Yeah. My father is now a citizen (through marriage, but marriage is really only the start of the citizenship process, there's literally years of paperwork and lines after that) and he talks about how there were times he was illegal. Not by entering illegally, but by missing a renewal or stretching his student visa a bit beyond its life. He's very conservative, but illegal immigration is his one sticking point.
He knows how easy it is to technically be illegal, even without intending to be. And yet those numbers get added to the "illegal immigration" total because they sound scary and drum up votes. When in reality a lot of them are actually people trying to do it right, and getting stuck in the convoluted system.
For example, he tells stories of lining up at the embassy in the wee hours of the morning to do paperwork, line wrapped around the block. Then coming to the front of the line only to discover that the office closed while he was in line. Then doing the same thing the next time it opened. It sounds seriously disheartening.
bennnndystraw161 karma
Yeah. My father is now a citizen (through marriage, but marriage is really only the start of the citizenship process, there's literally years of paperwork and lines after that) and he talks about how there were times he was illegal. Not by entering illegally, but by missing a renewal or stretching his student visa a bit beyond its life. He's very conservative, but illegal immigration is his one sticking point.
He knows how easy it is to technically be illegal, even without intending to be. And yet those numbers get added to the "illegal immigration" total because they sound scary and drum up votes. When in reality a lot of them are actually people trying to do it right, and getting stuck in the convoluted system.
For example, he tells stories of lining up at the embassy in the wee hours of the morning to do paperwork, line wrapped around the block. Then coming to the front of the line only to discover that the office closed while he was in line. Then doing the same thing the next time it opened. It sounds seriously disheartening.
View HistoryShare Link