Another Border Agent killed

[Canuckistani]

Easy, fella. I don't support illegal immigration either. It is admirable that you went through the proper channels to earn your citizenship. My mother in law did the same thing, immigrating here from Austria. How long did it take you, what was the cost, and how difficult was it?

First off, just to clarify, I am not a U.S. citizen. I'm not implying that being a citizen is bad (quite the opposite), I just don't want anyone to have any sort of false impressions about me or my status. Just as someone who wears camo pants isn't a soldier, just because I live here doesn't make me a citizen. My immigrant status is "Permanent Resident Alien". I live & work in the United States under completely legal circumstances.

I immigrated pre-9/11, and it's my understanding that my process was significantly easier than those who wish to go through things nowadays. Security has been increased in huge amounts since then, making the immigration process more involved & even more thorough. I completely support these additional levels of security, as I believe it's in America's best interest to not just let anyone & everyone into the country.

If memory serves me correctly, it took me around 18 months to gain Permanent Resident status. Cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 with lawyers fees & filing costs altogether. As far as difficulty is concerned, it was actually fairly simple process for me, but you have to be patient. Some people choose to try & go through the paperwork themselves, but I was advised against that as the slightest error on your forms anywhere in the process can send you back to square one. I chose to hire an immigration attorney to prepare all my paperwork. For me, this greatly simplified things, but still was no guarantee that I would be approved.

My case was about as straightforward as they come though - young guy, married to an American citizen, with zero criminal background or nefarious ties. The process is fairly simple, but it's incredibly thorough. Both my wife & I were personally interviewed (interrogated might be a better term) about our motives for my immigration. We had to provide all sorts of documentation (photographs, account statements, etc) showing that we were living together and being a married couple. If you're truly trying to be 100% legal, the days of "well just marry an American" are over. The INS folks are hip to that stuff, just as any good detective would be.

Though my status is Permanent Resident, I actually had to renew my Green Card last year. In order to do so, I had to pay another $300 and have "biometric screening" performed. Every 10 years I'll have to go through that process to make sure I don't come up on any 'lists'.

Immigration was a very involved & eye-opening experience for me, and it was 100% worth it in order to live in such a great country. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I do believe though, that it needs to remain a thorough and arduous process. If it's too easy, the floodgates will open with hordes of people crossing into America, detracting from the caliber of people you have living here.

By "sealing the borders", I was referring to completely & totally eliminating any means of crossing onto American soil, except at those points which the government & people of the United States choose to let people enter. That goes for all borders, not just the southern one. I can just about guarantee you that if a terrorist wanted to come into the United States, the northern border with Canada is a much easier one to cross than the southern one with Mexico. They both should be sealed, in my opinion. You have great things here in America, I think it behooves you to protect them by any & all means necessary.

If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them in order to maybe give a better idea of what it's like to be an immigrant living in the U.S.

[Teufelhund]

. . .

Thank you for the information in your thorough reply. Your first-hand account made more and better points about the difficulty and cost of legal immigration than I ever could have. I think most would agree the financial burden and prerequisites for legal admission contained in our current system are well beyond the means of most.

Thank you again for coming here and staying legally; I'm glad the system worked for you. We are lucky to have you, but I still believe your path should have been easier and less costly.

[Canuckistani]

We are lucky to have you, but I still believe your path should have been easier and less costly.

Fair enough - trust me, I like having more money in my pocket as much as the next guy.

Let me ask you this though, if $5,000 is too much to pay to live for the rest of your life in the greatest country on earth, what would be a fair price?

[Teufelhund]

Fair enough - trust me, I like having more money in my pocket as much as the next guy.

Let me ask you this though, if $5,000 is too much to pay to live for the rest of your life in the greatest country on earth, what would be a fair price?

Good question. Knowing what I have, I would gladly pay that amount and more. I don't think it's always a question of what someone is willing to do as it is what they are capable of doing. If someone is penniless coming here, should they be denied the opportunities you and I have?

[Rucker61]

Good question. Knowing what I have, I would gladly pay that amount and more. I don't think it's always a question of what someone is willing to do as it is what they are capable of doing. If someone is penniless coming here, should they be denied the opportunities you and I have?

I don't think many of us can conceive of the life conditions that would drive someone to undertake the chances to cross the border that these poor people do. I've seen folks living in houses made of sticks in villages in Honduras with poor sanitation and unsafe water. Hell yeah I'd sneak across the border to take a chance on my kids living to grow up, and to have something better than that kind of existence.

[sniper7]

Good question. Knowing what I have, I would gladly pay that amount and more. I don't think it's always a question of what someone is willing to do as it is what they are capable of doing. If someone is penniless coming here, should they be denied the opportunities you and I have?

There HAS to be a cost associated. We can't just let people come over willy-nilly for nothing. People have jobs who have to get paid to do the paperwork, do the tests, check backgrounds etc etc. As I said in my previous post, I am all for people coming over the right way, but I also don't believe my tax dollars need to be used to pay for hundreds of thousands if not millions of applications to be gone through.
I have to pay to use the legal system, even for small claims. They want to come over for citizenship, it is going to cost them.