Republicans are carefully ignoring a basic principle of US naturalization law. Green card holders or other lawful alien residents of the US automatically qualify for citizenship afer five years continuous residency. See http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-naturalization/path-us-citizenship :
Path to U.S. Citizenship
This page describes the most common path to U.S. citizenship, which allows a green card holder (permanent resident) of at least 5 years to apply for naturalization. Other paths include:
If you are a green card holder of at least 5 years, you must meet the following requirements in order to apply for naturalization:
All the talk of "bringing people out of the shadows" and "fixing the broken immigration system" carefully sidesteps the inevitable result of granting legal status to illegal aliens. Obama cannot bestow citizenship on them by Executive Order. But he can do the next best thing, which is to put them on an automatic glide path to citizenship. That is, unless the republicans develop some backbone and stop him.
It's troubling that the republicans have not even mentioned this as a possibility. I can't believe they are unaware of this basic element of our law. Most likey, they would just prefer the voters to be unaware of it until it is too late. Why they would want another 20 or 30 million democrat voters is one obvious questions, but they probably need the money from the Chamber of Commerce now, and someone else will have to clean up the mess.
Mitch McConnell has apparently said that, no matter what, there will be no government shutdowns. So before he even takes the gavel of Majority Leader, he has preemptively given away his biggest bargaining lever. Brilliant, right out of the John Boehner book of political idiocy and cowardice.
Path to U.S. Citizenship
This page describes the most common path to U.S. citizenship, which allows a green card holder (permanent resident) of at least 5 years to apply for naturalization. Other paths include:
- Green card holders married to U.S. citizens
- Green card holders in the military and their family
- Citizenship through parents
If you are a green card holder of at least 5 years, you must meet the following requirements in order to apply for naturalization:
- Be 18 or older at the time of filing
- Be a green card holder for at least 5 years immediately preceding the date of filing the Form N-400, Application for Naturalization
- Have lived within the state, or USCIS district with jurisdiction over the applicant’s place of residence, for at least 3 months prior to the date of filing the application
- Have continuous residence in the United States as a green card holder for at least 5 years immediately preceding the date of filing the application
- Be physically present in the United States for at least 30 months out of the 5 years immediately preceding the date of filing the application
- Reside continuously within the United States from the date of application for naturalization up to the time of naturalization
- Be able to read, write, and speak English and have knowledge and an understanding of U.S. history and government (civics).
- Be a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States during all relevant periods under the law
All the talk of "bringing people out of the shadows" and "fixing the broken immigration system" carefully sidesteps the inevitable result of granting legal status to illegal aliens. Obama cannot bestow citizenship on them by Executive Order. But he can do the next best thing, which is to put them on an automatic glide path to citizenship. That is, unless the republicans develop some backbone and stop him.
It's troubling that the republicans have not even mentioned this as a possibility. I can't believe they are unaware of this basic element of our law. Most likey, they would just prefer the voters to be unaware of it until it is too late. Why they would want another 20 or 30 million democrat voters is one obvious questions, but they probably need the money from the Chamber of Commerce now, and someone else will have to clean up the mess.
Mitch McConnell has apparently said that, no matter what, there will be no government shutdowns. So before he even takes the gavel of Majority Leader, he has preemptively given away his biggest bargaining lever. Brilliant, right out of the John Boehner book of political idiocy and cowardice.
