American citizenship could soon look very different

Nearly four months into his second term, it’s becoming clear that President Donald Trump’s xenophobic views on immigration are reshaping what it means to become a US citizen. His vision tilts heavily toward the wealthy and well-to-do, with special shortcuts for them and barriers to entry for the rest — particularly the world’s refugees and asylum seekers.

There’s Trump’s proposal for $5 million “gold visa” cards, the prototype of which is literally Trump’s visage and Lady Liberty emblazoned on a golden rectangle. The cards would allow, in Trump’s words, “very high-level people” a “route to citizenship.” One goal of the gold card is to cut years off the typical vetting process, producing residency in as little as two weeks.

Then there are the hefty deterrents for everyone else. New and escalating fees, proposed in the GOP’s House budget bill, would quickly diminish the chances of entry for lower-income immigrants or refugees. A $3,500 fee would be slapped on unaccompanied minors.

Anyone seeking a work permit would have to pay $550. And asylum applications, previously free, would cost $1,000 each. Most refugees and asylum seekers arrive in the US with few possessions and even less cash. Until now, those with valid claims have depended heavily on modest federal resettlement stipends to ease their transition. And while it remains a long shot, Trump’s challenge to the Constitution’s promise of birthright citizenship is an important declaration by this administration that it wants to determine who can become a citizen.

Trump would deny citizenship to children born to parents who are undocumented or who are here lawfully but on a temporary student or work visa. Some 2 million foreign nationals are here on such visas. Trump’s case goes to the Supreme Court later this month, and depending on the outcome, a new subclass of Americans could be created — born here, but never fully belonging. Finally, there was this little-noticed move amid a flurry of other executive orders: Trump in February had the Justice Department create a Denaturalisation Section dedicated to stripping immigrants of their US citizenship.

Such cases, the department has said, would have no statute of limitations. There are more than 24 million naturalized citizens in the U.S., all of whom have traveled a long path through the immigration bureaucracy to get where they are. This project follows up on some of Trump’s first-term efforts, when his Justice Department ordered investigations of 700,000 naturalised citizens for possible infractions (few of which were ever completed). Later in his term, Trump created an Office of Denaturalisation. In 2023, Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff to the president, said that under a second term, denaturalization efforts would be “turbocharged.”

Taken together, these new polices would create a more mutable type of citizenship, no longer rooted in birthplace, or in the arduous and lengthy task of proving one’s worth. It is a dramatic turn for a nation that, nearly since its inception, has welcomed immigrants and is now home to one-fifth of the world’s international migrants. Such a shift would hurt this country. Running immigrants through a wealth filter would cost us the drive, persistence and ingenuity that newcomers have brought to this country throughout its history.

There is no filter for such intangibles. Offering the super-rich a fast-track to citizenship would also shorten the vetting process which is, after all, an important security measure. When Trump was asked about whether Russian oligarchs or other unsavory types might take advantage of his gold card, Trump replied, “Possibly,” adding, “Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are nice people.”

And it would diminish the US itself. For nearly 250 years this country has stood as a beacon of freedom and hope — and has reaped the rewards. The stories of impoverished refugees and immigrants who go on to contribute to the nation’s well-being are legion.

Trump’s vision of US citizenship seems to grow out of his views on immigration more broadly. But it should alarm all Americans, even the many who support his more popular efforts, such as securing a border that had become too porous under President Joe Biden; arresting and deporting criminals; and focusing on the human and drug trafficking that makes insecure borders so dangerous. Anti-immigrant sentiment has run like a bright thread through Trump’s public life since he started his first campaign for president. In his first term, he cracked down on legal immigration far more than illegal, sending the number of green cards and temporary visas (known formally as non-immigrant visas) plummeting.

In a meeting midway through his first term, Trump famously inquired why the country should admit immigrants from “all these (expletive) countries,” such as Haiti, El Salvador and African nations. He suggested more immigrants from countries such as Norway, or Asian countries that he believed helped the US economically. There have long been signs that Trump’s goal is to rid this country of those he considers undesirable. For now, that would seem to turn on one’s wealth — or lack of it. Soon it could be whatever else Trump finds objectionable.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, has been imprisoned for five weeks since masked ICE agents arrested her in Somerville, Massachusetts. Her only infraction was co-writing a student op-ed for the school newspaper that was at odds with the Trump administration’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza. Mohsen Mahdawi, a permanent resident, attended what he thought was a naturalisation interview in April and was promptly arrested for his political views on the Israel-Hamas war. A judge freed him from federal custody last week, but he still faces possible deportation. In an op-ed for the New York Times, Mahdawi said that “When they look at my case, all Americans should ask themselves: what is left of our democracy and who will be targeted next?”