Despite what President Clinton said in the above directive, some plainly incompetent immigration officers began deporting longtime LPRs (i.e., potential Americans). Many of these legal immigrants were "firmly resettled" and non-deportable refugees, who statutorily qualified as Americans after continuously residing in the United States for at least 10 years without committing (in such years) any offense that triggers removability. This appears to be the reason why the permanent resident card (green card) is valid for 10 years. It was expected that all refugees in the United States would equally obtain U.S. citizenship within 10 years from the date of their lawful entry, but if that was unachievable then they would statutorily become "nationals but not citizens of the United States" after the successful elapsing of such continuous 10 years. This specific class of people owe allegiance solely to the United States, and that obviously makes them nothing but Americans. Anything to the contrary leads to "deprivation of rights under color of law," which is a federal crime.