Hmmm.... read his post again. Slowly.
A resident is not an illegal immigrant. A resident is someone who can live, and WORK in the US. They have a RESIDENT visa, a SS#, they pay taxes and are entitled to all the same benefits a citizen is. The only thing they can NOT do is vote, and be a Captain on a US flagged vessel. And I think be an employee of the FBI/NSA and CIA... but I'm not sure about that.
This is the heritage of marine law that dates waaaay back. At this point it makes no sense, but that happens. By comparison you do NOT need to be a US citizen to be the Captain on a US flagged airplane, either in domestic or flag (international) operations.
And I wasn't. I immigrated in 1982 from The Netherlands, legally, had my resident visa and was happily piloting an aircraft for a major US airline until ...... 9/11. Suddenly things got mighty restrictive. The company had to submit to the FAA every time a non-citizen went into a simulator for training, customs got nasty and so on and so forth. Typical knee jerk reaction but that's another story. I know the folks in the marine business saw the same, take the TWIC card for instance.
So I did the thing and me and 1000 other fine folks stood there with a little stars and stripes in our hands and recited the pledge of allegiance, well I did, and one other guy, most people mumbled something, and whopdeedoo we're a son of Uncle Sam.
Ironically at the time I had no intention of being a boat captain, now with retirement looming and a bunch of shirts with epaulettes in the closet..... you never know. I have an expired 6 pack, gonna have to renew that and may have to test Pascals theory that you can't sell a sunset cruise to 6 or less people..... I won't have to do it to make a living, but if I can make enough to fill up the tanks for my winter trek to Florida that would be pretty cool.