The worst stuff despot Trump did on first day

By Philip Mudartha
Bellevision Media Network

24 Jan 2025: 

 

Trump delivers on campaign promises with lightning speed:

 

Within hours of his inauguration as President of the USA, Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) ending birth-right citizenship. The 14th amendment to the Constitution of USA which was enacted after the end of civil war in 1868 applies the principle of “right of soil” by which all children born in the country became American citizens and of the state where they resided.

 

 

Trump had promised on his campaign trail to limit birth-right citizenship to children who have at least one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident (green card holder). This EO reinterpreting the phrase “subject to jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment will spark a lengthy legal challenge that could define the president’s sweeping immigration agenda. It was quickly challenged in courts.

 

The EO would apply to babies born after February 19, 2025. It constitutes an extraordinary departure from the historic interpretation of the 14th Amendment. The children born to ‘ineligible” parents shall be stateless and would be deported to the country of origin of the parents along-with the parents.

 

Ironically, the order is titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”. Infants born to i) a mother who is unlawfully in the country and a father who is not a citizen or permanent resident, and infants born to ii) a mother who is authorized to be in the country for a temporary period of time (like work, student and tourist visas) and a father who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

 

Trump recognises only two genders, male and female. He defines parents as male and female “biological progenitors.”

 

Impact on Indians living, studying or working in the US:

 

Following are categories of visas Indians use to enter the US and live legally. Additionally, there are illegal residents who have entered without visas, mainly through Mexican border.

 

• H-1B (specialty occupation workers)

• H-4 (dependents of H-1B), F-1 (students)

• J-1 (exchange visitors)

• L-1 (intra-company transferees)

• L-2 (dependents of L-1)

• B-1 (business visitors)

• B-2 (tourists)

• O-1 (extraordinary ability)

• P-1 (athletes and entertainers)

• TN (NAFTA professionals)

 

The order does not affect existing green card holders. But there are thousands of applicants waiting in the queue due to the huge back-log. It will also affect future applicants. Hence, it is likely that Indian families may not seek permanent residency in the US.

 

Back-ground of 14th Amendment:

 

Dred Scott, (portrait affixed below) an enslaved African American, sought emancipation but was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ruled that African Americans were not citizens and could not sue for citizenship. The Missouri Compromise, which had declared free territories, was declared unconstitutional.

 

This court order led to civil war, between the Union (comprising liberal northern states) and Confederate states (comprising 13 conservative southern states). After the Union won the civil war, 14th Amendment was passed, repudiating the Supreme Court’s verdict dated March 6, 1857.

 

 

The political views of Trump and his MAGA base:

 

Trump and his voter base of very conservative Republicans believe in the “great replacement theory”. This is the racist conspiracy, which has been embraced by right-wing politicians in the US and Europe as well as Fox News.

 

The conspiracy avows that white Americans and Europeans are being actively “replaced” by non-white immigrants. It has inspired several shoot to kill incidents involving young white men targeting black people. The horrors these murders did not consign the conspiracy theory the fringes of the far right. Instead, the opposite has happened.

 

Where did the great replacement theory come from and how did it become so prevalent? It is not a new concept or a fringe concern. Rather, it is a fringe concern and a mainstream one, espoused by “lone wolf” mass shooters and prominent politicians. 61% of Trump voters and 53% of Fox News viewers believe it is true. It is the expression of racist and white supremacist ideology of centuries. Racist scaremongering over non-white immigrants supplanting white populations has been a factor of US immigration policy for more than a century.

 

 

The Native Americans are missing in the discourse:

 

The Indigenous people of North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, Africa and many other parts of the world, have been “replaced” by European colonial settlers. Today, the Native Americans are about 3% of the US population. It is only in 1924, they got US citizenship and the right to vote. Only they should cry out loud against the Nordic Anglo-Saxon white race who colonised the world but cast themselves as oppressed victims.

 

 

Give me your huddled masses:

 

In the US, the white population fell for the first time in history in the 2020 census. Proportionally, white Americans are at all-time low, making up 61.6% of the population, compared with 72.4% in 2010 and almost 90% in 1940. There were waves of immigration in the true spirit of the Statue of Liberty’s “give me your huddled masses” message to the world.

 

However, the replacement theorists draw an arbitrary line between themselves and subsequent immigrants. They assume that the new, non-white US immigrants will automatically vote Democratic.

 

 

Trump’s own assumption is that the children of immigrants who are to be born in the country too will vote Democratic. His EO is a tool to retain power in the hands of Anglo-Saxon white race.