Path to citizenship should be a long hike
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/08/opinion/navarette-path-to-citizenship/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
This is another article I expected to vehemently disagree with when I read the title. I conflated the idea of citizenship with immigration. Immigration does not need to be tied to citizenship (indeed, after reading the article, I think it shouldn’t be); I do think it should be simple to immigrate and become legally able to be a member of our society. A relative (wife’s cousin removed a couple of times) of mine who has been in the US for 20+ years (legally, with a green card) has been too lazy to apply for citizenship (based on our discussions, I see very little value in him becoming a US citizen since it seems clear he expects to spend his retired years back ‘home’). However, he has been a contributing member of society for two+ decades because it was fairly simple back then to immigrate and become a resident alien. There would be no incentive (for law abiding people, anyway) to enter the US illegally if all they had to do was give some biographical info and maybe some fingerprints and then be welcome to join our society. Sure, make it a serious effort to become a citizen (though I would have to say, if you serve honorably in our military then you should get citizenship automatically), I don’t have any objection to that. In order to vote and hold office you should have to make a serious commitment (sadly, it seems, most born into citizenship fail to do so). But to live and work here, I think should be easy.
