Do you know how your ancestors come to US?

Question

All they had to do is jump on aboat in order to get US citizenship. Is that "the legal process" you are so insistent about? Legal my as$. They never paid taxes, most spoke no English, but getting here made them legal RIGHT AWAY. Where is your MORAL right to even mention the word "legal"?!? Now people show up here, and YOU wanna deport them?

Answer 1

My parents moved to the US for business 30 yrs ago.
They came on a VISA stayed, applied for a green card, got it after almost 10 yrs, stayed some more and got naturalized as US Citizens. So to answer your Q yes, I do know how my ancestors came. LEGALLY. That's my moral right to say legal or illegal. Yeah I myself got lucky because I was born into it, but my parents worked their a$$ off to get me this legal status.

OK? So now my question is why don't you or the other illegals do the same? Come in on a visa and work hard, get a green card and then a US Citizenship. All the while paying taxes of course...

It's hard I know, and takes time, yes. But that is the way to do it.
My parents did it. Why can't yours?
Hm? Why?
Answer: Just being lazy or doesn't want to actually work hard to get LEGAL status. Pathetic. Don't blame the US just because you don't have the will power and strength to work at something.
Stop asking for favors and freebees just because some people got it hundreds of years ago. Times are changing so roll with it. Work at it and reap the rewards. If you don't work then no rewards.

In ancient Japan it was legal to kill some one if they challenged you to a dual. So if I killed someone now in Japan you think they'll listen intently and deem me intellegent for bringing that fact of history up for my defense? It's a question. What do you think?

Answer 2

Actually they did not just come in. They had to stop at Ellis Island & complete their paperwork to make it legal. 12 million entered the U.S. this way between the late 19th century & early 20th. Sure, it might have been easier then than it is today. It was also easier to buy a house back then. You just moved in & started making payments. Does that mean I should insist on buying a house that way today? No, it doesn't. The point is our ancestors came here legally! That's the difference. They had an appreciation for becoming "Americans" first, not "Fill-in-the-country-Americans." They came, they had a desire to learn English, they followed the laws, and they assimilated themselves & their children into the American culture & way of life. Everything was not easy at first. You are probably complaining because the line is long at the immigration dept. today (Guess your ancestors should have gotten in line earlier)

Answer 3

My ancestors never emigrated to America. They were dirt poor but they realised that as soon as as much as was possible was milked from from the natives of that country...once the settlers could no longer resist the repugnance of the civilised world at the use of slaves brutally acquired in other countries...then they would become twisted and nasty and forget the Christian principles that their ancestors espoused.

And no, the original immigrants did *not* come legally. I can assure you all that the indigenous population of America did *not* have a vote and agree that the Europeans should be allowed in.

Answer 4

Actually Bunt is right on the Tax issue. There were no real taxes back then. They eventually came around but the US has a bigger history without income tax than with.

(quoted)
The nation had few taxes in its early history. From 1791 to 1802, the United States government was supported by internal taxes on distilled spirits, carriages, refined sugar, tobacco and snuff, property sold at auction, corporate bonds, and slaves. The high cost of the War of 1812 brought about the nation's first sales taxes on gold, silverware, jewelry, and watches. In 1817, however, Congress did away with all internal taxes, relying on tariffs on imported goods to provide sufficient funds for running the government.

In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation and of withholding income at the source. During the Civil War, a person earning from $600 to $10,000 per year paid tax at the rate of 3%. Those with incomes of more than $10,000 paid taxes at a higher rate. Additional sales and excise taxes were added, and an “inheritance” tax also made its debut. In 1866, internal revenue collections reached their highest point in the nation's 90-year history—more than $310 million, an amount not reached again until 1911.

Answer 5

Bunt, your gripe is moot. Why? Because the laws weren't in effect back then. How can someone follow a law that was not around to follow? One would have had to been a mind reader to do so.

And taxes? Yes - they paid taxes. Where do you think they didn't? Back then, they paid the taxes that were around at the time. Again, you bring up a moot point.

Point being? The laws are around NOW, as are the TAXES. If you don't follow the laws, you are breaking them, thus doing something illegally.

Hell, I could complain that back when everyone was stealing my family's land (I am Native American by lineage). But you know something - that was then, this is now. Living in the past does nothing for the present. You need to realize that we also had slaves in the past - doesn't make it right. But back then it was a law. The need arose to change the immigration policy and put into place the laws so that our nation did not become flooded with immigrants. Why? Well, disease hits over populated areas. And poverty will as well. If allowing everyone to flood into the country, we would become a third world country (Ethiopia). THERE HAS TO BE CONTROL OVER IMMIGRATION OR THE COUNTRY WILL NOT SURVIVE. Resources and jobs are not infinite (never ending). If continued to flood in without control, the jobs, land, food and money will dry up. And then what? Are all of the illegal immigrants going to flood into another country and use it up, too?

Illegal immigrants are like a plague of locusts, and no one wants to admit or see it. If we don't have control, this country will not survive. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but it is the cold hard truth. And sometimes the truth hurts.

Answer 6

Mine came over way back when the US was still new... And Actually they are French Trappers from Canada and moved to Lake Charles, LA. Been there since, but my dad was born here in texas.
Moms grandparents came from Beligium.

I think why we are having such a problem now is becuase we do have to pay taxes and everything is monitored better then when it was back then!! Plus back then we were still a young country and we wanted people to join us... hence they were given citizenship so easy.

I don't know though.

Answer 7

They suffered religious persecution in Switzerland and Germany. In 1720 they boarded the John Chapel Laurel in Amsterdam and journied the Atlantic Ocean for three months to Philadelphia, PA. They were registered, purchased 620 acres of land where Phoenixville, PA is today. They were the first white settlers there.

Answer 8

none of us are legal except the Native Americans. Who would of built the railroads if the Chinese were barred from coming here, who would of worked the cotton fields if we didn't buy slaves from the Dutch and Spaniards, who would of written our constitution if the British never came. Would we have pizza without the Italians, feta cheese with the Greeks etc, etc, etc. We are a strong nation because the best brains throughout the world had parents who came here to better their lives or escaped persecution.

Answer 9

What a load of bull.

First off, our ancestors did go thru the process, though.
It was pre-1900's when coming over in a boat was all it took.
Almost since civil war, i believe.

Fact is, you are being racist and idiotic to compare legitmate immigration efforts with the illegal immigration.

Answer 10

Why should it be as easy when the country doesn't need people and has to subsidize them as it was when the country did need people and did not subsidize them?

Our laws are supposed to benefit our country, not foreigners who want to come here. Sure, our ancestors may have been lucky to be in the right place at the right time, but that is true of many things. And they DID follow the law. In fact in the case of my latest arriving ancestors, it was the 19th century homestead laws that drew them to begin with. They then, with their neighbors, built thier own churches and schools on land they donated, and passed the hat to hire a teacher, collecting contributions to hire a minister.

Things were different then on MANY fronts.