Originally Posted by IamAman

Yeah Bush himself was never anti-immigration reform and was open to it. Before the attacks, I was at my lawyer's office with a whole bunch of options. As always he was like

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June 2001
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"Why aren't you getting married? That's the easiest way"

"I have a girlfriend but we aren't doing that well. A lot of her friends are already telling her I'm only with her for a green card so I'm just trying to not even bring it up"

"Have you tried meeting a nice [my ethnicity] girl from California?"

"Well, my current GF is from my own ethnicity and I need another one of those like I need a hole in the head" - exact quote I told my attorney.

"Oh...Well, good new, all you need to do is finish school and get a work sponsorship. You mentioned your friend is a software developer and has talked to his boss about it? Just hurry up and finish school because you need a degree for that. There is also the Dream Act coming up...I'll see you then!"

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January 2002 at the lawyer's office:
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"Ok school is finished! Can I ask my friend to ask his boss about the sponsorship and we go forward?"

"NOOOOO! They're just arresting people left and right. I have a client similar to your situation and when he went in for an interview they arrested him on the spot. Of course, he was from Pakistan but still, it's just not safe to reveal yourself now. "

"what about the marriage thing?"

"That's still your best bet but I wouldn't even recommend that now. It's crazy out there, especially for people from your side of the world. Just lay low for a while".

He was not kidding either. I knew middle eastern people on student visas being asked to come in to register and they would go through all their bank statements looking for any sort of unusual activity. One of them had sold his car and they were asking him why he had a large deposit.

Not to mention the general mood was extremely anti-immigration. The airport security theater started, Real ID was soon passed after that and you know the rest.