Now the Trump administration wants to limit citizenship for legal immigrants

As a kid, I didn’t understand how much work my parents had to go through for my mum to get her citizenship here. She’d had to wait six months in 1979 to get her green card even though she was married to an American citizen who had a good job and a place to live (Army brat, born in Germany, raised in England, came over first to get set up). Her travel got held up last minute and she wasn’t able to get in touch with him to say she wouldn’t be arriving when she was scheduled to. My poor dad must have been worried sick.

She decided to apply for citizenship at the 15 year mark since she couldn’t vote there anymore. It took ages. They interviewed everyone she’d ever known in the time she’d been here - former coworkers, friends, my dad’s family... She had to prove my brother and I were American citizens born on American soil. She and my dad spent thousands on paperwork and classes and lord knows what. I was about ten and my brother was maybe seven, and we knew it was stressful.

And my mum was a white English woman. I remember her having to carry her resident alien card in her wallet - as kids we thought it was hysterical that our mum was an officially-licensed alien - and having to bring it out all the time. I can’t imagine how much worse it is now.

/r/politics Thread Link - nbcnews.com