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The problem with that is that it penalizes legal residents waiting for their citizenship My brother has been in the US for nearly 20 years. Started out as a g
by puranjay 10y ago
The problem with that is that it penalizes legal residents waiting for their citizenship
My brother has been in the US for nearly 20 years. Started out as a grad student, then as a H1-B. Took him more than 10 years just to get a green card, then 5 years more to be eligible for citizenship.
All this while, he must have paid several hundred thousand dollars in taxes (6+ figure income over 15 years)
Why should another immigrant get the same benefits as him faster than he could by paying even less in taxes?
- pkaler 10y ago> Why should another immigrant get the same benefits as him faster than he could by paying even less in taxes? Because it's not a zero-sum game. One person's right to citizenship does not erode another person's right to citizenship.
- ics 10y ago"...with a minimum of $50K over ten years, in taxes to the US government, and they have not committed any crime, they should be given citizenship..." In this hypothetical scenario would your brother not have paid $50k and been granted citizenship much sooner than the other?
- linkregister 10y ago> penalizes legal residents waiting for their citizenship How does another person receiving a benefit penalize your brother? By the same logic, we should all insist on vicious assaults on new military recruits, because that's how it was done years ago. As a society we should seek to improve the way we treat people, maximizing practical utility (tax-paying illegal immigrants are benefiting society) and seeking fairness. Chasing fairness as a primary goal is a fruitless endeavor. I think it's awful for both your brother and society that he was required to wait so long to get his citizenship. Should we repeat the same mistakes out of a misguided attempt at fairness?