It's Time to Talk About Paperwork Americans ｜ 8⧸7⧸25
Episode Stats
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Summary
Rep. Delia Ramirez was born to an illegal immigrant mother who crossed the U.S. border while pregnant and secured birthright citizenship for her daughter. Rep. Ramirez, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, helps to shape policies vital to the nation s safety, yet she openly and proudly identifies with another country and in a foreign language.
Transcript
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At a recent Pan-American Congress in Mexico City, Representative Delia Ramirez of Illinois
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stood before attendees and declared in Spanish, I'm a proud Guatemalan before I'm an American.
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Ramirez, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, helps to shape policies vital to the
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nation's safety, yet she openly and proudly identifies with another country, and in a foreign
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language, no less. Ramirez is far from alone. She's part of a growing class of politicians who treat
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their American citizenship as a formality. Many are first-generation immigrants, but Ramirez isn't
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even that. She was born to an illegal immigrant mother who crossed the border while pregnant
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and secured birthright citizenship for her daughter. On paper, Ramirez is American. In every other way,
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she's not. The immigration debate has forced Americans to confront the deeper question of
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national identity. Nearly everyone agrees the southern border should be closed to illegal aliens.
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But views on legal immigration vary widely, and those differences often rest on whether people
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believe the United States is a quote-unquote propositional nation. The idea holds that America
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is defined not by shared heritage or culture, but by a set of abstract principles. According to this
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view, anyone who completes the paperwork and swears an oath is just as American as someone whose ancestors
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fought in the Revolutionary War. The problem is, no one is ever denaturalized and deported for rejecting
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the proposition. New citizens can, and often do, criticize or outright deny basic American values.
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They can declare loyalty to foreign governments while holding office in the United States. And
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because citizenship confers to First Amendment protections, they face no consequences for doing
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so. This turns the entire idea of a propositional nation into a joke. Ramirez herself is not an
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immigrant. She was born under the current understanding of the 14th Amendment. Her mother, in violation of
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U.S. law, crossed the border while pregnant. No agreement to any American proposition was required.
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Ramirez acquired the legal status of an American and the constitutional right to reject the nation
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that gave it to her. There is no ideological connection, cultural tie, or apparent love of the country.
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Only the paperwork remains. Now, immigration skeptics have long warned that newcomers often bring with
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them foreign loyalties. Critics dismiss such concerns as racist, even when examples pile up.
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Today, those examples speak for themselves. Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has described
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Somalia as her real homeland and addressed Somalian crowds in their native language, pledging to fight
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for their interests. Omar Fatah, or however you're supposed to say it, likely the next mayor of
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Minneapolis speaks the same way. These are not the words of people who are assimilating. These are
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declarations of divided loyalty. So you said this would be the summer of you. But then you remembered you
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have kids and now you spend every sunny day at water parks and petting zoos. So be it. We do the prep so you
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can get your you time back with freshly prepared ready for you dishes from Sobeys.
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During the Los Angeles anti-ice riots in June, protesters waved Mexican flags, burned cars,
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and attacked police. Many were illegal immigrants, but many others were citizens, some born in the
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United States who were openly calling for the reconquest of California in the name of Mexico.
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President Claudia Schimbom of Mexico even claimed the rioters as her own, describing them as fellow
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Mexicans and calling on them to pressure the U.S. government to change laws that affected Mexico's
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economy. The president of Mexico sees through the paperwork. She knows who her people really are.
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But Americans, for some reason, continue to pretend that the paperwork alone tells the whole story.
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And after all of this controversy, after all of this blowback for her remarks, Representative Ramirez,
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she didn't apologize. She didn't back down. She doubled down. She said anybody who pointed out the
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obvious fact that she was declaring her loyalty to a foreign country, anybody who noticed that fact,
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they must be racist, white supremacists, of course, and nativists. Well, yeah, actually, I am a
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nativist. I think that America should belong to Americans. I don't think people who are declaring
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their allegiance to foreign countries who only have citizenship because their parents broke the law
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and are now obviously totally disrespectful and disgraceful and disgusting in the way they
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approach my country. I don't think that they should be in charge of my country. So yes, I am a nativist.
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I think it makes sense when the people of the United States are taken care of by people of the United
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States who care about the people of the United States, not Guatemala, people who don't go to foreign
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countries and declare their allegiance to them and then come back and call the people of this country
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racist and nativist white supremacists. Whatever. Get deported. Get out of here.
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Look, the debate over American identity will continue for a long time to come, but the modern
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definition clearly isn't working and something new will be required and that means having a tough
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conversation. If we can't candidly discuss who belongs in this nation and why, we'll never resolve
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the issue. And this goes doubly for the right who's terrified of being called a racist or a xenophobe or
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a nativist, any of this garbage. In the meantime, we should at least agree on one thing. No one who
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openly declares loyalty to another country should hold public office in the United States. The idea that
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a sitting congresswoman can say that she belongs to Guatemala before she belongs to America and face
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no consequences is absolutely insane. A nation that tolerates this cannot endure. A nation that
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refuses to expel such people, not just from office, but from its borders is already dying. We treat this
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behavior as acceptable. In reality, it's a form of treason. Paperwork alone does not make someone an
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American. The people exploiting our system understand this. They aren't confused. They're mocking us.
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Unless we find a courage to act, they're going to keep doing it. So send them back every last one.
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