I’m an immigrant and Trump does not scare me
Recently, especially after the birthright citizenship debacle, I’ve seen lots of legal immigrants rant on how they feel unwelcome in the USA and how they are considering moving to a different country or returning to their home country. Everyone is entitled to their own feelings and opinions. While it saddens me that people feel unwelcome or unsafe it, I want to share my view which is stands at the opposite end of the spectrum. I’ll just throw this out there: if you’re abusing these nation’s immigration laws by means H1B fraud or by bogus asylum claims or by crossing the border illegally your in Trump’s crosshairs. This however is as it should be. This is a nation of laws. It will stop being a nation altogether the moment it allows anyone and everyone to come here as they wish. As a legal immigrant however I don’t worry about any of that. In fact I’m applying for citizenship soon and have no reason to fear because I’ve been truthful and honest every step of the way and followed the law to the letter. And my understanding is that that is what this administration wants. I have enough republican friends & neighbors who I talked to and that’s what they want as well. If you’re here legally, your children have US citizenship and no one is advocating for changing that. There’s no generalized hate towards immigrants. Quite the opposite. When I mentioned that I believe this is the greatest country on earth, and feel positive about my family’s future here (buying a second house soon & starting a side business) I received a number of messages of support and encouragement. I’ve only been verbally assaulted for breaking outside the groupthink norms on social issues such as this. Maybe it won’t help anyone, but since there are so many immigrants who feel this way I thought I’d share my opinion.
Brilliantly stated post
I got my gc from trump after Obama delayed it by years
"Got it from Trump" after "Obama delayed it by years" I hope you're really reading what you wrote there.
Yes, Obama was personally responsible for delaying ci7gh4's green card. Was in the news. And recently Fox reported that trump personally handed ci7gh4's green card to him.
You are thinking about happy paths where it’s all sunshine and roses. But there are so many factors at play. 1. What happens if there is a clerical error when your petition is filed? 2. What happens if your I-140 is approved yet you can’t switch because of some USCIS rule? 3. What happens if you are laid off without cause (not everybody works at FANG)? 4. What happens if your visa is rejected even if you have all the documents? 5. What happens if you are stranded in another country because you wanted to stamp you passport and the visa officer threw a fit? No one is denying that the system is being gamed by a few. But it is unfair to the others who are here legally without any fraud of any sort. You have to be prepared for the sudden things that happen in life. And that is scary. It’s like you have tested your code. QA has tested your code. Your code worked fine in staging. It worked fine in Production too. But some weird combination of input blew it up. Yeah, you gotta factor in the edge cases too. And it’s not favorable to any immigrant when things go south.
^ this. Right now, folks with H1B are not getting considered for jobs as it'll take 6 months for the transfer to finish. If a candidate does decide to join, they're at the risk of getting kicked out in case their petition is rejected for any reason, including clerical errors. Indians have to wait about 16 years for their i140 to be current. What if the rules change in the meanwhile? I do agree with you, but it's also getting worse for the legal route.
What happens when you install shitty “”””antivirus”””” and it destroys your operating system?
I think yayssa is right but he/she has oversimplified the situation. I agree with Mr. McPee. It seems good until it’s good for you.
The system is by no means perfect. And in order for there to be any significant change it needs to be an act of congress. I’m sure other folks have a much more complicated legal situation than I had. I still got an RFE btw, so I wasn’t on the happiest of paths but I never doubted that it would all eventually work out since I knew everything was in perfect legal order.
Don’t get me wrong. I totally agree. But from what I have heard, I have seen people get RFE for reasons they couldn’t understand. So... there is still some percentage of unknown and luck here. BTW, the change where straight rejection was allowed (no RFE) was borderline illegal itself. The administration cannot make such changes without taking it through the senate. But they did.
I’m all for stopping the abuse. I hate that the fully legals are suffering for green card, clerical errors and transfers.
There will be pain when change happens. With crackdown on bad practices the system will eventually settle down to an efficient pace.
You forgot to add AMA at your topic name
Every time we return from travels, I'm sitting in the plane, thinking: Have I checked all my documents for expiry? Have I checked every document for each child? Has my pretty common name been put on some sort of secret blacklist? Will they take my kids and put them for adoption? The chances are very low, you could say, and you are right, yes. If you think you followed the law to the letter, you are mistaken. That doesn't happen. I'm an ordinary person, but I'm breaking the law at least 5 times a day, and that's just what I know about.
I have to do all the same things you mentioned and that’s not only to get into the US, but also to be allowed to enter my country of citizenship & birth. Regarding having your kids taken away that’s really in the category of irrational fears. I would understand if you lived in one of the Scandinavian countries (just look up Barnevernet - Norway’s child “protection” services if you want to see real horror stories).
Nice
Maybe you don't feel scared because you are on your way to citizenship. People who don't have a green card have a lot to be fearful. Even the legal ones. The ones that have been to top schools and work for big 4 too.
I respectfully disagree. For the category of people you mention there are actually quite a few reasons thing are already improving and will hopefully get much better: 1. Crackdown on H1B fraud means more spots for deserving applicants both in the H1B pool as well as reducing the pressure in the GC queue. 2. Trump and his administration are proponents of a merit based immigration system (e.g. point based, similar in a way to Canada’s). This favors the category you mentioned by a long shot. I’ll leave it up to the curious readers to see who’s opposing the said immigration reform.
Or the OP isn't scared or a nut case anti-Trumper because they are following the law and came here LEGALLY through the front door not trying to jump the fence and break in like a criminal. Immigrants like the OP are welcomed with open arms when they come here LEGALLY and assimilate as positively contributing members of society.