AlphaTangoMike

Lol, so it's not just me then

Pulaski

But as most of us here on BE know, and I believe an overwhelming majority of US citizens do not know, there may have been no "proper channel" for him to go through, though as an Irishman he is was likely eligible for the diversity lottery.

Twinkle0927

So he is a "common criminal" after all! Throwing him into the cells with "common criminals" was the right thing then.

If he has been working and "paying taxes" as claimed in the article, can we assume that some other crime has been going on such as using a fake SSN or using someone else's?

Although he probably didn't have a legal route to stay here when he first arrived, he could have eventually found one. Trouble is, like our Disney fans here, he probably wasn't prepared to make it a 10-year goal to get here and to work at it. If he's been "working and paying taxes" here, he could have "worked and paid taxes" in Ireland and either saved enough for the $500,000 required for an investment visa (may have taken longer than 10 years but if you want it badly enough...), worked his way into a company where he could get an L-1, learnt a skill that could get him an H-1B or, at the very least, joined enough dating sites to eventually meet someone in the US that found him irresistible.

Even after arriving he could have found a spouse and adjusted.

I suppose I don't understand why someone from an EU country who has several excellent options on where he can live would take such a risk and come here. I can understand it from people from developing or war-torn countries. But things are not that bad in the EU that it's worth being an illegal here for.

Steve_

The reason people feel sympathy for these people always seems to be that they've been in the US so long. I mean, if ICE had caught up with him after a year or so, no-one would care. The reality is that it will take ICE ages to catch up with most overstays, the DHS OIG released a report recently explaining why it takes ICE so long to identify them.

So people seem to think that they've gotten away with it, but they haven't gotten away with it. You can make the larger point that the US immigration system is crappy but that's a reason to try and change it, not violate it.

Anyway, in the near future, when Bill C-23 is enacted and comes into force in Canada (links the entry systems together for US and Canadian citizens) and when the new biometric exit system is brought in to use in the US (both things are going to happen towards the end of next year), overstaying will become much harder.

The real question is what position to take on people who don't know they're unlawfully present or were brought in illegally by their parents. I remember talking to a Canadian woman whose mother married an American when she was a child, back then they'd issue SSN cards to pretty much anyone. Anyway her parents died and she only found out she was in the country illegally when REAL ID came in and she couldn't renew her DL. And she's been in the US 50+ years.

It seems to be quite common for people to forget to put their children on the AOS application, there is a judicial remedy for that situation, but sitting in a detention center after ICE catches up to you isn't the best time to realize that.

Steve_

It's very common for people unlawfully present to be self-employed, because you can do it without having an SSN. You can get an EIN with an ITIN. Also avoids E-verify and the I-9, because you can't be a witness against yourself.

Sen. Schumer introduced a bill that would require all self-employed people to show up at the SSA office and prove they're lawfully allowed to work, but it went nowhere, because it also included a provision for a biometric SSN card which would have cost billions.

Beaverstate

These are people who started legally, big news later when a few are caught.
Meanwhile millions who start and stay illegally.......

md95065

... an iffy Irishman in the construction trade in Boston who may have been paying his taxes but, apparently, hasn't been paying off the right people ...

scrubbedexpat099

Is it different in Boston, how did he get a Electrical License?

hungryhorace

Boston is a largely corrupt city in my experience. There is a significant Irish population here, and I suspect something under the table was done to allow him to obtain one (if indeed he did obtain one).

carcajou

[QUOTE=Steve_;12278019]The reason people feel sympathy for these people always seems to be that they've been in the US so long. I mean, if ICE had caught up with him after a year or so, no-one would care. The reality is that it will take ICE ages to catch up with most overstays, the DHS OIG released a report recently explaining why it takes ICE so long to identify them.


Large segments of the US media have really radicalised recently. I doubt the writers and editors at the Boston Globe "feel sorry" for him because he was there so long, I genuinely think they want a Merkel-style system where there are no ID, background, or police checks, and anyone who feels like coming, can come.

Disenchanted

The same deportations went on under previous presidential regimes, but suddenly, because it's now Donald Trump running the show, and doing what he said he would do, it's not right to deport these illegal immigrant squatters when they have a criminal record???

There is no statute of limitation as far as I know on being here illegally, whether you've provided jobs for people and paid taxes or not.

The question I have is how many other "illegal immigrants" has he employed in his business?

carcajou

Good, you get it. If Obama does it = good, if Trump does it = bad.

My question is still, what will Trump do about "Obama Doctrine," if anything? "Obama Doctrine" states that if your income or management title is over a certain threshold, you have total impunity to commit any white-collar crime you want.

albanks2542

I suspect the government can and may attempt to seize his money as proceeds of crime. That would send a powerful message if they did.

The irish have no pride in their own country. All the irish illegals are over there because dublin is rubbish.

scrubbedexpat099

Obama is a God, Trump is the Devil.

Simples

md95065

That's easy - Trump will raise the threshold ...