“Upon Becoming an American”

I guess I am going to lose some of my writer reputation now as I look at the aspect of how certain “legal” migrants in San Antonio, Texas were treated by the governor in Florida. These people did not sneak into the US. They were granted asylum after presenting themselves to border guards, registered in the system, and released to a shelter. In turn they were scammed by a representative sent by Florida’s Governor DeSantis to go to Massachusetts where jobs, additional money etc. supposedly waited for them.

Of course, DeSantis used Florida taxpayer funds Covid funds (illegally) to pay $600,000 for the plane trip and also fund other needs besides promises of jobs, etc.. At Martha’s Vinyard, the one who convinced them to go, Perla abandoned them. The people of Martha’s Vinyard opened up their shelter, bedding, food, etc. for them. A tale of two cities, one in Florida and another in Massachusetts. The issue of migrants coming to the US and Florida transferring them to Martha’s Vinyard may indeed help them. A sheriff’s certification of ‘unlawful criminal restraint’ would give them a path for U-visa, which usually leads to a green card.

The question still remains of whether we are overcrowded in the US.

  • Twenty twenty-one is the first year since 1937 the U.S. population grew by fewer than one million people. The lowest numeric growth since at least 1900 (Census Bureau began annual population estimates).
  • Apart from the last few years, when population growth slowed to historically low levels, the slowest rate of growth in the 20th century was from 1918-1919 amid the influenza pandemic and WW I.
  • The U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2021 Population Estimates released December 2021 reveals the population grew 0.1%.
  • Statistical Replacement Rate in 2020 fell to 1,637.5 births per 1,000 women and down from 1.7 births per 1,000 women in 2019. Unless there is increased and younger population, the nation could have economic issues as a growing portion of the population ages out.
  • Slower population growth has been a trend in the United States for several years. The trend comes from decreasing fertility and net international migration, combined with increasing mortality due to an aging population.
  • Politically, larger populated states could lose representation. If immigrants were removed from the population count; Florida, Texas, and California would each lose one House Representative.
  • Immigration to the United States from other countries typically results in population growth.

I believe the fear of immigrants is due to the decreasing percentage of white to people of color and ethnicity. We really do need more and younger people.

The following story after my long diatribe kind of gets to the nitty-gritty of being an American.

Becoming American,” Digby’s Hullabaloo (digbysblog.net), Tom Sullivan

Tom Sullivan at Digby’s Hullabaloo, details the self awareness of being an American regardless of politics, opinions, and beliefs. This is so simple to realize, an awakening no one else can take from you.

A NYT cartoon addresses a still-contested question

Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Christian nationalists accept as given that one becomes a Christian by being “saved” (infant baptism for Catholics). They are much more stingy about what it takes to become an American despite one of the defined avenues being born into it. The 14th Amendment stipulates no ideological prerequisites.

That’s a good thing, since so many of our MAGA zealots have rejected the fundamental tenets of Americanism, especially the democratic process and majority rule. They’d like to disenfranchize Americans who don’t agree with their beliefs. They want to restore the monarchy, perhaps by force. They’ve already chosen a king.

But guess what? They’re still Americans. Maybe in name only, but they are saved from expulsion by meeting the minimum requirements in the constitution for which they’ve shown they have little use unless they are allowed to subjugate the rest of the country.

Usually, the side-eye is directed at new arrivals.

Let me recall a story readers have heard before:

My mother still tells the story of her mother (2nd generation Irish with a fresh memory of when her family members were treated as Latinos are now). She sat her down before sending my mother to school for the first time and looked her square in the face.

“When they ask at school what you are, you tell them you’re an American.”

When as a child she returned to Japan after a few years in the States, RumiHara realized she was an American too. It’s more than about where you are born.

Announcement of a Looming White Minority Makes Demographers Nervous,