Left Seethes As Trump Requires Immigrants To Like America

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Tuesday they are updating their guidance so that radical anti-American foreigners can’t receive a change in their status in the United States — a common sense change long overdue.

Days after the USCIS announced updated guidance requiring applicants for citizenship to show they are “worthy” of becoming U.S. citizens, the agency updated its policy for aliens applying for immigration benefits (like work permits, citizenship, green cards) so that officers not only take into account an alien’s compliance with immigration laws, but whether that alien “has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused the views of a terrorist organization or group, including those who support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies.”

Naturalization already requires an oath of fidelity to the Constitution, so the updated guidance merely reflects the last step in the formal citizenship process, but the usual suspects responded in shock that America would insist newcomers be pro-America if they wish to stay here or pursue citizenship.

Senior fellow at American Immigration Council Aaron Reichlin-Melnick posted on X that requiring aliens to support America is now “McCarthyism.”

Reichlin-Melnick says the term “Anti-America ideologies or activities” “has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump admin.”

CNN’s Jessie Yeung wrote an article citing “critics” who “liken [the update] to McCarthyism.”

Time’s Miranda Jeyaretnam framed it as “restrict[ing] immigration to the U.S. by some,” before saying the guidance is raising alarms “for critics who have raised concerns about the Trump administration appearing to inject more subjectivity and political bias into U.S. immigration.”

But these complaints expose the deeper problem. For decades, America’s immigration system has prioritized paperwork over principles. We’ve admitted foreigners based not on cultural compatibility or shared values, but on box-checking. The result has been a steady inflow of people who, in many cases, do not share allegiance to the nation they enter and therefore could never make good Americans.

Take, for example, people like Mahmoud Khalil, who we allowed to come here on a green card. Khalil thanked us by leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.

As reported by the New York Post, “Khalil and Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which has vowed to escalate its tactics ‘until the empire crumbles,’ were among those taking part in the campus takeover at the start of the school year.” Columbia United Apartheid Divest “sympathizes with terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah,” according to the outlet.

The group also seeks the “total eradication of Western civilization,” according to the New York Post.

Or take the case in Boulder, Colorado, where illegal alien Mohamed Sabry Soliman (from Egypt) allegedly burned several peaceful demonstrators while shouting “Free Palestine.” The Trump administration also detained Badar Khan Suri, whose wife is reportedly the daughter of a senior adviser to Hamas leadership. Suri’s wife has posted Hamas propaganda, including a post declaring “America is the plague,” according to the National Review.

The Founders understood this type of danger. As Alexander Hamilton warned, America’s survival depends on “the preservation of a national spirit and a national character.”

“To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens the moment they put foot in our country … would be nothing less, than to admit the Grecian Horse into the Citadel of our Liberty and Sovereignty.”

Thomas Jefferson likewise warned that immigrants “will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth,” and that, as a result, they “will infuse into [our legislation] their spirit, warp and bias its direction.” Jefferson recognized that a careless approach to immigration would eventually reshape America away from her founding character.

If Americans want America to survive, they must reclaim the moral clarity of the Founders and say, without apology, that not every idea deserves a seat at the table and not every person who wants to be in America deserves to be here.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2