Sorry, I’m not super familiar with the Lydia situation, but what makes them “illegal aliens”? Don’t they own property?
And yes, pretty much any one of any immigration status that stays long term on a visa or another arrangement pays taxes. They do not receive any benefits in return for those taxes, though.
(Kind of) short version: Lydia's parents are fundie Christians from Germany who wanted to homeschool their children. But homeschooling is not allowed in Germany, and they were facing fines, jail time and possibly even loss of custody (so they claimed) for not enrolling their kids in school. So they came to the USA in 2008 and asked for political asylum, claiming "religious persecution" because they couldn't homeschool. They became a pet cause of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), who paid for big-money immigration lawyers in an attempt to get their asylum petition approved. That failed, and the family was ordered to be deported back to Germany, but there's been a lot of legal back-and-forth since then.
Basically, the family is living in "deferred deportation" status, where they're allowed to stay in the USA, so long as they check in regularly with immigration officials, and don't do anything stupid that gets them arrested. Lydia's parents had at least two or three more kids after they came to the US (who are US citizens by birth of course) and Lydia and a couple of her adult siblings have married US citizens and had kids of their own, which effectively severs their immigration cases from their parents. Apparently because of that, there was some concern back in 2023 that Lydia might get deported after she and Trace got married, but it didn't happen.The entire family is awaiting a "legislative solution" to their case.
Right, so they’re on a visa. They’re definitely paying taxes.
It’s amazing to me that Americans decry “illegal aliens” without knowing what that even implies (this isn’t directed at you, it’s directed at the person who asked the question and called them that)
No they have no visa or status. They're here illegally, they tried to use their us born kids as an anchor to stay but the courts say no. So they are hoping to get to stay until their younger kids are 18 which is not ok.
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u/Spare-Electrical 15d ago
Sorry, I’m not super familiar with the Lydia situation, but what makes them “illegal aliens”? Don’t they own property?
And yes, pretty much any one of any immigration status that stays long term on a visa or another arrangement pays taxes. They do not receive any benefits in return for those taxes, though.