical to benefit from their inexpensive labor and then rile against them and their kids. And, btw, kids should NEVER be punished or penalized for their parents decisions. They deserve a fresh start and the opportunity to see what they can make of themselves through hard work.
I don’t agree that Americans would not do the jobs. If the farmers couldn’t find labor for below minimum wage, they’d pay more and prices would go up. We all like it when prices are lower, but we have minimum wage laws to protect worker.
My first job as a 13 year old was as a farm worker, in the potato fields. I worked the harvest, after school until dark and then all day on Saturdays and Sundays, about 13-14 hours. We were filthy, we were cold and hungry all day, we were paid about $1.40/hr (farm minimum wage was lower than other jobs, as was restaurant work). I had friends who ‘picked pickles’ (cucumbers) all summer and were paid by the bucketful. Other washed dishes at local restaurants. We didn’t have many minorities in our town and we were not poor, we just all had to work. The owner of the potato farm was a millionaire, and his kids worked too.
Kids whose parents bring them here illegally shouldn’t get to be citizens by default. If their parents robbed a bank, we wouldn’t let them benefit from the money because it was their parents who committed the crime. There are people who are following our laws – who filed the proper paperwork to request citizenship and are waiting their turn – others shouldn’t be able to leapfrog over them just because they were able to steal into our country illegally when nobody was looking. Why should they get to decide who becomes a citizen and who doesn’t? That power should reside with the US Immigration Department, not in the hands of random foreign nationals who decide they want to cut the line. People who want our respect probably shouldn’t be blatantly distegarding our laws.
Are y’all CERTAIN your ancestors came here “legally”? Or is that just what you’ve been told? Or are all of you Native American? Can you swear you haven’t eaten a single fruit or vegetable harvested by undocumented immigrants or worn a thread of clothes stitched by them? Or eaten off of plates they’ve washed for you in a restaurant? It isn’t fair to benefit from their labor and then condemn their children to poverty, even if they (and their kids) work harder than many born on US soil.
If we study our country’s history, we quickly realize that NONE of our ancestors were truly welcomed upon arrival. We should have more empathy, or at least not be hypocritical.
I’ve see the papers. My relatives arrived legally. My daughter from China arrived legally and I have the paperwork and receipts for all the fees I paid to both governments.
8-|
There would be an immediate economic ripple, but not the economic Armageddon you’d like to flatter yourself about. The ripple would eventually smooth itself out as markets adjusted, just like the 1998 asian economic crisis and the 2008 global economic crisis eventually smoothed themselves out.
That seems a little simple, GMT, when you consider the work these people actually do. We tend to think they “take” someone else’s cushy factory job or that our unemployed neighbor would pick fruit all day, if only the salary could “adjust.” Ever watch those fieldworkers hunched over all day? Or read about what a pieceworker’s life is like?
I don’t disagree there’s a problem with people coming in illegally. But the real question is what are we going to do about their kids? A child who succeeds in the school system should be able to move forward. And DACA allows for a faster move to PR status.
And the point about out relatives’ paperwork is that we often don’t really know what they did to get that “legal” status. Just looking at their papers doesn’t necessarily tell a full story.