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Comment by jkot | Hacker News Reader

There is also third side in this story; people who jump through hoops to get legal option to work in US. We had to fill mountains of paper work, spend thousands of dollars, wait for years...

But every illegal immigrant seems to have more rights than us.

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How does every illegal immigrant have more rights than you? Mind to clarify?

Illegal immigrants do not have to go through the bureaucratic immigration system, spend 1000s of dollars to fly in-out for visa stamping, live in uncertainty of becoming an illegal or be banned to enter the US, illegals can also work multiple jobs in any state, take time off/not pay minimum visa wage or taxes to maintain visa, etc.

Of course they have to live in fear of deportation and have broken families(many legals have this fear too).

They get to stay in the country, work, some welfare etc, but without having to go through the system in the same bureaucratic way.

In what way do illegal immigrants get more welfare? I'm aware the some programs are restricted for legal immigrants (pending some waiting period or citizenship), but to my knowledge they are more restricted for those without legal status.

Please don't create many obscure throwaway accounts. HN is a community. Anonymity is fine, but users should have some consistent identity that other users can relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be an entirely different forum.

http://cis.org/sites/cis.org/files/articles/2011/immigrant-w...

I believe jkot is largely referring to opportunity costs.

Ask you self, why don't I just become an illegal alien? Because it wouldn't offer you job security? Because you wouldn't be able to easily start your own company? Because you could be uprooted whenever you want?

Jumping through all the hoops is what gives you the security that illegals don't have.

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