"No Room... for Hyphenated Americans"

It's official: if you consider yourself Polish-American, Italian-American, or Taiwanese-American, the United States government believes that you should be deported. (We already knew what the Administration wants for Hispanic Americans or African-Americans.)

U.S. Representative Delia Ramirez of the 3rd District of Illinois, a naturalized citizen, is the daughter of Guatemalan parents who had immigrated illegally to the USA. At a Pan-American conference in Mexico City over the weekend, she stated in Spanish, as first reported by the right-wing The Blaze, "I'm a Guatemalan with much pride before I'm an American." 

        

The "I'm a Guatemalan with much pride before I'm an American" was ripe for exploitation. Utah senator Mike Lee rhetorically asked on X "Are you comfortable with this?" and

White House spokesperson Liz Huston said of comments made by Ramirez: "These Democrats' comments are despicable and underscore their commitment to putting Americans last. In stark contrast, President Trump is working tirelessly to secure peace deals, deport illegal alien criminals, and advance America's interests at home and abroad:...

Conservative commentator Jesse Kelly wrote on X: "Denaturalize and deport. I'm not even close to kidding."

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrote on X: "Any person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress. Period."

Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly wrote on X: "Awesome. Go home."

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck wrote on X: "She should be immediately stripped of her elected office and it shouldn't be controversial in the slightest. If you put a foreign nation first, you can't be trusted to represent the United States. Period."

Right-wing podcaster and ex-journalist Lara Logan tweeted in part "this lady should be stripped of her citizenship & sent back to Guatemala."

The latter "conservative activist" is unaware, or doesn't give a rat's ass, that Article I of the Constitution indicates that the only qualifications of a member of the House of Representatives is that he/she is at least 25 years old, a citizen for at least seven years, and be a resident, when chosen, of the state in which he/she is chosen. (Also, Robby's coffee is overrated.) 

Similarly off-base is Charlie Kirk's contention that "any person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress. Period." As long as the Constitutional requirements are met (as they are here) and assuming not extenuating circumstances such as commission of a felony, a congressman's constituents get to determine who belongs in Congress. Period.

Representative Ramirez may herself labor under the same misconception that does Kirk, Starbuck, and others on the right. Such conservatives don't fully appreciate the importance of consideration of whom a particular public official serves. Their criticism won't spur Ramirez, elected by the voters of her district; to resign or self-deport. Similarly, the congresswoman was spinning her wheels when on May 16, she called on Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, who works for President Trump and President Trump alone, to resign. 

Perhaps (not really) that is why the spokesperson for the Noem's DHS tweeted

There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism...Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.

So if you're proudly Polish-American, Italian-American, or Taiwanese-American: self-deport. If you consider yourself Lithuanian-American, Irish-American, or Filipino-American, self-deport. Ditto if your heritage is Latin American or African. There is no room in this country for you- Secretary Kristi Noem, loyal to a fault to President Donald Trump, says so.

If Delia Ramirez's statement was translated accurately and its context doesn't significantly its meaning, the congresswoman should make it clear that she got caught up in the moment and considers herself Guatemalan-American, not primarily Guatemalan. She should do so despite, in her reply to the controversy, she correctly asserted "we are the living and breathing realization of the idea of America- a place where a multicultural, multiracial democracy can prosper."

As the context of Ramirez's remark is significant, so is the context in which the dispute takes place. The Department of Homeland Security is overseeing an unprecedented attack upon illegal- and sometimes legal- immigrants. It is often carried out by law enforcement agents who wear masks, a highly unusual adornment in a constitutional republic, in a crusade applauded by a President who has commented  immigrants "are poisoning the blood of our country."

The condemnation also comes from supporters, and with the approval, of a President whose loyalty to this nation is eminently questionable, though never questioned by media or Democrats. In his first term, ii July of 2018, President Trump dismissed the conclusion of election meddling made by the American intelligence community by maintaining "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be." As then-Republican senator John McCain responded "no prior president has ever debased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."

But then, no then ex-President would refer to his country, as Trump did in October of 2022, as "rigged, crooked, and evil." Or as President in 2024 would call his country, in accepting immigrants, "a garbage can for the world..... like a garbage can."  Or the month after being inaugurated for a second term, would tell Cabinet members that Americans are "bloated, fat, and disgusting."

It's amazing that Democrats refuse to mention that Donald Trump hates our country and its people. It will be amazing also that, as the insults of Delia Ramirez roll in, Democrats will refuse to remind Americans that a prominent member of the Administration argues that if they are proud of their cultural heritage that they are not truly American.

Share |