Cabbies? (employment, law, violent crime, illegal immigrants)

[STT Resident]

You took it correctly. Once you have a green card you are a permanent resident alien of the US and can work for whomever at whatever and wherever you want. You're confusing company-sponsored and specific working visas with permanent resident status.

[Crew Chief]

And once you get a green card, you can go to some fly-by-night truck driving school and then go to work for some small carrier that will put you in junk equipment, run your wheels off and pay you rock-bottom wages...

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by Crew Chief

And once you get a green card, you can go to some fly-by-night truck driving school and then go to work for some small carrier that will put you in junk equipment, run your wheels off and pay you rock-bottom wages...

Sounds like the American Dream to me!

[happynoodleboycey]

Hehe, I like the sound of that.

Originally Posted by STT Resident

You took it correctly. Once you have a green card you are a permanent resident alien of the US and can work for whomever at whatever and wherever you want. You're confusing company-sponsored and specific working visas with permanent resident status.

Ooooh right, I was wrong.I had always assumed (obviously incorrectly) that a company had to sponsor you to get a green card and that you were bound to them. My apologies.

[sponger42]

STT: He didn't say "liscensed cabs" just cabbies. (I hope, I'm too lazy to go re-read the OP.)

I don't know about EB visas.

H-visas require that you stay employed, but are portable between jobs. They do not apply to cab drivers, I'm pretty sure.

Green Cards or Permanent Residencies, as they're properly called, are granted to permanent immigrants ostensibly on their way to citizenship. You get them after "obtaining" a US citizen immediate relative (spouse, parent) or working for a period of time on a work visa. You can hold any job with a green card, thus one of the differences from a visa.

[STT Resident]

You can't drive a cab in NYC unless you are licensed to do so.

[George_of_the_Jungal]

1. There are gypsy rogue cab drivers all over the country
2. In Dallas Tx. they do not do ANY citizenship check not so much as a SS card this is due to to the fact no cab driver in Dallas works for any company they are self employed sole proprieters. They do a DMV and criminal check and a 1 day class which costs the driver $35...$10 for a suburban Plano Tx. license. I know this as I was a cab driver in Dallas for about 8 months.

IMHO this is a huge security issue. I am not saying these drivers are a bunch of sleeper cells but they sure as heck could be.

[George_of_the_Jungal]

I'd like to add to my last post:
Most of the people I met were not dishwashers but men of stature...professionals in their home country here due to not liking the way things were run in their home country. They generally get little respect for the fine people most of them are. It takes a lot of courage to come here and do what they do...hats of to them it was more than I could put up with and I was born here 1961.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by STT Resident

You can't drive a cab in NYC unless you are licensed to do so.

Plenty of unlicensed (or fake document license or using someone else's license) cab drivers in NYC, be they citizen, permanent resident, illegal alien, etc.

French Tourists In NYC Police Chase From Kennedy Airport

Fake Livery Cab Driver Charged with Two Rapes - Gothamist

DRIVER TAKES OFF WITH WOMAN'S $32, SLEEPING CHILD

The Brooklyn Paper: Cabbies get hacked off at Ikea!

Illegal taxicab operation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by George_of_the_Jungal

I'd like to add to my last post:
Most of the people I met were not dishwashers but men of stature...professionals in their home country here due to not liking the way things were run in their home country. They generally get little respect for the fine people most of them are. It takes a lot of courage to come here and do what they do...hats of to them it was more than I could put up with and I was born here 1961.

I have met people with advanced college degrees back in their home countries that are pumping gas, working in stores, driving cabs, etc., in NY.

Often back home, even with an education, they cannot get work that would make them better off than one of these jobs here in the US, especially, as George says, if their politics are unpopular at home.