The Northern Virginia doctor knows at least that much about his situation. He knows he is no longer considered a citizen of the United States — the place where he was born, went to school and has practiced medicine for more than 30 years — and that he also belongs to no other place.
A letter from a State Department official informed him that he should not have been granted citizenship at the time of his birth because his father was a diplomat with the Embassy of Iran. The letter directed Sobhani to a website where he could apply for lawful permanent residence.
This is vaguely tangential but some of my best friends were illegal aliens raised entirely within the US. They’re as American as any other American, but know how to use cumin. Moreover, the US has already invested millions for their education from childhood to adulthood- they’re all skilled, educated individuals and a boon to the US. It makes no sense to send off a US citizen for the sake of bureaucracy. To phrase this another way, eat the entirety of my ass, Nixon.
You’re right.
However, the law should be applied equally and evenly. (But we all know that’s bullshit if you’re rich and white or poor and a minority)
We simply should not just allow people to do this without some form of penance, but deportation shouldn’t be on the table for someone who has spent a literal lifetime here being a decent citizen like most everyone else.
IOW - oh, you slipped through the cracks without ever being caught? Good for you! Here’s a citizenship.
This shouldn’t be the answer.
If it’s the PITA of jumping through all the hoops as an actual immigrant and taking the citizenship test should be sufficient, it’s what they would have had to do anyway.
EDIT: Y’all need to read my responses before commenting. I and NOT against giving people in this situation citizenship if they found out they were here illegally through not fault of their own. I am NOT suggesting they be charged with some kind of crime. I am NOT suggesting they be deported. Fill out the paperwork to become a citizen, maybe take the test at worst. That should be a sufficient PITA for most people. I am also very much for immigration reform to get rid of the leeches an vultures that siphon money off people to “help” them get to the US, whether it be immigration attorneys or Coyotes running them across the border. There should be a legal “guest worker” program so that migrants a) get some kind of legal recognition and protection, b) pay into services they use in the US, and c) get protections for fair wages and benefits, and d) go after the employers that exploit illegal labor with harsh conditions, underpayment, lies, and basically treat them as a disposable workforce.
We good?
If US bureaucracy made a mistake and kept that mistake going for some 60 years, they should own it. Especially since this MD comes from Iran, it is not that he can get back to file for a passport there. The secret police could even have an open file on the parents. There is also a chance his father was officially not working in/for the Embassy, and Iran will treat him as a US citizen. After 60 years most of the relevant documentation will be lost and most people involved are either dead or suffering from memory loss. The US should give this man US citizenship ASAP.
I’m not arguing about the Dr. I’m discussing the person who had friends here who discovered they were here illegally through no fault of their own. However, I agree that the Dr. should not be deported.
This assumes the law is good and correct. It is not and it is not.
There’s a fairly simple fix, as you allude to. Making immigration a less intentionally abrasive, broken process and offering citizenship would fix most issues going forward. Running the process without the portions tacked on by overtly racist administrations reduces costs, increases efficiency, and produces a functional system. Definitely test them, but stop shooting yourself in the foot while, before, and after doing it.
I’m all for this. Getting rid of all the vultures preying on people to extract hope and money from them in the process. Guest worker programs, whatever. And going after the employers that exploit illegal labor and threat them like disposable labor.
We do that in other areas of law. Notable examples include common law marriage, statutory limitations on prosecution and adverse possession of property.
In common law marriage, a couple who lives together and publicly claims to be married can gain the legal benefits of marriage without a formal ceremony or documentation. It’s fairly uncommon now, and most US states no longer allow it, but a few do, as do other jurisdictions around the world.
In statutory limits on prosecution, there is a time limit for beginning a prosecution for most crimes. It usually doesn’t apply if someone is actively fleeing from prosecution, but does apply if the crime is not discovered or the offender is not identified.
In adverse possession of property, someone who claims to be the owner of property and publicly exercises ownership rights over the property for an extended period of time (usually decades) without legal challenge is the legal owner even if someone can later prove they shouldn’t be.
Look, I’m not arguing against citizenship for people who have lived their lives here and through no fault of their own found out they were illegally here. There’s no need to keep rationalizing or trying to convince me that they should be citizens, I don’t disagree. I also don’t think it’s unreasonable to have them take a citizenship test, or, at least file the paperwork needed to become a citizen. Do the thin that you should’ve done. You’re not being charged with anything. Yeah, there’s a statute of limitations on lots of things, but it gets muddy when it comes to immigration. There are parts of immigration law that do not obey the 5 year federal statute of limitations that would normally apply, but IANAL and don’t know what they are.
Seems that you’re under the impression that it’s easy or even POSSIBLE for everyone who wants to do it. It’s not.
The original point wasnt that they should magically be granted citizen ship for slipping through the cracks, but rather but rather that there should be a legal process or criteria for granting citizen ship in these situations. Maybe some basic criteria could be living, working (if able), and paying taxes for 10 years and no felonies. I’m sure there are reasons to grant exceptions and there probably need to be some additional limitations, but that could be the basic idea.
You get citizenship based on being born in the US - jus solis - which this man was, until the State Department decided differently. The other way to become US citizen is by requesting it . That is possibe after five (in case of marriage three) years of living in the USA as a Legal Permanent Resident.
There already is a process to get citizenship, and I think that should be used. I do agree that a more expedited version would be best in situations like you say.
I mean, even making people in this situation go through the same hoops as regular immigrants is not applying the same amount of inconvenience to everyone, because you’d still be applying a bunch of inconvenience to all the immigrants that don’t apply to people who simply were born here (something which, I might add, people have absolutely no control over and so has no bearing on any reasonable notion of what they have and have not earned. Why do we have to inconvenience anyone in this manner?
Personally, I think we should abolish the entire distinction of citizen/noncitizen. Limit border checkpoints to stations requiring one tell us who one is so that we know who’s here, let anyone move here as long as they agree to pay their taxes and be bound by our laws, and have the government treat anyone living here the same as they treat citizens now.
This conversation is pointless. I suggest realistic and relatively minimal procedure to become a citizen (fill out the paperwork) and everyone’s “Nah, nah, nah…that’s too much”. Then I suggest that the other option is to just give them citizenship like a prize for going undetected (because in the end, there are people who will fit that bill, whether it be a statute of limitations or a lifetime of ignorance) and everyone’s like “Nah, Nah, we don’t mean that…”
So nobody has a clue what they want to do except react negatively to my suggestions of non-punitive application for citizenship and immigration reform.
Y’all are useless. Picking apart suggestions but offering nothing. I’m done here.