Trump’s escalating attacks on birthright citizenship, naturalized citizens, diversity visas, and immigrants from non-white countries reveal a coordinated effort to reshape America’s demographic and political landscape.
By Peter Imini
The Trump administration’s recent immigration actions aren’t isolated incidents—they’re pieces of a disturbing puzzle. When you step back and look at the full picture, a clear pattern emerges: a systematic effort to remake America as what immigration scholar Mae Ngai calls “a white Christian nation.”
Consider the escalation. During Trump’s first term, the administration pursued 25 denaturalization cases per year. Before that, the government averaged fewer than 15 cases annually for 15 years. Now? The administration is demanding 100 to 200 denaturalization cases per month—a staggering increase that Ngai describes as “an incredible escalation.”
Targeting the foundation of American citizenship
Trump isn’t just going after undocumented immigrants anymore. He’s attacking the constitutional bedrock of American citizenship itself. His executive order aims to end birthright citizenship for babies born to undocumented migrants and temporary immigrants—approximately 300,000 children each year. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case, putting over a century of constitutional precedent at risk.
Birthright citizenship has been established law since 1898, when the Supreme Court ruled in Wong Kim Ark that it applied to children of immigrants, including Chinese immigrants. The court recognized then that eliminating this protection would jeopardize the citizenship of all children of immigrants.
Yet Trump brazenly misrepresents history. He claims birthright citizenship “was meant for the babies of slaves” and suggests it wasn’t intended for others. The Supreme Court decisively rejected this narrow interpretation more than a century ago.
The diversity visa lottery: when “diversity” becomes a problem
Following a tragic shooting at Brown University and MIT involving a man who entered on a student visa in 2000 and later received a diversity visa, Trump suspended the entire diversity visa lottery program. Never mind that this program has operated for 35 years. Never mind that it affects 50,000 people annually who have no connection to violence.
The program’s origins reveal the real concern. Congress created the diversity lottery in 1990 hoping to bring in more white immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe. But many diversity visa recipients came from Africa and other non-European countries instead. There have been calls in Congress to eliminate it “because it’s not what it was intended for, which was to make the immigration stream more white.”
Weaponizing denaturalization for political control
Perhaps most chilling is how Trump has explicitly threatened to strip citizenship from political opponents. He openly stated he wanted to denaturalize Zohran Mamdani, who is a naturalized citizen born in Uganda. Mamdani’s crime? Supporting Palestinian rights.
This isn’t about fraud or criminal behavior—the traditional narrow grounds for denaturalization. Trump expanded those grounds in June to include vague categories like “association with gangs or cartels” and financial fraud. There’s concern about “their use of political difference with the Trump administration” as grounds for denaturalization, potentially targeting citizens who have spoken out against certain policies.
The administration is also spreading fear even where it lacks legal authority. While the government cannot unilaterally revoke citizenship—each case must be tried before a federal judge—the announcement of massive denaturalization quotas serves another purpose. As Ngai observes, it’s like the mass deportation program: even if they can’t meet their stated goals, “they have spread terror and fear throughout immigrant communities, and now that is going to spread to our fellow citizens who are naturalized.”
The rhetoric reveals the intent
Trump’s own words at recent rallies strip away any pretense. He admitted using the slur “sh–hole countries” in 2018, then doubled down, calling Somalia “filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.” He complained about taking people from Somalia instead of Norway, Sweden, or Denmark.
His attacks on Representative Ilhan Omar are particularly revealing. He mocked her appearance, repeated long-debunked conspiracy theories, suggested she’s in the country illegally, and encouraged crowds chanting “Send her back!” He declared that Somalis “contribute nothing” and “I don’t want them in our country.”
This isn’t about legal status or even behavior—Omar is a U.S. citizen and elected representative. It’s about origin, religion, and race. Trump wants immigrants from Nordic countries, not Africa. He attacks a Muslim congresswoman who criticizes him while praising European immigration.
Creating a permission structure
The Department of Homeland Security claims over 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the United States in the past year, including through a program offering $3,000 and free plane tickets to those who self-deport. Meanwhile, Trump has introduced the “Trump Gold Card”—a path to rapid residency starting at $1 million.
The message is clear: if you’re wealthy enough to pay, you’re welcome. If you’re from the “wrong” countries, you’re targeted for removal regardless of legal status. If you’re a naturalized citizen who speaks out politically, your citizenship itself may be at risk.
What it all means
These aren’t random policy decisions or responses to genuine crises. They’re coordinated attacks on multiple fronts: ending birthright citizenship, dramatically scaling up denaturalization, eliminating diversity immigration, and using explicitly racist rhetoric to justify it all.
As Ngai concludes, these actions are “just indices of the Trump administration’s bigger agenda, which is to make this country a white Christian nation.” The administration is attempting to fundamentally reshape who can be American—not through democratic debate and legislative action, but through executive orders, legal warfare against citizens, and the weaponization of fear.
The Constitution treats birthright and naturalized citizens equally. For over a century, America has recognized that citizenship isn’t contingent on where your parents came from or how much money you have. Trump’s systematic assault on these principles represents not just an immigration crackdown, but an attempt to redefine American identity itself—with the Supreme Court’s potential blessing.
The question isn’t just what Trump is doing. It’s whether Americans will recognize the pattern and defend the constitutional principles that make citizenship meaningful for everyone, regardless of origin, wealth, or political views.