Why Illegal Immigrants Ignore the Law

I just received my third 3-year work visa for Japan. My Japanese wife has a permanent residency in the USA. Here is a breakdown of the costs of my three visas vs her green card:

Item	My three Japanese work visas (combined)	Wife’s green card
Dollar cost (1)	$325	$16,000
Hours spent (2)	30	200
Days taken off work	1.5	30
Processing time	8 days (renewal) or 3 weeks (initial)	3-5 months (visa) or 6-12 months (green card)
Pages of documentation	20	400
Forced unemployment (3)	0	4 months
TSA-style security screenings	2	15
Very thorough health screenings	0	1
Forced international trips	0	5
Immigration office visits	Any office, any time within a broad range	Time and place mandated by USCIS
Immigration officer behavior	“Welcome back” – in English	Hostile questioning about technical immigration details – in English
Senatorial interventions(4)	0	1
Times anyone was reduced to tears upon (re)entry	0	1

Why do immigrants flout our rules? Because our rules are utterly ridiculous. This, and not "security porkulus in exchange for amnesty" should be what our immigration debate is about.


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1: Total dollars or yen spent by myself, my wife or my employer on application fees, medical or biometrics screenings, documentation, legal fees, and travel
2: Total time spent by myself, my wife, or my employer's staff
3: This results from the time gap between arrival in the US and receipt of a work permit that all family-based immigrants must endure, unless they have a work permit for independent reasons
4: Thank you, Senator Brown of Ohio and staff, for making this process "easier" than it otherwise would have been