PETITION FOR EDWARD CHESEREK TO BECOME AN AMERICAN CITIZEN

Yes, we are incentivizing the #1 through #10 15 year olds in every Olympic sport to move here for high school and college.

costawasta wrote:

just a trump supporter wrote:

Disagree. I want Mr. Chesrek to go back where he came from... we don't need another non american born "US citizen" mucking up american athletics. If the democracts get their way, pretty soon we will never see another american born athlete make it to the olympics because a bunch of doper kenyans will be pouring into our open border countries.

You do realize the foundation of this country is literally immigration and settling on a land that was already occupied. The man has been here since like 10th grade of course he does not want to go back. All of his hardwork has been done here on US soil.

This is at least better, but there are some people saying they don't want him here at all which comes across incredibly silly coming from a white dude (just guessing based on LRC demographics) without any comment on how their family immigrated here to live in a place that was previously settled.

The reality of this conversation is that we do not know where he is in the process. I used to teach citizenship classes to legal permanent residents. I kind of assumed he started this process a while ago but I guess not? Oh & an aside, I taught a class where I gave the citizenship test to students (all US citizens) & the vast majority of people failed. you do get to study the questions ahead of time but US citizens, without prep, generally didn't have the answers.

MAKE AMERICAN DISTANCE RUNNING GREAT AGAIN wrote:

I think the majority of Americans would agree that having Ches on an American olympic 5k/10k team would be great for the country.

The majority of Americans have never heard of Ches and dont give two shits who is on the American 5k/10k team for the Olympics.

not born in the usa wrote:

I don't agree

He's not American

I'm not Chinese

Kipchoge is not German

Represent your own country. Otherwise what's the point of competing by country? Just make it all individual and forget country affiliation.

All we have to do is throw a ton of money of the #1 ranked athlete in each sport and we can win all of the gold medals. What's the point?

America is a country made from IMMIGRANTS!

Who founded America? British IMMIGRANTS!

How did the population grow so fast after the war? IMMIGRANTS!

What is the ancestry of the majority of Americans? You guessed it, from IMMIGRANTS!

Ed, like many others (and ALL of our IMMIGRANT parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc...), has come to the US for a better life. He has spent substantial time in the American school and is fully accustomed/assimilated into the American lifestyle. He was not bought/lured in by the feds with a hefty paycheck to represent the US (like some middle eastern countries have tried), he actually had to go through high school and college. Assuming he has no criminal record, there really is no good reason to deny him citizenship after the 4 (5?) year period as set by the immigration department.

let Ed be a citizen

1) if you're afraid to post your name, maybe you should rethink what you're saying.

2) Many of the guys you mentioned have already raced Ches. If they can't compete with him how will they compete with the best at the olympics?

3) why would those guys start a petition against ches? Did anybody petition against legat or Chelimo?

4) the USA is capitalist. Outsourcing to find the best product/person is what we do. So unless you are against capitalism you should have no issue with Ches becoming an american.

not born in the usa wrote:

I don't agree

He's not American

I'm not Chinese

Kipchoge is not German

Represent your own country. Otherwise what's the point of competing by country? Just make it all individual and forget country affiliation.

All we have to do is throw a ton of money of the #1 ranked athlete in each sport and we can win all of the gold medals. What's the point?

By this logic the only ones who should be competing for the USA are the native Americans... but wait, the white immigrant Americans tried to wipe them out.

Also Chinese is not only a nationality but also a race. American is ONLY a nationality.

Hard truth wrote:

MAKE AMERICAN DISTANCE RUNNING GREAT AGAIN wrote:

I think the majority of Americans would agree that having Ches on an American olympic 5k/10k team would be great for the country.

The majority of Americans have never heard of Ches and dont give two shits who is on the American 5k/10k team for the Olympics.

They care when we win Olympic golds sooo...

No one is saying he shouldn’t eventually become a US citizen. He needs to follow the protocol, even if it means waiting for 6 years.

No one Is going to push his paperwork through faster so another former Kenyan can be on the US who may or not medal in the games.

The two current mile world record holders running for NOP might have a shot at an Einstein visa for truly exceptional people. Even they might get rejected though. Ches needs to follow the procedures and be realistic. No one powerful cares enough about putting another fast Kenyan on the US team to get a fast track visa. Ches needs to wait in line like every other immigrant who came to this country.

Smh yo wrote:

He could try obtain an EB-1 visa:

Nicknamed the "Einstein Visa", the EB-1 is in theory reserved for people who are highly acclaimed in their field - the government cites Pulitzer, Oscar, and Olympic winners as examples - as well as respected academic researchers and multinational executives.

He has already applied for an EB-1, and got denied because he hasn't won any major title or medal at the pro level.

Ironically, his best chance to get EB-1 is to represent Kenya at Olympics or Worlds and finish in the top three. Kenya is actually pretty thin in men's 5000m right now, he might make the ream if he tried, but winning a medal at Olympics /Worlds is another matter.

Tanith Belbin got EB-1, and the Congress even changed the law to expedite her case. But she was already a world silver medalist.

Christina Carreira, a two time world junior medalist, got her EB-1 application rejected.

No. Give him citizenship? Yes.

But he should not be eligible to represent us at The Olympics.

Realist fob wrote:

She got it by being married to a US citizen. First she would have applied for resident alien status and once received , waited 3 years (it’s 3 years rather than five for marriage based citizenship applications) and then applied for citizenship. It’s a very slow process.

If Ches is currently trying to get resident alien status, he won’t even be a US citizen for the 2024 Olympics.

Here’s the timeline:

1.Apply for resident alien status: one year to process

2. Be resident alien for five years (3 if through marriage)

3. Apply for citizenship: one year to process

If he wants to race in world or Olympics during his prime, he better run for Kenya.

This is the reality of his situation. Fast track times, sob stories about application delays, petitions won’t change this timeline.

That's about right. I am a resident alien, and have been for around 20 years. I obtained a Green Card on the same basis that Edward Cheserek has tried (although not as an athlete). I was fortunate as I had a degree of prominence in a niche area.

The problem that I believe Edward Cheserek is having is proving that he is a truly elite international performer. In that respect, dominance over collegiate opposition is probably not going to help a lot, nor is what is probably a relatively small (in the scheme of things) shoe contract, which really represents marketability, rather than true talent. There is a lack of results in international competition, so in the way that the immigration, the only basis might be something like the indoor ranking list, where he's run fast times.

It's very unfortunate, and were he able to compete in the US Championships, he would almost certainly be able to show evidence that he has the ability to represent the U.S. I think, failing some major performances in the Diamond League, he is going to struggle to gain a Green Card on the grounds of excellence.

As 'realist fob' said, it's probably going to be a long time, if ever, before Cheserek would be eligible to run for the US. He might be better off representing Kenya in international competition, which would at least establish his merit, and then try and get a Green Card to live in the US on that basis.

He needs to man up and run for Kenya. Look what happened to Khalid Kannuchi. He never got to run for USA. He was past him prime when he got US citizenship and never ran in worlds or Olympics while being the world record holder in the marathon.

Is Ches even making six figures with Sketchers? The market has determined Che’s worth, and it’s not really that high. Immigration officials ain’t granting immediate citizenship to someone 80k plus bonus incentives. What is Ches bringing to the table that we don’t already have?

His prs are all slower than current Americans in all his events.

If he breaks some world records, that would do the job, and get him a B-1 visa. Olympic medals would help too.

This is the USA, capitalism rules. Supply and demand. We already have faster runners than Ches.

If he wants citizenship, he can get in line with the sweaty masses. That’s the real immigration experience for this land of immigrants.

But, immigrants

(sarcasm)

No one is declaiming the virtue of immigration. The issue is there are limits, people need to adhere to the process, and the fact that there are hundreds of millions of people who would love to immigrate to the USA. We can’t possibly accommodate them all

You don't gain citizenship by signing a petition. Idiot. And Trump is a POS and wouldn't go with it anyways. Even if he was a good president, he would have about a million other things that take priority over getting one of the hundred Kenyans American citizenship. Like running a country.. Jesus. Stupidest post ever. "discuss".

Former African nations just went 1,2 and 3 at USA championships 10,000m.

No we don’t need anymore. Not signing. Also, shoe companies and immigration dept. don’t want to sign either.

Run for your country of birth or go through the proper channels like every other immigrant trying to gain US residency.

Ghjjhddfgh wrote:

No one is saying he shouldn’t eventually become a US citizen.

There are people even on this thread saying that.

Do you think they are handing out fast track Kenyan citizenships to white foreign businessmen wanting to outcompete Kenyan business owners?

Be realistic. We need fewer African transplants completing for the US, not more.

Also, what is Ches’ projected career income from running, a couple of hundred grand. If he was the top basketball NCAA grad, looking at a projected career income of tens of millions, he’d have a better claim at citizenship.

He needs to man up, face reality and run for Kenya.