> Are you really going to try to tell me that a 2-year-old who was brought to the US by their parents and then stayed here into adulthood was "in violation of the law"?
Yes. You can blame their parents for giving them an upbringing unsuited to their citizenship, but that doesn't make their position any more legitimate. It's no different from a child raised in a mafia family, who was brought up to break the law before they even knew they were doing so, for whom criminality is the only way they know to live - we don't hold them responsible for their crimes from back when they were too young to know what they were doing, but we do expect them to stop.
> I think you underestimate the quantity of political persecution outside the US. Remember that this isn't just prominent public figures who have tried to stand up against an oppressive regime and failed. Any average citizen in a situation like that could end up in a precarious situation like that. And political persecution is just one reason someone might fear for their lives to the point where they believe they need to leave their country.
I don't see how any of that changes what I wrote? Yes, there may be any number of reasons someone might end up in legitimate fear for their lives. But either they are genuinely fleeing for their lives (for whatever reason) or they are not refugees.
Yes. You can blame their parents for giving them an upbringing unsuited to their citizenship, but that doesn't make their position any more legitimate. It's no different from a child raised in a mafia family, who was brought up to break the law before they even knew they were doing so, for whom criminality is the only way they know to live - we don't hold them responsible for their crimes from back when they were too young to know what they were doing, but we do expect them to stop.
> I think you underestimate the quantity of political persecution outside the US. Remember that this isn't just prominent public figures who have tried to stand up against an oppressive regime and failed. Any average citizen in a situation like that could end up in a precarious situation like that. And political persecution is just one reason someone might fear for their lives to the point where they believe they need to leave their country.
I don't see how any of that changes what I wrote? Yes, there may be any number of reasons someone might end up in legitimate fear for their lives. But either they are genuinely fleeing for their lives (for whatever reason) or they are not refugees.