Only because we made the "overstaying" an illegal offense. But there's no reason to -- if the guy was paying taxes the whole time, and never committed a serious crime, then we should be happy to welcome such guys, ramping up our GDP.

Don't forget that the paperwork costs a lot, if one has children, can get close to $10k.

Look at Spain -- instead of deporting "illegals", they just made them "legals" (those without a criminal record). Easy, problem solved.

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tick_tock_tick an hour ago | parent | next [-]

If he was paying taxes during that time period he was also committing a felony.

	▲	bryanrasmussen 17 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I like this theory of paying taxes is a felony, tell me more!! Levity aside, working on a tourist visa is a violation but generally isn't prosecuted as a felony. Also the grandparent post said "They seized a white Irishman last October who had a valid work permit and was just about to head to his green card interview." If he had a valid work permit I suppose this means that he was allowed to work and pay taxes on that work, in other words - no, he was not committing a felony.

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direwolf20 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

America's a society built around finding people to punish and watching them get punished. I don't understand it, myself. It's like Roman gladiator fighting. But Americans seem to need to feel like they're hurting people who "deserve" it and they can't do that by convincing themselves nobody deserves to be hurt.