The lottery works just fine for the winners

Posted by Marc Hodak on May 23, 2007 under Invisible trade-offs | Comments are off for this article

I found this comment on The Borgas Blog. It echos the sentiments of many people who have been citizens since birth:

I’m an immigrant who took the citizenship oath last December. I’ve been through the system. From my experience, the immigration system works if you decide to follow the rules. Before I immigrated, I never overstayed my student or tourist visas. When I decided to immigrate, I paid the fees, had a physical, was re-immunized against all those childhood diseases (including the oral polio medication), had a criminal record check in my country of birth, an interview in the US Embassy, and paid the required fee. I also had to prove that I had sufficient funds to support myself for a period of 5 years, and promise that I would not be a burden on the US people by agreeing not to apply for welfare (yes, this is true!) After fulfilling the residency period, I applied for citizenship, paid the fee, was finger printed (for the 4th time), had an FBI background check, passed the English language test (required even though my first language is English), passed the US history test, and interviewed for suitability by the INS/BCIS. I gladly did this. I followed he rules and everything worked well during the entire process. In my experience, if you follow the rules, the immigration system works well.

This commenter went on to express his rather extreme antipathy for letting off those who chose not to go the legit route.

On the one hand, it’s hard to argue with the rule of law and its adherents, and immigration law, which seems so messed up to so many people, has clearly evolved to account for many little things that the less informed continue to rant about, like checks for background, ability to provide for oneself, etc.

The key phrase for me, though, was “when I decided to immigrate…” I’m not sure that reflects the typical path, suggesting that this comment may reflect little more than the fact that the winners of the lottery are fine with the lottery. I also won the lottery by being born (abroad) to a U.S. serviceman. Both of my parents are immigrants, but they came over in a window of time when European refugees and Holocaust survivors weren’t subject to as stringent visa caps.

On the other hand, I went to business school with someone who married and had kids in the U.S., but was suddenly barred from returning from a visit with family abroad until she gave up her job at Price Waterhouse and promised never to work again in the U.S. (yes, this is true!).

Back to the commenter above:

Our Congress’s capitulation to illegal residents over the views of US citizens devalues US citizenship. Most legal immigrants I know share these views. Now that I am a registered voter, I’ll be making my views known.

Translation: The hell with her. Now that I’m in, I don’t mind if we slam the door shut. Or, if I can get a piece of it, let’s charge an arm and a leg for entrance. Who are these people tyring to take my jerb?

Ah, it’s so easy to be the lucky one!