We are not well-served by our telegenic punditry class on cable TV nor our increasingly demagogic hucksters running for high office in order to gain power to tell us what to do. Particularly irksome is the collection of verbiage to avoid using “illegal immigrant” to refer to those who crossed our borders in violation of our laws. The rhetorical gymnastics are astounding, and misleading.
A favorite euphemism is the phrase “the undocumented”, meaning those “without papers”. Yes, in a superficial sense, these words work. Even “illegal immigrant” works, but all have an important ingredient missing. What’s absent is any indication that the objects of the phraseology are citizens. Yes, they are “citizens”, but not of here. These people are the citizens of other countries. They are not stateless people.
Putting it all together: “the undocumented” are citizens of other countries who willingly broke our laws to reside in our nation. The fact that they are the citizens of other countries puts the issue of what to do with them in an entirely new light.
So, extending universal health insurance coverage as some have proposed, subsidized by American citizens, to citizens of Guatemala (or any country for that matter) in our country in violation of our laws is an invitation for them to get here by any means available and partake of our fantastic medical professionals and facilities. American citizens get the honor of paying for the healthcare of Guatemala citizens. If the point is to rub away the distinction between foreign citizens and American ones, the idea accomplishes the feat in a quick stroke.
Trump’s citizenship question might have to be reworded. He’ll have to replace “United States” in front of “citizen” with “world” since U.S. citizens, functioning as taxpayers, become the world’s taxpayers for the world’s needy. Thus, “Are you a world citizen?”
I present the point not as mere sarcasm. If your concern is the treatment of a bleeding Guatemala citizen in our country in violation of our laws, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986 takes care of it. The hucksters, though, are brandishing cradle-to-grave healthcare for … Guatemala citizens, or any country’s citizens who happen to get here by any means available. American citizenship be damned.
Ludicrousness continues in the call for non-citizens to vote in local elections. Imagine the spectacle of city council elections turning into UN affairs. Citizens of Guatemala – or Honduras, El Salvador, Russia, etc. – if they account for a majority in a district due to the laxed enforcement of our immigration laws, get to tell US citizens what to do. So, nonmembers – national membership is the essence of citizenship – govern members. How does that make sense?
From now on, please clean up the language. All people are born in some country and therefore citizens of it – with but a few arcane exceptions. The anomalies are probably focused on the jet-set rich who can afford to be above it all. For the rest of us, citizenship goes with our presence on the earth. Let’s talk like we understand the fact.
RogerG