I rather like the feeling of being hunted.
There's a free video game available for anyone who wants to have a version of the experience.
Not everyone approves of its advocacy goals:
There are millions of people living in the United States in violation of U.S. immigration laws. Some have crossed a border illegally, while others may have violated the terms of their visa without even knowing it. An immigration advocacy group in New York has produced a video game that lets teenagers walk in the shoes of an undocumented immigrant trying to avoid deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a government agency known as ICE. As Brad Linder reports, critics say the game doesn't play fair.
A review of ICED, focusing on whether it works as a game.
That review makes it sound hilariously unappealing, although I can tell I'm not the target audience because that's my default attitude towards all video games.* Obviously I shouldn't have tried to be open-minded about this one!
*Intellectually I know better, of course. I don't spread my bigotry.
...your future is at the mercy of someone else's whims, at any given moment
Ever drive/fly/walk anywhere? Have a boss? Go to the mall? The idea that one is in control of one's life is just another one of those lies we tell ourselves so we don't stay up all night shivering.
6: There's just no comparison. I got pulled over this morning, and went on my way with a warning. I can fly places, because I've got an ID. Being undocumented is a whole 'nother thing entirely than crossing-the-street risks.
I got pulled over this morning, and went on my way with a warning.
Generally, at least out west, local PD's aren't detaining people for immigration status. I might be alerting ICE if I'm taking someone in on a felony, but not on things like traffic stops.
8: Sheriff in a nearby county was arguing that he should have more power to detain illegal immigrants on the grounds that it would dramatically reduce the number of rapes and murders.
8: How does it work if the person can't produce a driver's liscense or insurance, then?
10 cont'd: I guess you get a ticket for that, and then just pay the ticket.
Generally, at least out west, local PD's aren't detaining people for immigration status. I might be alerting ICE if I'm taking someone in on a felony, but not on things like traffic stops.
In the past two years, this has become highly, highly jurisdiction-specific. Plenty of counties and municipalities behave just as you describe, but many others have either signed formal 287g agreements allowing local police to enforce immigrant laws, or are participating in non-statutory data linkages allowing ICE to have immediate access to anyone who is booked.
Data from the North Carolina Sheriff's Association and from Harris County, Texas, indicate that the overwhelming majority of people detained or deported in those jurisdictions committed extremely minor offenses such as driving with a broken taillight, having a visual distraction [usually a flag in their rear window or dangling from the rear-view mirror]. The most serious commonly reported offense is DUI.
The Texas data also suggests extremely strongly that this infractions are being disproportionately enforced against Hispanic drivers; the arrest rates for blacks and whites stayed steady after the agreement was reached with ICE, but the rate for Hispanics skyrocketed.
How does it work if the person can't produce a driver's liscense or insurance, then?
Ticket, and you might get the car impounded. A lot of them will have Mexican DL's, and I'll just tell them to go get a driver's privilege card. I'm less tolerant of the no insurance, because now you're potentially totally fucking up someone's life if you hit them and they've only got liability coverage.
How does it work if the person can't produce a driver's license or insurance, then?
In a jurisdiction like gswift's, probably the car gets impounded and the driver gets cited/fined. In a jurisdiction with an ICE agreement (formal or informal), the driver gets arrested, and often the passengers too, and within 24 hours they've got ICE detainers put on them and cannot be released, even if/when the county decides not to criminally charge them.
I got pulled over this morning, and went on my way with a warning.
Just wait 10 years. When you're not so youn g and cute anymore, they start writing tickets.
They could just leave. See how easy that solution is? That way they wouldn't feel hunted and wouldn't be taking jobs from 15 million unemployed Americans. Win-win.
The fatigue from the low-level perpetual anxiety of knowing that your future is at the mercy of someone else's whims, at any given moment, should you draw any attention to yourself...must just wear you down.
Of course it does. Not much to say about it; everyone gets fatalistic.
1: I rather like the feeling of being hunted.
You won't if the game never ends.
max
['Just like the chick on Mythbusters freaked out under water torture.']
14: I worked with a guy who got hit by a driver who wouldn't show a license or insurance card. My co-worker assumed the man who hit him was not here legally. My cowoker was sort of sympathetic. He was an immigrant himself and spoke Spanish, so he could hear the guy's story. He still grabbed the other driver's keys. He was out a whole car.
17: But to address your "point" more substantively: those 15 million unemployed Americans could just get jobs. See how easy that solution is? That way they wouldn't be unemployed and wouldn't be stoking your stupid racist inanities. Win-win.
19: I got hit by one of those. He disappeared but I had his plate and his picture. I don't much care about whatever happened to him if the cops ever followed up on the case.
Biohazard: "Ever drive/fly/walk anywhere? Have a boss? Go to the mall? The idea that one is in control of one's life is just another one of those lies we tell ourselves so we don't stay up all night shivering."
There's a term that applies to this sort of non-thinking: sophomoric. Somebody who's learned a few cute, cynical phrases, but hasn't taken a second step.
23: See how 7 managed to point out what was wrong with 6 in a substantive way without being gratuitously insulting, plus a whole day earlier than your comment? Why can't you be more like heebie?
It's easier to do this in countries whose state structures aren't holding together all that well. A post-communist country once gave me a national health card a week or so before denying me a work permit. Needless to say, the work permit was a prerequisite to the health card.
But even advanced industrialised states have more gaps than many people realize. This is, on the whole, a good thing, as people ought to go where they want.
Still, yes, there's a lot of low-level stress. If you can afford it at all, you've always got a ticket on the metro; your car is always in the best-possible shape. You don't want something small and stupid to bring the whole enterprise crashing down. Rights are things that other people have; you want to be as inconspicuous as possible. It's wearing.
19-22: I've been hit by two of those. In the first instance, when I was 22, I handled it completely wrong -- I basically didn't do anything for fear I would raise my own insurance rates and ruin the guy's life. Actually, I had uninsured motorist coverage, which would have taken care of everything.
In the second instance, the guy asked if he could pay me cash for the repair. I accepted.
If you can afford it at all, you've always got a ticket on the metro;
There's a scene in The Glass Wall where Gloria Grahame takes a couple of coins that were meant for some buskers and gives them to the guy who's trying to get into the U.S. legally as a refugee but who at the moment is running around New York undocumented so he can get into the subway and have a place to sleep.
I'm still hoping this is a sleeper comment thread, because I particularly liked this post.
We all hate immigrants, and are too polite to say it.
One of the many odd things about Texas is how common "Native Texan" bumper stickers are. I'm more proud of the time my brother won a jalepeno eating contest than I am of where I was born, and I was born in the birthplace of liberty. (I even had the same crib at the hospital, though it was a little run-down after 200 years of use.)
When I was about 17 I used to hang out with some guys who had crossed into Botswana to avoid being drafted into the South African army. For some it was a principled act of resistance to Apartheid, but for one of them it was also because he was a swishy queen (think the gayer version of Boy George), and bad as SA society was for gay men, the army was much worse. He was the first out gay man I ever met. Very nice guy. Then South African commandos crossed the border and raided a bunch of ANC safe houses, killing everyone and blowing up the houses. Suddenly my friends went from being plain refugees to feeling hunted. They never slept in the same place two nights in a row. They were constantly on the move and constantly on the lookout. It was terrifying for them, made all the more unpleasant because after the first raid the army set up road blocks all over the place, and the number one candidates for being pulled over and exhaustively searched were young white men. Going out to a bar with buddies inevitably involved at least two stops with searches of the car and pat downs. After a while it became clear that the South African government was only targeting active ANC members, and draft dodgers were beneath their concern. Things began to relax a bit, but there was always the nagging worry that the SA intelligence services* would fuck up and go after them. Some of them decided to take amnesty and return to serve in the army. The last I heard my friend the hairdresser (the guy really lived the stereotype) had waited out the fall of Apartheid and returned to SA.
*hands down winner of the creepy acronym contest: Bureau of State Security - BOSS.
28: I know, right? This thread is so fetch.
Every person on this thread, beginning with the poster, is a complete, white, probably college educated, mor-an.
Not one of you have pointed out the obvious. Why in the hell do you think most immigrants are here? For a really large percentage of them, it's because where they came from it sucks. Really sucks. More than you can imagine. Not one of you mentioned what it is like to be that poor.
Afraid of the INS? How about afraid of watching your chilldren suffer malnutrition? Watching them work in fields rather than go to school, guaranteeing they'll be as poor as you? How about afraid of the Colombian FARC by night and the AUC by day (1 million Colombian dead and counting....). Or the Guatemalan army at all times? Or the Mexican police at all times? How about worrying that if your daughter grows up pretty, some petty hood, who's so criminal he's actually got a car to go with his gun, decides he is entitled to her?
In most parts of Latin America, the boss if far scarier than the INS could ever be.
Now roll that camera for 300-400 years. Have you ever seen how hard some Latin American immigrants work? It's stunning - shocking. Or how obsequious they can be? Survival over the centuries can train you to well, survive.
Maybe you don't see it. And it is absolutely true that things are way, way better down there than 25 years ago, at least for the vast middle.
But worrying about the INS is not a big problem. Staying down there is a big, big problem.
Hmm, good points Dollared.
However, I used to know a fellow who was working in the US illegally -- he was a white, Canadian, educated former IT guy who fell asleep on a freight train and wound up on the wrong side of the border. He plugged into some bohemian networks where no one would hold his immigration status against him and worked at a bunch of different jobs (bouncing, day labor, carpentry, etc.) It really wore on him. He was super-paranoid about having his picture taken (with good reason, so is that really paranoia?). Some of the coping mechanisms he developed were very counterproductive. So yeah, there is a way to think about how the whole undocumented worker thing plays out, even if you don't fit the stereotype of oppressed Latin peasant. It's not fun.
The fellow in question finally bit the bullet and snuck back into Canadia without any problems.
Close friend was on the lam from the feds for years (his crime was resisting the draft during the Vietnam war) and yes, it was wearing. But I think the years of constant paranoia and living on the edge of poverty also made him appreciate what it is like to be an undocumented worker. Made him more compassionate towards Teh Other, which I think was the sentiment that Heebie expressed, and it is to the Unfoggetariat's credit that privileged middle-class white folk can care about illegal immigrants without actually having HAD the experience of being forced to live underground as a DFH.
Did this thread get linked somewhere?
Not one of you have pointed out the obvious. Why in the hell do you think most immigrants are here? For a really large percentage of them, it's because where they came from it sucks. Really sucks. More than you can imagine. Not one of you mentioned what it is like to be that poor.
What kind of nonsense is this? Did I accuse them of not being here for good reason? It's absurd and condescending to suggest we didn't realize that life was harder and more awful in the country of origin, and that that is why most people who become undocumented workers elsewhere do so.
36: Dollared's tone was certainly condescending, but his point struck me as valuable. I don't think you're actually lacking in compassion/awareness, but a post that suggests you can't imagine how awful life would be as an undocumented worker, and how sorry you feel for them, seems a little unbalanced/incomplete/"privileged" without even an acknowledgement that in many ways, they're the lucky ones.
(This post must have been linked somewhere. These don't feel like comments from regulars.)
Most of our readers are long-standing, and have a broader sense of my politics and global awareness. It seems unbalanced or priviliged without that context.
regarding the linkery question, Dr. Geebie: not that I know of. I can't speak for Dollared or for Pierre Trudeau, but I am a Constant Lurker (or, to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, a Tonstant Wurker) and seldom comment.
Hmmm...Tonstant Wurker...maybe that will be my handle from now on.
Oh. Welcome! To commenting, anyway. Glad you've enjoyed us enough to stick around.
Fwowing Up, however, is disfavored.
I've noticed esnetroh before; I was proud of myself for decoding her handle. Hope you keep commenting.
I noticed that, but thought I was confusing her with Heloise.
I've noticed esnetroh before; I was proud of myself for decoding her handle. Hope you keep commenting.
I've noticed her lots of times. Every time, I figured out what her handle meant.
Mostly, I noticed that I don't anagram all that well. I offhandedly read esnetroh as an anagram of 'honesty', and had to actually look at it and think to get to 'hortense spelled backwards'.
I'm pretty sure I've seen both Dollared and Pierre Trudeau comment previously, at least on occasion. But not positive.
33
Not one of you have pointed out the obvious. Why in the hell do you think most immigrants are here? For a really large percentage of them, it's because where they came from it sucks. Really sucks. More than you can imagine. Not one of you mentioned what it is like to be that poor.
Which is why mild measures to keep them out are ineffective.
Release the dogs!
Or, did you have a better suggestion?
Fwowing Up, however, is disfavored.
Oh Pooh. You never let me have any fun. /Ann O'Rexia
I know that objectively this is a silly comparison, but I don't like getting caught in the hunt for illegals, either. I've been stopped at ICE checkpoints, and by police looking for who knows what, and it's very unpleasant. My heart races, my palms sweat, I have trouble speaking, and I twitch. None of which tends to impress observers with my innocence. I immediately find all Digby's stories of innocent people who have been tasered to death flashing through my head. Part of why I don't fly any more is that I can't handle the security checkpoints, even though I'm completely benign.
What! Fwowing up is deprecated?
LB, HG, Megan - thanks for the welcome - indeed I plan to stick around, if for no other reason than to witness the Second Coming of Emerson.
Which is not intended to be a cock joke.
Not one of you have pointed out the obvious.
Dollared, you're not wearing any pants. There.
Over and over I thought "Why add an extra e to 'hornets'?"
50
Release the dogs!
Or, did you have a better suggestion?
Tighten up the employment laws. I don't know the current situation but for a long time employers were required to ask about immigration status but were then required (not just allowed) to accept easily faked IDs as complete proof of legal work status. Recently there have been efforts to crack down on workers (mostly illegals) who don't have valid social security numbers. This is good.
Similarly I would require proof of legal immigration status when buying or renting housing or when applying for any government benefit.
legal immigration status when buying or renting housing
I do not think that the US can afford to be so choosy. Or should immigration status have a market price?
For whatever it's worth, I think that more tightly enforced employment laws would be great, but since I suspect that this will just create new employment laws and a caste of disenfrachised people with fewer rights as it has elsewhere in the world.
56
I do not think that the US can afford to be so choosy. Or should immigration status have a market price?
I meant when buying or renting housing to live in. I have no objection to foreigners buying shares in REITs and the like.
Sorry for the confusion, "Pierre Trudeau" was me going second-order-signifier presidential, Canadian edition.
or when applying for any government benefit.
Do they get to be exempt from sales and payroll taxes, too?
proof of legal immigration status when buying or renting housing or when applying for any government benefit.
Available from certain DMV clerks for a fee. There's a bust every couple of years in California.
I doubt there's much day-to-day fear where there's a large support network, those who can tell you what to do and how to do it.
59
Do they get to be exempt from sales and payroll taxes, too?
Of course not.
I meant when buying or renting housing to live in.
Heck of an enforcement budget you've got there.
62
Heck of an enforcement budget you've got there.
I don't see a big expense. I would expect substantial voluntary compliance from sellers and landlords. Real estate closings already involve a lot of paperwork, requiring proof of legal residence doesn't seem like that big a deal. And all involved would be expected to check it off so the seller couldn't unilaterally decide to ignore the law. Less people are involved in renting but requiring a landlord to produce the appropriate form before he could take any legal action against a tenant would encourage voluntary compliance. In general not actively searching for violations but penalizing them when they became apparent would produce substantial voluntary compliance. Landlords could also be made civilly liable for torts committed by illegal tenants if they hadn't made a reasonable effort to verify legal status.
I doubt there's much day-to-day fear where there's a large support network, those who can tell you what to do and how to do it.
You can have a large support network and anxiety! People are magic like that.
In general not actively searching for violations but penalizing them when they became apparent would produce substantial voluntary compliance.
Sure, lots of landlords would comply. But without very close to 100% compliance, you haven't done anything that will prevent undocumented workers from living in the US, you've just made their lives more difficult and unpleasant. If your goal is pure spite against them, it's a great policy. For any other purpose, it's pointless.
65
Sure, lots of landlords would comply. But without very close to 100% compliance, you haven't done anything that will prevent undocumented workers from living in the US, you've just made their lives more difficult and unpleasant. If your goal is pure spite against them, it's a great policy. For any other purpose, it's pointless.
This doesn't make any sense. Eliminating illegals entirely is impractical, you are just trying to shift the equilibrium so there are fewer of them. The more difficult and unpleasant their lives are here the more likely they are to consider returning home. And the more likely they are to advise prospective additional illegal immigrants from their home countries against joining them here (as opposed to telling them how great things are here).
Illegal immigration isn't any different than any other socially undesirable behavior, the more unpleasant you make it, the less of it you will get.
Illegal immigration isn't any different than any other socially undesirable behavior, the more unpleasant you make it, the less of it you will get.
This depends on relative unpleasancy, rather than absolute unpleasancy, in a way different from other crimes.
If we make things twice as unpleasant for illegal immigrants, but their home countries make things twice as unpleasant as well, the net effect is zero. Ideally our goals would not be purely turning the American experience into something similar to the Mexican experience, but somehow influencing Mexico to become more pleasant as well.
67
This depends on relative unpleasancy, rather than absolute unpleasancy, in a way different from other crimes.
Really? Aren't liberals always babbling about the root causes of crime and avering crime reduction benefits from more attractive legal job opportunities?
If we make things twice as unpleasant for illegal immigrants, but their home countries make things twice as unpleasant as well, the net effect is zero. Ideally our goals would not be purely turning the American experience into something similar to the Mexican experience, but somehow influencing Mexico to become more pleasant as well.
True but we have much more direct influence on conditions for illegal immigrants here than on conditions in every country in the world that might supply illegal immigrants. So that is the most effective way to reduce illegal immigration. Not that I oppose gently encouraging good government around the world.
It'd only have any noticeable effect if there were a substantial undocumented population whose decision to remain in the US was close enough to the margin that a slight increase in their level of immiseration would push them over the line. This doesn't seem likely to me -- making it harder to find a place to rent would make life more unpleasant and difficult for undocumented workers, but not wildly so (particularly given that non-compliance would probably cluster at the low end of the rental market).
I'd uncomfortably close to James here. I'd like much more liberal immigration policies, but I'd also like to see more effort to take seriously the immigration policies we do have. Requiring appropriate documentation to apply for housing or government benefits doesn't strike me as absurd.* I don't think having a very significant population of undocumented persons is in anyone's interest.
*It strikes me as absurd and cruel for people who are here now, sure, so you couldn't do something like this unless it were coupled with appropriate amnesty and immigration reforms.
I would expect substantial voluntary compliance from sellers and landlords.
I don't know about landlords, but I don't see how compliance could be expected from sellers. Barring a ban on foreign ownership of US real estate, how can sellers be held responsible for proving that buyers who aren't legal residents won't reside at the property?
69
It'd only have any noticeable effect if there were a substantial undocumented population whose decision to remain in the US was close enough to the margin that a slight increase in their level of immiseration would push them over the line. ...
There is in fact a substantial such illegal population. Lots of illegals return voluntarily to their home countries every year. Especially to countries like Mexico where it is cheap and easy. And of course you are also trying to deter additional illegal immigration. The marginal illegal immigrant is weakly committed and can be deterred by marginally decreasing the attraction.
Another anti-illegal policy that I forgot to mention is increasing the minimum wage.
Requiring appropriate documentation to apply for housing or government benefits doesn't strike me as absurd.
I hadn't made this objection before, but I do think the housing bit is an absurd level of government control. I sublet a room in my apartment to some guy off Craigslist, and suddenly I'm responsible for checking his immigration status? You don't 'apply' for housing, you buy or rent it from private individuals.
The marginal illegal immigrant is weakly committed and can be deterred by marginally decreasing the attraction.
This is tautologically true -- the question is how many undocumented immigrants are that close to the margin.
71
I don't know about landlords, but I don't see how compliance could be expected from sellers. Barring a ban on foreign ownership of US real estate, how can sellers be held responsible for proving that buyers who aren't legal residents won't reside at the property?
If a buyer residing abroad follows the legal procedures for buying property in the United States and then sneaks in and occupies it himself then the seller (and lender) wouldn't be responsible. But if the buyer shows up for the closing (or applies in person for a loan in the US) he has to show he is in the country legally. If the buyer applies for a loan on the basis that he will live in the house then he has to show the lender he is legally allowed to do so. If you just want to reside (not work) in the United States and you are rich enough to pay cash for a house isn't it fairly easy to do this legally?
74: James, I'm not sure there's a significant number of undocument workers purchasing real estate in this country. Wouldn't the overwhelming majority of them rent?
To 73, I was mostly thinking of professional landlords. There's no reason you'd need to extend it to sublets on craigslist. And I'm not even trying to argue that it's a good policy, just that it doesn't strike me as absurd. Or immoral (if coupled with appropriate amnesty and immigration reform, etc).
73
This is tautologically true -- the question is how many undocumented immigrants are that close to the margin.
Don't estimates of net annual illegal immigration vary a lot depending on economic conditions in the US? And I want to make their lives more than marginally more difficult.
Think about the arguments that get made about voter registration, all the data showing that there are lots of poor people who really don't have much in the way of official ID (most of them, of course, American citizens). Are we going to shut everyone without a passport out of the rental market, or do some kind of crazed federal ID providing blitz?
I agree with Brock's general point in 70. The current systems just makes it easier to exploit undocumented workers and documented workers. And some of my best friends are documented workers.
I've been gradually coming around to the idea that we should roll the clock back to the nineteenth century, and throw the borders open. You live here for a year or so? You're a citizen. Everyone's a legal resident when they step off the plane.
I just don't think there's any practical, non-oppressive means of keeping undocumented workers out of the country, and you're right that the presence of an outlaw caste in the country isn't good for anyone.
I've been gradually coming around to the idea that we should roll the clock back to the nineteenth century, and throw the borders open.
All sorts of riff-raff got in that way. Otherwise I wouldn't be here.
Me neither (at least half). The other half was already in Queens, trying to develop a pork-pie empire.
79: that used to be my position, and I was eventually talked around to the fact that the inevitable flood of 600,000,000 immigrants a year could be destabilizing. So, I'm not really sure what you do.
82: Figure out a way to legalize most of those who have been here a while and have not caused any major trouble and fine everybody who hires somebody illegally. Give everybody you deport a pony to stop hard feelings.
75
James, I'm not sure there's a significant number of undocument workers purchasing real estate in this country. ...
See for example here, here and here . From the last:
... There is large potential for profitability for mortgage companies and banks due to the high number of illegal immigrants desiring to buy a home. ...
O.K. Give everyone you deport a pony and a Mexican real estate training course.
83
... fine everybody who hires somebody illegally. ...
First you have to change the law to actually make it illegal to hire someone here illegally. At least until recently the law against hiring illegals was a complete joke (intentionally so of course).
79
I just don't think there's any practical, non-oppressive means of keeping undocumented workers out of the country, ...
You going to abolish the IRS while you are at it? Since there is no practical non-oppressive means of getting people to pay their taxes.
Withholding seems to work pretty well for most people with salaries.
88
Withholding seems to work pretty well for most people with salaries.
And withholding (and associated documentation) is less oppressive than requiring proof of legal work status when you are hired?
Well, it's a lot more successful.
90
Well, it's a lot more successful.
Unclear, there is a lot of tax cheating. Which I would be tougher on as well. But we don't (or at least until recently didn't) require proof of legal work status in any meaningful sense upon hiring.
But we don't (or at least until recently didn't) require proof of legal work status in any meaningful sense upon hiring.
Isn't that what a W-9 form is? I vaguely recall filling one out for every job I've had including when I was hired at the pizza joint at the mall when I was 15.
I knew this was a sleeper thread!
93: Immigrants aren't sleepy, they're some of the hardest workers out there, you racist.
92: They used to not check it against anything. So you could just put in whatever SSN number you wanted. If you could legally work*, you'd put your own number so that you'd be covered by SS. If you weren't, you didn't. Which meant that the government collected taxes and wasn't on the hook for benefits. Which was why nobody investigated.
*(And were not being paid under the table so that your employer didn't have to pay his portion of the SS tax or whatever.)
92
Isn't that what a W-9 form is? I vaguely recall filling one out for every job I've had including when I was hired at the pizza joint at the mall when I was 15.
The employer form is I-9 (pdf file). The last page lists documents which an employer must (unless they are obviously fake or obviously do not refer to the person being hired) accept as proof of identity. Many of these documents such as the social security account number card are trivial to fake.
In the unlikely event that anyone else is still reading this post, LB is right at 79. It says so right by the big statue:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Have we, collectively, forgotten?
LB is right, at 79. It says so right by the big statue:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Have we, collectively, forgotten?
LB is right, at 79. It says so right by the big statue:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Have we, collectively, forgotten?
back to the nineteenth century, and throw the borders open. You live here for a year or so? You're a citizen. Everyone's a legal resident when they step off the plane
Except for that whole only white people can be naturalized thing. Good thing they finally repealed that in, uh, the mid-20th century. Also, exclusion. And a slowly growing throughout the century set of rules to keep people out based on health and some other things. But I'm just nitpicking because I'm sleep-deprived and have to give a presentation tomorrow.