4 ms·

Does my call count if I'm not American but live in the US as a worker?

• mratzloff 12y ago
  No. If you are not a US citizen, you don't have a vote, and therefore you do not have a representative in Congress. That said… I doubt they have any capacity to actually check if callers are US citizens.
  • lisper 12y ago
    And even if you are not a U.S. citizen you can still contribute to super-PACs. Since the political system in the U.S. is rapidly devolving to one-dollar-one-vote you can acquire significant influence by writing checks. And they don't even have to be particularly big checks.
  • declan 12y ago
    If you're a permanent resident (a "green card" holder) you can do something more effective than merely filling out a web form or phoning a congresscritter's aides. You can donate money to help the pro-privacy politicos (very few) or aid challengers to the anti-privacy politicos (many, but unlikely to succeed). http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/foreign.shtml "An immigrant may make a [political] contribution if he or she has a 'green card' indicating his or her lawful admittance for permanent residence in the United States." The real way to do it, which I've written about occasionally for the last decade, is to identify the worst surveillance offenders of each major party. Narrow down the list to ones who are electorally vulnerable (this excludes Feinstein, for instance). You'll need to spend millions of dollars on ads reminding voters how thoroughly the incumbent disrespects the Constitution. Also encourage contributions to the incumbent's challenger. Only do this where you're likely to win. Committee chairmen would be ideal. Be thoroughly non-partisan and focused only on surveillance. Once you do that, and have a Cantor-like upset against the pro-surveillance, anti-privacy incumbent, suddenly privacy will be taken far more seriously on Capitol Hill. Politicians will respond better to this than a useless $1,000 PAC contribution.
  • optimiz3 12y ago
    One of the first things my representative's office does is ask for my postal code and name. Pretty sure they do check and even cross verify incoming phone numbers. My representative's office once even answered the phone and greeted me by name before I started talking :).
• Zelphyr 12y ago
  Can't hurt to try.
• MrZongle2 12y ago
  No, but if you could convince some friends who are citizens to make calls....