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As far as I can tell, Yunseo Chung held a green card and has been in the country since she was 7. This is reported by many news sources and I've yet to find one that disputes this. She was arrested for a misdemeanor "obstructing governmental administration" as part of a protest.
This is what I have a problem with. For illegals, we can make the argument that they were breaking and entering, they were squatters, they broke the social contract so we can deport them with minimal due process. Fine. For immigrants on visitor visas like students or tourists, we can make the argument that they are guests, and it's fine to deport them with minimal due process because they have lives back home. Fine. I'm not okay with this being applied to permanent residents. For Yunseo, she's been living here since she was 7, it's literally uprooting her from the life she's ever known to a foreign country she may not have a connection with. And for what? A misdemeanor arrest? If she was illegal, it's an easier pill to swallow, but she followed the rules, and she's authorized to be a permanent resident here in the US. I understand the law is set up so Sec State can deport anyone he wishes, but I believe it is unjust to do it on such flimsy rationale in this case.
Further, I don't believe this will be ultimately beneficial for red-tribe, but this is just my theory. From a cursory search, there are about 13 million green card holders in the United States. Some of them lean blue and some of them lean red. Before this administration, there was an understanding that permanent residency status was "generally safe" and there were very limited circumstances where you could be deported. Thus the practical difference between green card holders and citizens were small, and the ones going for citizenships were motivated by their love for America (among other things), which made that set of people lean red. But now there's a new motivation. If green card holders who lean blue believe they are more likely to face arbitrary or pretextual deportation, this provides a strong motivation of self-preservation for them to seek citizenship. Gaining citizenship as a green card holder is almost trivial compared to an illegal or a visitor gaining citizenship, so we can expect to see an increase in blue-leaning eligible voters in the future.
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