New Gods of North America

In theory, it's not difficult for foreigners to become citizens of America.

The Naturalization Act, enacted at the beginning of the Federation, clearly stated the requirements in just one sentence: Any free person of good character and white skin, willing to swear allegiance to the American Constitution and reside in America for two years, is eligible to apply for citizenship.

Even though the corresponding laws have been amended several times since then, theoretically, it only increased the residency requirement from two years to five years, then to fourteen years, and then reduced it to the current requirement of five years.

But there is, of course, a gap between theory and reality.

For example, the two requirements of "white skin" and "free person" alone excluded the natives of the New World, the residents of the Old World's South Continent, and various indentured servants and contract workers.

In addition, one had to prove they were of "good character," which usually required endorsement from reputable local individuals or organizations. Therefore, it wasn't easy for ordinary people to get through in years when the opening wasn't so wide.

However, the American Federation currently doesn't have a so-called "Immigration Bureau." Even the function of approving applications is mainly placed in local courts or designated offices of state governments. The daily management in this area is quite lax.

Therefore, as long as first-generation immigrants can earn a living by their own abilities or connections and don't get involved in industries or matters that require "admission," whether they have legal status or not sometimes doesn't make much difference.

Inessa currently falls into this category. Private detectives are neither public officials nor required to obtain licenses, so no one needs to approve. She is also a "partner" in the detective agency, not even close to being "employed." Some states don't even collect head taxes on foreign workers from her.

Apart from the church being able to manage her affairs as a "transcendent" and the "Hunter Association," basically, the local government agencies shouldn't actively cause trouble simply because of her immigration status.

--But this kind of messed up thing, it actually came to her door.

Inessa is the type who can reason. When the staff took out their credentials to ask her to cooperate with the investigation, she felt that she didn't have citizenship, and the reason was justifiable, so she didn't resist.

When Wayne arrived, he found himself a little choked up because the staff had found a state law from somewhere stating that the relevant agencies in Virginia had the right to check and confirm the health status of foreign immigrants in the area to avoid the spread of plague-like infectious diseases--this matter didn't involve "illegal or criminal" issues, and even a proper lawyer could only advise the client to cooperate as much as possible.

"Damn it, I haven't even been checked yet, why are others checking me?" On the carriage back, Wayne couldn't help but feel a little indignant.

Inessa blinked her big eyes, "Hmm?"

Wayne smoothly changed the subject: "It's nothing, I'm just a little dissatisfied with their approach."

In all fairness, the other party's response was actually quite polite. After politely approaching Inessa, they didn't take any coercive measures.

When they arrived at the clinic under the local health committee, the staff only arranged for a nurse to take Inessa's temperature and ask about her past medical history. After that, they just needed to wait for the nurse to fill out the form, and Inessa herself would sign to confirm, and the matter would be over. During the waiting period, they even provided recreational reading materials and unlimited hot tea and snacks.

However, the seemingly friendly exterior couldn't hide the essence of "targeting."

This simple process took up almost a whole day of Inessa's time, and it wasn't until Wayne arrived that they were "just right" ready to let her go. According to the relevant clauses, the staff also had the right to require Inessa to cooperate an unlimited number of times "when they deemed it necessary," otherwise, it might leave a bad record.

In Wayne's view, this was someone silently hinting to the detective agency that "you've crossed the line," while also showing their energy--Inessa was originally going to "scout" the location of the local intelligence agency's contact point today, and now they are naturally the most suspected.

The other party not only had a grasp of some of the detective agency's internal personnel information but also noticed Inessa's specific movements today, so they were able to directly take targeted countermeasures. However, the other party was temporarily restrained, only giving the detective agency a painless little warning.

Inessa may not have seen through this little trick, but she chose not to embarrass those possibly innocent on-site staff:

"It was my mistake. I didn't expect our whereabouts to have been monitored. Originally, if I came again tomorrow, I was confident that I wouldn't be disturbed by irrelevant people again, but looking at today's situation, I guess the other party may have already started to transfer at that time, and that place may have lost its value. So I asked Liam and 'Chameleon' to try their best to shake off the surveillance and secretly keep an eye on it, and I came over myself."

Wayne also believed that this decision was correct. The detective agency and the local intelligence agency were not in a hostile relationship. Since the other party had already understood the detective agency's intentions and given face, continuing to entangle with them on the surface would seem a bit impolite.

For the time being, they could only give up following up on this line of the local intelligence agency and discuss subsequent solutions with the Tyrrell priest who provided the clue later.

However, after returning to the detective agency's temporary stronghold, Wayne quickly changed his mind.

Liam and "Chameleon" were originally "new faces" that Wayne had temporarily transferred from the detective agency's headquarters specifically to investigate the local intelligence agency. Their extraordinary abilities were also more suitable for performing surveillance and infiltration tasks.

They had previously participated in the capture of the assassination case's murderer group, but that was just a coincidence.

But unexpectedly, this brought unexpected gains.

"Chameleon" was obviously still brooding over the fact that he had let go of the assassination case's accomplice before, and may have even repeatedly recalled the details at that time by himself.

Therefore, he seemed quite excited when reporting the situation to Wayne:

"Boss, I saw the escaped criminal during the process of stalking those people transferring today!"

Wayne was a little confused at first and didn't know which criminal "Chameleon" was referring to.

But after "Chameleon" made it clear who the "criminal" was, Wayne almost crashed.

It was fine that the local intelligence agency didn't report the case at the beginning, but now they are secretly controlling the escapee named "Robert" from the assassination case's murderer group--according to the previous testimony of the assassination case group members, this guy should probably be called "Robert II," a emotional substitute for the original Robert.

What's going on?

Bishop, there are bad people in your area.