Is anyone on a green card and wondering if it all goes to pot and Trump wins the election - whether he will try and screw up the current 'path' to citizenship or something?

Ie - hes already blathered on about trying to stop anchor babies, will green card holders be put under the screws too and the 'wait time extended from 3-5 years or extra cost or conditions added to make it harder?

Im just thinking I am eligible to apply now and should probably get on with it just so its not an issue next year regardless - but wondered if anyone else was worried?

plus i can make my vote count if i get on with it lol!

Get busy! We need all the votes we can get!

That had occurred to me too, although I think on balance Bernie Sanders is more likely to get to the White House than the Donald, and I don't believe Bernie will make it, much as I'd like him to.

I've passed the three-year mark to apply as spouse of a USC, and am near the five-year minus 90 days mark now, so will be applying in early October as soon as it clears. It was mainly inertia and not wanting to bother to assemble the extra evidence of living with a USC spouse for the three-year route that delayed me before, but I will definitely make sure I'm done and dusted before Obama hands over the keys.

Whether or not he gets in I'd a huge 'if'.
Worst case scenario he does, he will probably focus on illegals already here and symbolically building a better wall. Send like most of his focus on immigration is geared towards Mexico.

Not unreasonable to suspect that the rules might change under a conservative administration, though. I've seen some Republicans purpose extending the length of time a spouse needs to spend in the US to 5+ years previously.

Trump has definitely put the issue of immigration into play when most others haven't wanted to touch it with a barge pole. However, I think most of it is bluster and hot air designed to appeal to the party's base.

There is some debate about whether he can stop birthright citizenship (jus soli) without a constitutional amendment. Here's a snippet from the 14th amendment:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States..."

The important wording here is "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof". In fact, not everyone born in the US is a USC because of this. Children of foreign diplomats do not gain US citizenship through birth in the US because diplomats and their families are not subject to the jurisdiction of the US. In practice, even this restriction doesn't work very well simply because the various government agencies have no good process for recording and tracking the fact that a child born in the US has foreign diplomats for parents. So even these children end up with US births certs that can be used to obtain SSNs and US passports. Everyone knows this yet Congress has not provided any direction on how to deal with it. In the big scheme of things, the numbers are probably so small to even worry about.

There is a school of thought that says that illegal immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction of the US and that this restriction could also be applied to their children born in the US. However, that argument is unlikely to hold up because illegal immigrants are clearly subject to US law. So amending the rules on jus soli is likely to require a constitutional amendment. That's a very arduous process. Also, there will be increased costs in tracking who is and who isn't a USC through birth in the US. There would need to be a process for appeals, etc. That could create a bureaucratic monster.

As for the legal path, I don't see the benefit in making that harder. The focus is on stemming the tide of illegal immigration by encouraging people to go the legal route. Making the legal route more difficult would be counterproductive in that regard.

Having said all that, it's hard to predict what the future will bring. If you're thinking about becoming a USC, I wouldn't delay much longer.

Absolutely, do it before they change their minds.

With regards to doing it before the elections, check your state to see when the cut off for registering for the primary is. For many states they are so far heavily red or blue that the primary is the more important election.

Na. Here's my take - he's not anti immigrant, just anti illegal immigrant. He married 2 europeans and helped bring them through their GC/Citizenship... so how anti immigrant can he be?

If he got elected and somehow got rid of all the illegal immigrants without causing civil war in the process*, then that could only be good news for us on a legal route.

*never gonna happen anyways.

He has spoken favourably of legal immigrants.

Except for the news anchors on univision.

Well, yes, not those murderers and rapists.

This probably deserves to be merged with the election thread.

Trump is not a real candidate. He polls well with the angry white old republican base. So far he has insulted hispanics, black, women, asians. It doesn't leave him with much. He is essentially a troll, he feeds off the attention and money people are donating, it is unlikely he will touch his own "billions" that he promised he would use to fund his own campaign.

That said, if you are eligible to get citizenship before the election, do so and make sure he loses.

Thought this thread was about eating sprouts before your oath ceremony.

(I did).

My dad likes Trump haha! From what he tells me it's illegal immigrants he has issues with. Don't really know anything about US politics yet, but suppose I should start looking into when for when I vote.

I work quite closely with his organization - as soon as I found he was running I filed my N400. Interviewing next month. Every vote counts.

I suspect he will focus mainly on those who are here illegally and have a child here. But either way I will be filing my forms as soon as my eligible date rolls around, just in case.