Trump's executive order and its scary message to permanent residents
There are a lot of things wrong with President Donald Trump's January 27 executive order. It only applies to majority-Muslim countries where doesn't have any business interests. It applies even to refugees that have already been vetted. It affected people who were already on their way. Plus, there is the not so small matter of the Trump Administration flouting a federal court order to hold deportations.
But what struck me most - for what I admit are very personal reasons - was that order applied not just to refugees, not just to visa holders, but to Permanent Resident Aliens (i.e. Green Card holders).
Saturday night protest at O'Hare International Airport (Photo by Amy Guth)
I don't think Americans who are born citizens understand just how big of a deal getting a Green Card actually is. When you are on a visa (or, in case of me in my siblings, on parents' visa), your ability to stay in this country is always conditional. I spent most of my high school years in a holding pattern because (to make a long story short) my family's application for a Green Card kept running into delays, and my family's ability to stay in the country depended on my mom's ability to keep working (which wasn't as easy as it sounds in the early 2000s, when the dot com bubble burst and what we assumed was a pretty secure job fell through seemingly overnight). It is hard to explain what it's like to go to school, to just live your life, knowing that, if something goes wrong, you'd be forced to leave. Yes, as long-time readers of this LJ would know, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about staying in these United States, but the thought of having my life suddenly uprooted, of having to restart everything all over again was terrifying.
The Green Card was salvation. The Green Card was security. Green Card was freedom from fear. I could stay as United States as long as I want to. Getting back into United States through passport controls still requires you to jump through a few hoops, but not nearly as many hoops as when you're a visa holder. And, in general, unless you were outside the country for too long, you no longer have to worry about getting back in.
With one executive order, Donald Trump turned that to shreds.
It doesn't matter that the Trump Administration announced that it will allow permanent residents in without problems. The only reason why that did it because Reince Priebus forced its hand, by saying that it would on live television. And we now know that this wasn't some unintended side-effect. Per BBC News and others, Trump insisted on it.
Sure, Russia isn't on the list of banned countries, but that doesn't matter, either. For one thing, it already made it harder (as in more cumbersome) for Russians who got visas in the past to re-apply for them. And even if that wasn't the case, Russian Federation has many republics that are majority-Muslim.
Most importantly, the precedent has been set. If Trump is willing to do it to citizens of some countries, he can do it to others.
After Trump got re-elected, Grace (who, turned out, is also a permanent resident) mentioned on Facebook that she wasn't sure she wanted to become a citizen when Trump is president. as I've written before, I was already, at best, ambivalent about becoming a citizen in general. But under these circumstances... I'm starting to agree with her.
If Trump Administration doesn't care about all the hoops every immigrant has to jump through to get the Permanent Resident Alien status, all of the background checks in delays, why should we bother to make more effort and pay more money to jump through a few more hoops.
Especially since there's no guarantee Trump Administration would respect that, either.
But what struck me most - for what I admit are very personal reasons - was that order applied not just to refugees, not just to visa holders, but to Permanent Resident Aliens (i.e. Green Card holders).
Saturday night protest at O'Hare International Airport (Photo by Amy Guth)
I don't think Americans who are born citizens understand just how big of a deal getting a Green Card actually is. When you are on a visa (or, in case of me in my siblings, on parents' visa), your ability to stay in this country is always conditional. I spent most of my high school years in a holding pattern because (to make a long story short) my family's application for a Green Card kept running into delays, and my family's ability to stay in the country depended on my mom's ability to keep working (which wasn't as easy as it sounds in the early 2000s, when the dot com bubble burst and what we assumed was a pretty secure job fell through seemingly overnight). It is hard to explain what it's like to go to school, to just live your life, knowing that, if something goes wrong, you'd be forced to leave. Yes, as long-time readers of this LJ would know, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about staying in these United States, but the thought of having my life suddenly uprooted, of having to restart everything all over again was terrifying.
The Green Card was salvation. The Green Card was security. Green Card was freedom from fear. I could stay as United States as long as I want to. Getting back into United States through passport controls still requires you to jump through a few hoops, but not nearly as many hoops as when you're a visa holder. And, in general, unless you were outside the country for too long, you no longer have to worry about getting back in.
With one executive order, Donald Trump turned that to shreds.
It doesn't matter that the Trump Administration announced that it will allow permanent residents in without problems. The only reason why that did it because Reince Priebus forced its hand, by saying that it would on live television. And we now know that this wasn't some unintended side-effect. Per BBC News and others, Trump insisted on it.
Sure, Russia isn't on the list of banned countries, but that doesn't matter, either. For one thing, it already made it harder (as in more cumbersome) for Russians who got visas in the past to re-apply for them. And even if that wasn't the case, Russian Federation has many republics that are majority-Muslim.
Most importantly, the precedent has been set. If Trump is willing to do it to citizens of some countries, he can do it to others.
After Trump got re-elected, Grace (who, turned out, is also a permanent resident) mentioned on Facebook that she wasn't sure she wanted to become a citizen when Trump is president. as I've written before, I was already, at best, ambivalent about becoming a citizen in general. But under these circumstances... I'm starting to agree with her.
If Trump Administration doesn't care about all the hoops every immigrant has to jump through to get the Permanent Resident Alien status, all of the background checks in delays, why should we bother to make more effort and pay more money to jump through a few more hoops.
Especially since there's no guarantee Trump Administration would respect that, either.