Aero,
Sorry, I misread your original post which at first seemed to simply draw a distinction between U.S. citizens and non citizens; I see now a further qualifier. I've never practiced immigration law (well, I had to fiddle twice with it while on location in Tokyo for a couple of high net worth clients) and am not exactly clear on what kinds of constitutional rights we grant non citizens, illegal residents, and freeloading criminals here. My guess is it's a lot less than a US citizen gets, and my guess is it's going to shrink from here.
That's fine with me. When I was a legal resident (visa holding) in Spain, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong I ALWAYS knew I was a guest and that, if I violated my terms of residency, I could be sent out of the country never to return. I never presumed I had any "right" to be there, simply a requested and granted "privilege." I never overstayed my visa, no matter how bothersome (it often took all day and quite a bit of cash to renew) it was to stay current and in good standing.
Kb |
