Legally, they are not; naturalized citizens are Americans, permanent resident aliens remain aliens.
There's certainly an argument to be made that they concept of a “permanent resident alien” is a an elaborate circumlocution for “disenfranchized citizen”, and that permanent residence and citizenship ought to be intrinsically linked (not saying I necessarily agree, but I've certainly seen a reasonable argument made), but there is a difference between ought to be and is.
Isn't a permanent resident immigrant somebody who has a green card? Surely to be considered American you need to be a citizen, which is separate from a green card.
I'm not american so very open to being wrong on this.
This hasn’t been true for a very long time (1997). I-551 Permanent Resident Cards issued since 2010 are labelled as “United States of America / Permanent Resident”, the word “alien” is not present on the document at all.
They're also immigrants. We're debating curbs on immigration. If those curbs continue to be implemented, people like those immigrants will not be future Americans.
In the American immigration system, permantent resident status is the final step before citizenship and permanent residents enjoy almost entirely the same rights as citizens, with a few notable exceptions. They’re absolutely not the same thing but permanent residence is not far from citizenship at all, permanent residents are effectively candidates for citizenship.
There's certainly an argument to be made that they concept of a “permanent resident alien” is a an elaborate circumlocution for “disenfranchized citizen”, and that permanent residence and citizenship ought to be intrinsically linked (not saying I necessarily agree, but I've certainly seen a reasonable argument made), but there is a difference between ought to be and is.