NEW YORK (AP) — When Dauda Sesay first came to the United States after fleeing Sierra Leone’s civil war and spending nearly a decade in a refugee camp, he never thought he would become a citizen. However, I was told that if I followed the rules and didn’t cause any problems, I could apply after a few years. As a U.S. citizen, he would be protected.
That was what made him decide to apply, the premise and promise that if he became a naturalized American, there would be a bond between him and his new homeland. He will have not only rights but also responsibilities, such as voting. In other words, the country has a promise to him just as he has a promise to the country.
“When I raised my hand and took the oath of allegiance, at that moment I believed in the promise that I belonged,” said Sesay, 44. Sesay first arrived in Louisiana more than 15 years ago and now works as an advocate for refugees and their integration into American society.
But in recent months, that belief for Sesay and other naturalized citizens has been shaken as President Donald Trump reshapes the relationship between immigrants and immigrants. There are now concerns that efforts to significantly increase deportations and change who can claim the United States as home could be through: trying to end birthright citizenshipa ripple effect is starting to appear.
What they thought was the bedrock protection of naturalization now feels like quicksand.
What if they leave?
Some fear that naturalized citizens will be questioned or detained by U.S. border agents and worry that if they leave the country, they will have difficulty returning home. They wonder, “Do I need to do that?” lock down your phone Is it to protect their privacy? Some people are hesitant to move within the country, such as after hearing stories of American citizens who have been accused of being in the country illegally and who remain in detention. his mother produced his birth certificate.
Sesay said he no longer travels domestically without a passport, even though he has a REAL ID, which has strict federally mandated identity requirements.
Immigration raids are often carried out by masked, unidentified federal agents at the following locations: chicago and new york citywhich at times has dragged Americans into the dragnet. An American says he was detained twice by immigration officials filed a federal lawsuit.
Adding to the concerns, the Justice Department issued a memo this summer. say to intensify efforts Denaturalizing immigrants who have committed crimes or who are deemed to pose a national security risk. At some point during the summer, Trump threatened civil rights This is the story of Zoran Mamdani, 34, a naturalized democratic socialist and New York City mayoral candidate who became a naturalized youth.
Because of this atmosphere, some people are worried about talking about this publicly for fear of drawing negative attention to themselves. Requests for comment were reached through several community organizations and other connections, but no one other than Sesay was willing to go on the record.
New Mexico state Sen. Cindy Nava says she knows the fear all too well, having grown up undocumented before receiving DACA, the Obama-era program that protects people brought to the United States as children from deportation, and became a citizen through marriage. But they did not expect to see such fear among naturalized citizens.
“I had never seen those people be afraid…People I know who weren’t afraid before are now unsure of what their position is in terms of their safety net,” Nava said.
Stephen Kantrowitz, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said what citizenship means and who it includes has expanded and contracted over the course of American history. He said the word “people” was in the original constitution but was not defined.
“At the time the Constitution was written, no one knew what citizenship meant,” he says. “It’s a term of art, and it comes from the tradition of the French Revolution. It kind of suggests equality of members of a political community, and it has some meaning to the right to be a member of that political community. But it’s…very undefined.”
American immigration and its obstacles
The first naturalization law passed by the new nation’s parliament in 1790 stated that citizenship would be granted to “free white people” of good character. People of African descent or birthplace were added as a specific category to federal immigration law after the devastation of the Civil War in the 19th century. Also at this time, the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution to establish birthright citizenship.
At the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, laws were passed restricting immigration and, by extension, naturalization. The Immigration Act of 1924 effectively prohibited Asians who were neither white nor black from entering the country, as they were not eligible for naturalization. That remained the case until 1952, when the Immigration Act removed racial restrictions on who could be naturalized. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 replaced the previous immigration system with one that distributed visas equally among nations.
American history also includes periods in which former citizens were stripped of their citizenship, such as after the Supreme Court’s 1923 decision in United States v. Bhagat Singh Shinde. The ruling ruled that Indians could not be naturalized because they did not qualify as white people, leading to dozens of cases of non-naturalization. Sometimes they were ignored, such as during World War II when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps.
“Political powers may simply decide that a group of people, an individual, or a family does not have the right to citizenship,” Kantrowitz said.
Sesay says he felt betrayed at that moment.
“The United States of America, that’s what I swore the oath of allegiance to and that’s what I’m committed to,” Sesay said. “Right now, I’m feeling a change in my home country. … To be honest, that’s not the America I believe in when I put my hand on my heart.”
