“Why Don’t They Just Become Citizens?”
Or Worse: “Go Home.”
If I had a dollar for every time someone smugly said, “They should just come here the right way,” I could afford the immigration lawyer most immigrants can’t.
Let’s be clear:
There is no magic line to get into.
There is no one-size-fits-all form.
And U.S. citizenship is not a prize handed out like candy at customs.
Millions of people live here legally without being citizens. And yet they’re still labeled “illegals” by people who’ve never once Googled how immigration actually works.
So let’s break it down.
You Can Be in the U.S. Legally Without Being a Citizen
• Green Card holders (lawful permanent residents)
• Asylum seekers and refugees
• DACA recipients (brought here as children)
• TPS (Temporary Protected Status) recipients
• U and T visa holders (for victims of trafficking and violence)
• Student, work, and humanitarian visa holders
• People with pending immigration cases or appeals
These are not criminals.
They are neighbors. Parents. Coworkers. Children. Taxpayers.
But because they’re not citizens, they live under a sword of uncertainty—always one policy shift or traffic stop away from detention, separation, or deportation.
The Path to Citizenship Is Long, Expensive, and Inaccessible
What does it take?
• Years—sometimes decades—of continuous legal presence
• Thousands of dollars in application fees, legal bills, lost wages, and translation
• Passing interviews, biometric screenings, and civics tests—even if you work three jobs or fled war
• And still, no guarantee of approval
Naturalization fees alone are nearly $800. Factor in attorney costs and you’re looking at $2,000–$5,000 easily.
For low-income families or refugees, that might as well be a million.
You don’t just “get in line.”
Most people are never even allowed to join the line in the first place.
The System Isn’t Broken. It’s Working as Designed.
Let’s stop pretending this is incompetence.
This is cruelty by design. A fortress built to keep the poor, brown, and displaced locked out—or locked up.
Every day:
• U.S. citizen kids are separated from immigrant parents and placed in foster care
• People legally residing here are detained without charges
• Asylum seekers are deported before their cases are even heard
• ICE raids terrorize entire communities without warrants or due process
• Detention centers profit off trauma, neglect, and abuse
This isn’t immigration enforcement.
It’s a multibillion-dollar punishment industry built on suffering.
“Just Go Home” Is an Insult to the Truth
Go home where?
To the war zones we helped destabilize?
To the governments who threatened to kill them?
To the gang-controlled neighborhoods their children fled?
You don’t leave everything behind—your language, your family, your safety—because it’s fun.
You do it because survival is the only option left.
“No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.”
—Warsan Shire
They’re not crossing borders for fun.
They’re crossing deserts, oceans, and razor wire because the alternative is death.
“Illegal” Is a Weaponized Word
Many people don’t “choose” to break immigration laws—they’re forced into impossible situations where every option is a risk:
• Fleeing political persecution, cartel violence, or domestic abuse
• Denied humanitarian visas because the U.S. suspects they might stay
• Waiting 20 years for family-based visas that never come
• Losing legal status because their employer exploited or fired them
• Overstaying student or tourist visas because their home country collapsed
• Getting stuck because re-entry is dangerous, expensive, or banned
And still—somehow—we expect perfection.
What We Actually Need
• A clear, affordable, and realistic path to citizenship
• Permanent protections for mixed-status families
• Oversight and accountability for ICE, CBP, and private detention centers
• A recommitment to due process, not politics
We need policy grounded in compassion and truth—not nationalism and fear.
Real People Are Paying the Price
• Immigrants who waited two decades, only to be deported weeks before their citizenship interviews
• U.S. citizen kids who sleep in fear their parents will vanish before morning
• Women forced to give birth in shackles
• Workers detained during ICE raids who were paying taxes and raising children—just trying to survive
These are not “illegals.”
They are human beings, surviving a system that treats them as disposable.
A Final Note to Privileged Readers:
If you’ve never had to weigh “Should I cross this border or risk my child being murdered?”—that’s privilege.
If you think there’s a simple way to “come here legally,” you’re not informed.
And if you’re still saying “Go home,” what you really mean is, “This country is only for people like me.”
But this country was never just yours.
And freedom was never meant to be gated.
We don’t need more walls. We need more humanity.
