Yup, people don't understand what life is like for people like me.

I'm walking on eggshells all the time.

For the rest, they can just go back to their home country if anything happens in the US.

For me, I have nothing -- it's the US or just be a ghost, stateless and without home.

As long as I was on work permit, asylum, PR, I constantly felt like I was on parole.

A little mistake, and they'll just revoke everything and send me back, and I can't risk that ever.

This is why my criminal record is so clean in the US, even traffic tickets I've only ever had 2 in 10 years.

No arrests, no charges, no nothing.

Now that I'm a citizen, I can never be deported anymore, but that doesn't mean I start acting like a fool and start courting trouble.

It's a good idea to stay on the good side of the law, citizen or not, deportable or not.