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Citizenship is a Gift Eileen F. Toplansky

NO URL ORIGINAL ESSAY

As the demonic Democrats demand subservience to the god of Moloch, it is important to ponder the controversy surrounding the courts, illegal immigrants and free speech.

Judge Learned Hand was a political progressive, and an advocate of judicial restraint, who stated he could not “frame any definition that will explain when the Court will assume the role of a third legislative chamber and when it will limit its authority.”

In light of the partisan actions by Judge Boasberg and other judges who have worked overtime to stop Trump from deporting alleged members of Tren deAragua (a Foreign Terrorist organization), Boasberg should be vigorously reminded that “his court does not have jurisdiction over the president’s exercise of powers [.]” Boasberg has also forgotten Judge Hand’s reminder that a judge’s

“…utterances must be greater than any which his personal reputation and character can command, if it is to do the work assigned to it — if it is to stand against the passionate resentments arising out of the interests he must frustrate — for while a judge must discover some composition with the dominant trends of his times, he must preserve his authority by cloaking himself in the majesty of an overshadowing past.”

In fact, in Dennis v. United States, a plurality of Supreme Court Justices adopted Judge Hand’s view that “Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA, did not have a First Amendment right to free speech if his goal in organizing Antifa-style protestors was to overthrow the Constitution and set up a government which would not allow free speech.”

Moreover, those who defend the establishment of a sharia-compliant community in Plano, Texas in order to establish a totalitarian Islamic caliphate are embracing the very antithesis of American Constitutional law.

Meir Y. Soloveichik has written “What to do with a Bad Guest” and cogently explains why the arguments coming from the Left are baseless.

“We are hearing from many that [deporting Mahmoud Khalil] amounts to a criminalization of free speech solely for his views regarding Israel. The problem with this description is that it is doubly incorrect.

“First: To deport a radical pro-Hamas activist is to do so in the knowledge that those representing such positions on college quads not only dislike Israel. They also hate America. Indeed, the very organization Khalil represented, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, has openly stated that it seeks ‘the total eradication of Western civilization. The sympathy with Hamas is the symptom; hatred of the West is the disease.”

Moreover, “Khalil—like all others fighting deportation relating to these statutes—has issued many public declamations through his lawyers, but he has never, as part and parcel of their public defense, put forward two simple statements: that he hates Hamas and that he loves America. The refusal to state the former, of course, is linked to his inability to express the latter [.]”

Thus, “[f]or the Secretary of State to cite statutes allowing deportation of those who espouse support for terror, and who pose a threat to America’s foreign policy, is to emphasize the fact that individuals like Khalil seek the end of America itself.”

In addition, “[t]he second mistake—that deportation is a criminalization of speech—follows from the first. Khalil is being detained only because he has been told to leave these shores and he has refused.”

“As the Supreme Court has clarified, ordering a noncitizen to leave your country is not a criminal punishment. This was made clear by Justice Robert Jackson in 1952, in Harisiades v. Shaughnessy, a case about an individual deported on the grounds of being ‘a member of an organization which advocates overthrow of the government by force.’

“Jackson asserted that ‘[i]t is thoroughly established that Congress has [the] power to order the deportation of aliens whose presence in the country it deems hurtful. The determination by facts that might constitute a crime under local law is not a conviction of crime, nor is the deportation a punishment; it is simply a refusal by the government to harbor persons whom it does not want.

Consequently, “[h[ow is it a punishment to order a guest in your country—or a green-card holder like Khalil, who is here because of the graciousness of the United States—to leave a land he hates? Indeed, how is such an order anything other than a country reflecting basic self-respect and self-preservation for its own future?”

In fact, citizenship is a gift and under President Harry S. Truman, “the third Sunday in May each year has been set aside as Citizenship Day. It is a reminder

“WHEREAS our numerous citizens of foreign birth have shown loyalty and fidelity to their new citizenship in the performance of all the tasks which helped to bring the final and complete victory over the enemies of the country which these citizens have made their own by naturalization;

In a nutshell, to become a United States citizen, immigrants have to study and honor the Constitution.

To those politicians, NGOs, judges, lawyers, and activists who shelter illegals, I say “hold your heads in shame”. Despite illegal immigration’s terrifying cost, and the sheer insanity

of illegal immigration, you have forgotten or are simply indifferent to the oath an immigrant must declare.” You reflect the Western spiritual sickness afflicting our nation.

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;

“that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;

“that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law;

“that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law;

“and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

Since illegals broke American immigration law, that should suffice for their deportation. That they engage in the most egregious of crimes against Americans, only cements the fact that they need to be ejected from the country. In essence, as Judge Hand asserted

“If the prosecution of crime is to be conducted with so little regard for that protection which centuries of English law have given to the individual, we are indeed at the dawn of a new era; and much that we have deemed vital to our liberties, is a delusion.

Our legislators and judges need to be reminded of Judge Learned Hand’s 1944 speech titled “I Am an American” wherein he wrote

We have gathered here to affirm a faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same. For this reason we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land. What was the object that nerved us, or those who went before us, to this choice? We sought liberty; freedoms from oppression, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves [and] in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country.

Roadblocks prevent Trump from deporting millions of illegal immigrants Local judges and officials aren’t the only obstacle to Trump’s immigration enforcement Charles Lipson

https://thespectator.com/topic/roadblocks-prevent-trump-from-deporting-millions-of-illegal-immigrants/

“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” So goes the bartenders’ refrain to customers at closing time. The Trump administration is issuing that same call to millions of illegal immigrants, beginning with the most violent (and those caught staying with them). You can’t stay here.

It’s a wildly popular stance, but it is running into predictable problems.

The first is that rounding up the millions here illegally is costly, time-consuming and sometimes dangerous. That problem was vastly increased by Joe Biden’s deliberate decision to open the southern border, allow millions of people to cross it illegally and then lie to the public and Congress about what his administration was doing.

President Biden, Vice President Harris and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas repeatedly said the border was “closed and secure” when they knew it was not. Mayorkas said it in sworn testimony to Congress. These weren’t just lies; they were stupid lies because voters could see the increasing problems and the obvious deceit.

Second, while Biden ignored the laws protecting our borders and did so with legal impunity, the immigrants gained rights of due process once they arrived on American soil. Again, the Biden administration failed in its basic responsibilities, with considerable support from the entire Democratic Party. The Biden administration could have detained these illegal immigrants at the border, which would have facilitated swift, legally appropriate deportation. They chose not to. Instead, they released almost all the illegal arrivals into the country’s interior. Some were given instructions to return in several years for court hearings. Some were simply released with no instructions or documentation.

Those policies swamped states and localities with new, illegal residents and vast expenditures for schools, housing, healthcare, crime prevention and more. The “sanctuary” policies of many blue cities and states invite them to come and stay. One unanticipated result has been a deepening cleavage within the Democratic Party, pitting progressives (who favor the influx without ever saying the word “illegal”) and minority voters who rely on jobs and government services that are under greater pressure.

DOJ Investigating Human Trafficking Operation Involving Deported ‘Maryland Man’ Kilmar Abrego Garcia By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/07/doj-investigating-human-trafficking-operation-involving-deported-maryland-man-kilmar-abrego-garcia/

The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating a human trafficking operation involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged MS-13 gang member and wife-beater who was deported to El Salvador in March, sparking outrage among Democrats.

As American Greatness previously reported, Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) caught Abrego Garcia driving a van full of suspected illegal aliens in Tennessee on November 30,  2022. Abrego Garcia, who did not have a valid driver’s license or proof of insurance, was caught speeding midway through a trip with seven passengers from the Texas border to Maryland. Garcia reportedly told police they’d been working construction in Missouri. THP detained the crew until the FBI under then-Director Christopher Wray directed the officers to release them, law enforcement sources told the Tennessee Star, last month.

Now ABC News reports that federal investigators have recently questioned a convicted felon in at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama, about his connections to Abrego Garcia.

The inmate, Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes(38), was the registered owner of the van Abrego Garcia was driving when he was stopped by THP in late 2022. With a lawyer present and the promise of partial immunity, Hernandez-Reyes reportedly told federal investigators that he had hired Garcia on “multiple occasions” to transport illegal aliens from Texas to various locations in the United States.

Hernandez-Reyes, who allegedly met Garcia in 2015, told investigators that he had previously operated a “taxi service” based in Baltimore.

Garcia crossed the border into the United States illegally in 2011 and claimed he had to flee El Salvador to escape gang violence when he was arrested in 2019.

Body camera footage of the 2022 traffic stop shows a Tennessee trooper telling a fellow officer “he’s hauling these people for money.”

Despite their well founded suspicions, and the fact that Garcia was driving without a valid license or proof of insurance, Abrego Garcia and his passengers were allowed to drive on with just a warning.

We Don’t Need an Executive Order to Bar Illegals from Social Security—We Need a Government That Obeys the Law If it takes an executive order to enforce laws that already bar illegal immigrants from Social Security, the problem isn’t policy—it’s a government that’s given up on enforcement. By Maureen Steele

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/02/we-dont-need-an-executive-order-to-bar-illegals-from-social-security-we-need-a-government-that-obeys-the-law/

In what universe does it make sense that the President of the United States has to sign an executive order to stop illegal aliens from receiving Social Security benefits? That’s not just an absurd headline—it’s a tragic indictment of how far this nation has strayed from the rule of law, common sense, and constitutional integrity.

Let’s get one thing straight: illegal immigrants are already barred from receiving Social Security benefits. Full stop. It’s enshrined in federal law, constitutional precedent, and the very fabric of what it means to be a sovereign nation. Yet here we are, once again watching a president step in with a pen to “reaffirm” what is already carved into stone.

Under Section 1611 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 1382c), individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States are categorically ineligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) explicitly excludes most non-citizens from federal means-tested public benefits. And let’s not forget 8 U.S.C. § 1611, which states unequivocally, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law…an alien who is not a qualified alien…is not eligible for any Federal public benefit.”

Translation: They’re already prohibited.

So why does Trump need to sign an executive order? Because we are no longer a nation governed by laws—we are a nation governed by selective enforcement, political cowardice, and bureaucratic betrayal.

While illegals exploit the system through loopholes crafted by activist judges and globalist legislators, hardworking Americans who’ve paid into Social Security their entire lives are being told the well is running dry. They’re mocked with headlines about “entitlement reform” and threatened with benefit cuts, while watching their tax dollars fund services for people who have no legal right to be here.

Immigrant Education Trump admin revokes 4K foreign students’ visas in first 100 days, nearly all with serious criminal records More than 500 of the foreign students whose visas were revoked reportedly had assault records By Danielle Wallace , Bonny Chu

https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-admin-revokes-4000-foreign-students-visas-first-100-days-nearly-all-serious-criminal-records

The State Department revoked the visas of 4,000 foreign students – 90% of whom have serious criminal records – during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

“Our visa system has lacked oversight and accountability,” a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital. “Over the past 100 days, the Trump Administration has worked to fix a broken system.”

“Secretary [Marco] Rubio has led the State Department to take a surgical vetting approach to ensure individuals in America as visitors are abiding by ours laws,” the source said. “We established an action working group, which has resulted in thousands of visas being revoked because these individuals broke our laws. This is what effective governance looks like.”

Those serious crimes included arson, wildlife and human trafficking, child endangerment, domestic abuse, driving under the influence and robbery, according to the New York Post, which first reported the number. 

More than 500 of those impacted students whose visas were revoked have criminal assault records, according to the Post. 

“They came, and they were breaking the law with no consequences,” a source said to the Post. “We set up a special action team to handle this.”

The Real Crisis Slithering Through Our Southern Border The deliberate and strategic entry of Sharia-followers into the United States. by Aynaz Anni Cyrus

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-real-crisis-slithering-through-our-southern-border/

While the media drowns in humanitarian headlines and border numbers, the real threat crossing our southern border isn’t families fleeing hardship—it’s trained, ideological operatives with a mission: infiltrate, embed, and one day, execute. You won’t hear this from CNN. But if you’ve been watching closely, you already know what’s happening. FBI and DHS whistleblowers have confirmed that individuals tied to Islamist extremist groups—like Hezbollah and al-Shabaab—have already been apprehended at the southern border. These aren’t anomalies. They’re waves. And for every one caught, how many have slipped through undetected? Border Patrol agents have encountered individuals on the terror watchlist, while others have been flagged through encrypted communications, suspicious financial transfers, and travel patterns consistent with jihadist activity. Behind every name on a list are likely dozens more who entered unnoticed—blending into migrant caravans, using fake documents, and crossing through overwhelmed checkpoints.

But it doesn’t stop at entry. Once inside the United States, these Islamists don’t immediately turn to violence. They embed. They build communities, establish networks, infiltrate cultural spaces, and slowly worm their way into education systems, activist circles, and even local politics. This isn’t speculation—it’s strategy. This is classic sleeper cell methodology: stay quiet, stay legal, wait, then act. It’s what we saw before 9/11, and it’s what we’re seeing again. The hijackers didn’t sneak in under the cover of night—they came through the front door, legally, and waited until the moment was right.

Today, with a wide-open border and vetting protocols gutted in the name of political correctness, we’re facing the perfect storm for Islamist infiltration. These aren’t war refugees. They’re ideological foot soldiers exploiting our broken asylum system and progressive sanctuary policies to get inside. They don’t just want to live here—they want to change us from within. Through courts, classrooms, policy manipulation, and, eventually, through acts of terror.

These actors are highly trained. They know how to play the system, how to cloak their intentions in victimhood, how to mobilize identity politics, and how to silence critics with accusations of “Islamophobia.” But this isn’t about faith—it’s about conquest. This isn’t religious persecution—it’s a coordinated campaign of national subversion. Once inside, they’re not hiding in caves—they’re attending mosques, starting businesses, joining local boards, and laying the groundwork for something far darker. They don’t need to rush. Time is on their side.

The legal case to deport Mahmoud Khalil of “Columbia University Apartheid Divest” is airtight

https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-legal-case-to-deport-mahmoud-khalil.html

When you read the relevant US codes, the case to deport Mahmoud Khalil is unassailable.

U.S. immigration agents arrested Khalil,  Palestinian graduate student who acted as a leader of the Columbia University group that led pro-Hamas protests.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that Khalil was apprehended “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” alleging his involvement in “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” 

What are the legal grounds for the arrest?

Khalil a US permanent resident with a green card. 

According to 8 U.S. Code § 1227 – Deportable aliens, “Any alien who is described in subparagraph (B) or (F) of section 1182(a)(3) of this title is deportable.”

The relevant part of those subparagraphs say: a political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity;

There is no question that Khalil is a representative of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD.) He represented CUAD in negotiations with Columbia a number of times; he was interviewed on TV numerous times as its lead negotiator, he is described as one of CUAD’s leaders. 

Report: Deported MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Was Detained For Human Trafficking in 2022 By Debra Heine

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/17/report-deported-ms-13-gang-member-kilmar-abrego-garcia-was-detained-for-human-trafficking-in-2022/

New evidence has emerged that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged MS-13 gang member and wife-beater who was deported to El Salvador last month, engaged in human trafficking several years ago.

In an exclusive report, the Tennessee Star reported Wednesday that in December 2022, Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) caught Garcia smuggling seven suspected illegal aliens in a van in Tennessee. Garcia and the seven individuals were allegedly caught midway through their trip from the Texas border to Maryland. THP detained the crew until the FBI under then-Director Christopher Wray directed THP to release them.

The Star obtained information about the stop, “including the identity of the THP officer, the officer’s badge number, and the Computerized Dispatch Report code assigned to the incident.”

During the nearly two-hour traffic stop, “an officer determined that Abrego Garcia was operating the vehicle without a valid driver’s license and began searching for information about him,” according to the Star’s THP sources.

The sources also indicated that someone in the car, possibly Garcia himself, may have been on a terrorist watch list.

The officers on the scene called the FBI, who instructed them “to capture photographs of all eight people in the vehicle and document its contents.”

After the photos were taken, according to a THP source, the FBI directed the officers to “release all eight individuals.” The THP officers then complied with this request despite their concern that  Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking and driving without a license, a misdemeanor offense in Tennessee.

Mass Hearings and Due Process by Zoom: A Modest Judicial Proposal Court orders demanding Trump reverse a deportation highlight escalating judicial interference in immigration and foreign policy, raising questions about constitutional overreach. By Roger Kimball

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/20/mass-hearings-and-due-process-by-zoom-a-modest-judicial-proposal/

The tsunami of court orders that has been washing over the Trump administration—he “can’t do this,” he “must do that”—has me wondering where it all will end. Will the multifarious injunctions, restraining orders, and appeals finally paralyze Trump’s agenda? An agenda, I hasten to point out, on which he was elected, so, given the strength of his victory, it is also the American people’s agenda.

I don’t know. The attacks have been extraordinary not only in number but also in depth. The president and his lieutenants have, in effect, been told that they cannot hire and fire whom they wish or enter into or terminate what contracts they wish; in some cases, they are even forbidden to know what payments have been made by the agencies they nominally direct. Law enforcement and foreign policy are, or at least used to be, executive branch responsibilities. But the courts have gone to extraordinary lengths to insinuate themselves into those processes.

On April 4, Paula Xinis, a Maryland district court judge appointed by Barack Obama, ordered that the Trump administration must “facilitate and effectuate the return of Plaintiff Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States by no later than 11:59 PM on Monday, April 7, 2025.”

As all the world knows, Garcia, an illegal alien, had been sent to enjoy the hospitality of El Salvador in March. It turns out that his deportation to El Salvador had been a mistake, an “administrative error.” This was not because he did not deserve to be deported. He most certainly did. However, he had previously been granted “withholding of removal” status by a judge in 2019 because, though El Salvador was his native land, he said he was threatened by gang members of MS-13 there. That meant that while Garcia could be deported, he could not be deported to El Salvador.

There are several ironies in the case. One is that MS-13, once a scourge of El Salvador, has been effectively neutered there by Nayib Bukele, the president. Indeed, Bukele has transformed El Salvador from “the murder capital of the world” into one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Democrats’ Bizarrely Misplaced Empathy Ben Shapiro

https://pjmedia.com/benshapiro/2025/04/17/democrats-bizarrely-misplaced-empathy-n4939001

This week, Democrats decided to expend their quickly diminishing political capital in defense of a deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Garcia was deported to El Salvador some weeks ago; the Department of Justice initially admitted that his deportation was an “administrative error.” It turns out that Garcia had an order withholding removal to his home country, due to his claims that returning to El Salvador would risk his life. Nonetheless, the administration flew him to that country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, where he is apparently being held to date.

Initially, a district court judge ruled that Abrego Garcia’s removal was violative of due process, and that the administration had to “facilitate” his return to the United States. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court, which found 9-0 that while the executive branch likely had the power to order his deportation, it still had to follow court orders to “facilitate” his temporary return for due process reasons. The Trump administration, for its part, claims that it has already “facilitated” his release from custody — that they’ve asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele nicely to release him, and that Bukele has refused. Bukele sat in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and said just that: “The question is preposterous: how can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”

Regardless of the legal wrangling over the case — and there is in fact a solid legal basis to the idea that the administration ought to temporarily return Abrego Garcia just to receive a court hearing, after which he can be deported right back again — Democrats have wrong-footed themselves yet again. This week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., decided to fly down to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia; other Congressional Democrats vowed to do the same. In their telling, Abrego Garcia is an innocent caught up in the mills of wrongheaded justice.