Reply to Should Natural Born US Citizens have more rights than "Naturalized" US Citizens? Why or Why Not?

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[quote=Anonymous]Absolutely not.  Having a tiered system with second-class citizens is antithetical to the idea of equality that is central to our national identity.  If a naturalized citizen breaks the law, they can go to American jail as an American citizen, along with the natural born American criminals.

Moreover, the Constitution designates both those born in America and those naturalized as citizens, without expressing one route to citizenship as another.  If we allow Trump (or anyone) to say that birthright citizenship no longer applies or that naturalized citizens can have their citizenship revoked if they commit crimes, then nobody’s citizenship is guaranteed.  The definition of “crime” is a lot more flexible than the definition of citizenship.  Moreover, there is a set process to change the Constitution through amendment.  It isn’t easy or quick, and it was deliberately designed that way.  If we allow the government to override any part of the Constitution (which guarantees our freedom) without following the amendment process, the Constitution is broken and with its loss goes our freedom.

As for “national character”, I call BS.  What do you think is America’s national character - New York stockbrokers, California surfers, Kansas farmers, Texas roughnecks, Hollywood filmmakers, tech billionaires, etc.?  The national character of America is the melting pot.  We are a very large nation of immigrants and our culture reflects the melding of those who came here, whether voluntarily, involuntarily, or were here long before the pilgrims.  Aside from the Native Americans who were already here, early New York settlers were Dutch, Louisiana was colonized by the French, and the Spanish explorers starting with Columbus and followed by the conquistadors, left their marks on “the new world”, conquering much of what is now America.  Enslaved Africans brought their culture with them, and while much was lost, what remained was embedded in America’s character.  Wave after wave of immigrants has come to America, and while many were reviled at the time, they eventually melded into America, integrating parts of their cultures into the “American” culture and assimilating to the point that they could revile the next wave of “other” immigrants, at least until their culture had been similarly integrated in its turn.  This is the problem with all those aghast at “cultural appropriation” - it is actually the larger society recognizing value in something new and wanting to adopt it to enrich it’s own culture.  It’s the defining feature of American culture that we can find things to value in other cultures to add to our own, while respecting that we are all Americans and that our differences make us stronger.[/quote]

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