> ... our 18-year immigration ordeal
I wonder what this is referring to and how it reconciles with
> ... living legally in the United States for over 20 years
Something tells me there's more to the story than what's in the linked post.
Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
41–50 of 184 posts
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the post, that is not clear. It opens with "After living legally in the United States for over 20 years [...]" From the case file, however, it seems like they entered with a J-1 visa and before their authorization to stay expired, they applied for asylum.
Perhaps by "living legally" he meant he'd never been in trouble with the law? That he was a productive member of society? I don't necessarily agree with the immigration laws in the U.S., but I think you have to live within the laws a country has instated.
I think in this context, "living legally" means you are not Out-of-status by overstaying an I-94, issued to you by the USCIS (fka INS) officer at the point of entry.
IANAL.
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? That's his feeling, it is whatever he writes. Whether it is full of hyperbole or not is not knowable, he'd have to admit to that himself or you'd have to scan his brain.
I agree it was worded a bit harshly but on the other hand, that dream I had honestly is gone. So it's not hyperbolic, just maybe not worded perfectly I admit. Some people may understand my initial comment as bashing against the USA. I want to clearly state that I didn't mean that at all. The last sentence was to express that I'm sad to see such things happen and I'll be the first to cheer if the USA can restore what…
I share much of your sentiment, possibly for different reasons. I keep hoping for that moment when the country that I thought was going to be the example of how to run a country will find its bearing again and stop the madness.
The potential of the United States is to influence the world from the moral high ground, the last decade have undone the 20 years of building up that image prior to that.
And it will take at least another 20 years (if not more) to fix that.
About 5 years ago I had an opportunity to move to the US, another year ago a fairly well known company wanted to hire me. In both cases I said 'no thanks', in large part due to how the United States has behaved in the recent past.
The potential for greatness is there, but just like with any project execution matters.
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#44An interesting factoid. There is no legal way for anyone to just come to US and make it their home country. Say someone from Africa or South America. They can't simply save enough money, get on a plane, land at JFK and then after 10 years or whatever time become citizens. They would have to be persecuted in a terrible way before being granted asylum, have to marry a US citizen, find a company that would hire them. I…
> There is no legal way for anyone to just come to US and make it their home country.
Depends on what you exactly mean by home country, but there is an investor's visa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? That's his feeling, it is whatever he writes. Whether it is full of hyperbole or not is not knowable, he'd have to admit to that himself or you'd have to scan his brain.
I agree it was worded a bit harshly but on the other hand, that dream I had honestly is gone. So it's not hyperbolic, just maybe not worded perfectly I admit. Some people may understand my initial comment as bashing against the USA. I want to clearly state that I didn't mean that at all. The last sentence was to express that I'm sad to see such things happen and I'll be the first to cheer if the USA can restore what…
What it used to be when? When black people couldn't vote? When the US was propping up various dictators by virtue of them being "not communists"?
There have always been ugly things about the country - just like pretty much every other country, if you dig some.
Not to say people shouldn't point out the defects and work to improve them, just that hand-waviness isn't part of the solution, IMO.
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#46An interesting factoid. There is no legal way for anyone to just come to US and make it their home country. Say someone from Africa or South America. They can't simply save enough money, get on a plane, land at JFK and then after 10 years or whatever time become citizens. They would have to be persecuted in a terrible way before being granted asylum, have to marry a US citizen, find a company that would hire them. I…
> There is no legal way for anyone to just come to US and make it their home country. Depends on what you exactly mean by home country , but there is an investor's visa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa
Home country -- on track to be a citizen.
And even E-2 is not just anyone -- it is for rich people. Even the minimum amount quoted $50,000 is considered enormous by most of almost 7 billion people living in the world.
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#47I hate to say it but from a brief reading of the information, it sounds like their asylum was first denied back in 1997, and they've been fighting it ever since. They certainly have the right to fight it, but it's been an uphill battle for almost 15 years, so the outcome certainly doesn't seem like a surprise. The person is obviously a great entrepreneur, he probably should have just left on his own accord instead of…
The point is there are rules. To come to the US you can either: 1) Apply to INS, wait in line, enter the lottery and follow the law. 2) Hop on a plane and hope they don't catch you. He chose route 2, and is now paying the consequences. Just because he's an entrepreneur doesn't give him any more right to be here then any other would be immigrant, and it certainly doesn't give him the right to jump the line
I agree there are rules, and rules need to be followed. I immigrated to the US as well, and went through a lot of troubles to immigrate legally and successfully, so I very much do not like the idea of people trying to skip the line.
That being said, in the 20 years since he's been here, presumably legally since he was legally allowed to stay while fighting his case, he's made a good life for himself and his family, and they appear to be productive members of society.
If it were me, I probably would have denied the asylum application, but given his entrepreneurial skills, I would have allowed him to apply on an investor's visa and let him stay during the process. The problem is that it took 20 years for the case to go through, which allowed them to create a good argument to stay in the US by being productive members of society. If they sped up the process, this wouldn't have even been an issue.
In the end, aren't these people what we want from immigrants? It's ridiculous how politicians don't try to do very much about illegal immigration because it's so pervasive, but when they find a productive member of society who is trying to immigrate, they throw him in jail because he has revealed himself.
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree it was worded a bit harshly but on the other hand, that dream I had honestly is gone. So it's not hyperbolic, just maybe not worded perfectly I admit. Some people may understand my initial comment as bashing against the USA. I want to clearly state that I didn't mean that at all. The last sentence was to express that I'm sad to see such things happen and I'll be the first to cheer if the USA can restore what…
What it used to be when? When black people couldn't vote? When the US was propping up various dictators by virtue of them being "not communists"? There have always been ugly things about the country - just like pretty much every other country, if you dig some. Not to say people shouldn't point out the defects and work to improve them, just that hand-waviness isn't part of the solution, IMO.
Yeah, but those things took place before reddit so we don't have to care about them.
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#49I earn for a living freelancing for US companies. It has always baffled me that I am allowed to do it legally only if I stay outside of the USA.
Perhaps it is because they don't want you to pay US taxes?
Re: Immigrant entrepreneur arrested to meet quotas
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is no legal way for anyone to just come to US and make it their home country. Depends on what you exactly mean by home country , but there is an investor's visa - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-2_visa
Home country -- on track to be a citizen. And even E-2 is not just anyone -- it is for rich people. Even the minimum amount quoted $50,000 is considered enormous by most of almost 7 billion people living in the world.
It might be a substantial amount, but it is a legal way to live in the US. So your factoid while interesting is not exactly accurate.
Also, to put the $50K in perspective - Canadian permanent resident visa has a requirement of showing $10K in available funds, and there is a metric ton of such visas getting granted every year. $50K is not far off.