Where will you be when they come for me?
A rhetorical question, or is it?
The seagulls chase the ferries between Europe and Asia in my hometown Istanbul, one of the oldest cities in the world, and the only one that spans two continents, a literal bridge between the East and the West. In 1993, I left my blue city of seven hills and hurled myself across the globe to start a life in The Heartland—the land of Oz, ranch dressing and where we never talk about bad things, an interesting fit for an outspoken empath who feels things fully and needs to really talk and write about things.
Thirty-two years ago, I was a teenager in a country that was known then as “Second World,” before the vile conman with a rabid squirrel on his head coined the term “shithole countries,” now effectively making the country of my birth “shithole adjacent.” Back then, there were less than a dozen universities in Turkey and many of us started looking for higher education opportunities overseas. That’s how I ended up in the United States, as a high-school exchange student on a J-1 visa. In college as an international student, I had an F-1 visa, and when I married my American-born husband, I was able to apply for “Permanent Resident Alien” status, aka Green Card, eventually paving the way to me becoming a “Naturalized Citizen” in 2008. (A quick note on the draconian language of the immigration system, calling us “aliens,” granting us “Advanced Parole” to travel abroad while our status is in limbo and as a final joke, even when granting full rights as a citizen, calling the process “naturalization,” code signaling that we are all some weird, “unnatural” savages in need of the purification of “naturalization.” Words matter. I knew that back then, but it is so crystal clear now. About a week after the election, a fellow naturalized citizen called me to tell me that a friend of her son called her an “alien,” the bullying in quaint little towns across America has already begun. The boy hurling the insult at my friend is in elementary school.)
And now, after building a life here, me and about 24 million other naturalized citizens are at risk of being “denaturalized,” yup, more fun with words—if you can wave a magic wand and “naturalize” a savage, you can also wave it again and make it go poof. Sorry, thanks for paying taxes and contributing to our massive capitalist scheme like a dutiful, bright-eyed idealist all these years, haha, psyche, go back to where you came from!
But wait, surely that is Not a Thing, right? Oh, but it is. Most people wouldn’t take my word for it, because what do I know about the immigration system that I personally experienced, after all, I’m just an alien who probably doesn’t understand laws, rules and such, so here is a proper WASP source, Steven Lubet, the Williams Memorial Professor Emeritus at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, explaining it in great detail, in a piece largely ignored by the “real citizens,” but sent most of us “naturalized citizens” into full-on panic mode:
“One initiative, smaller in scale but potentially devastating in its impact, will be aimed at immigrants who have become naturalized U.S. citizens.
Trump has named three deportation hardliners to key positions in his administration, including Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, Kristi Noem for secretary of Homeland Security and Tom Homan as “border czar.”
Miller is likely to be especially influential and especially brutal.
“America is for Americans only,” he shouted at Trump’s Madison Square Garden campaign rally. In a pre-election interview, he outlined a sweeping plan to use the National Guard, state and local police, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and even the U.S. military to round up undocumented immigrants and detain them in tent camps until they can be expelled.
But even “documented” immigrants will not be safe, because Miller has declared that he will pursue the seldom-used process of “denaturalization” to go after people who have been citizens for years or decades, based on suspicions about purported fraud on their naturalization applications. Individuals stripped of citizenship will then be subject to deportation along with Miller’s other targets.
Not every discrepancy or inconsistency is evidence of fraud, of course, so it is inevitable that some legitimate citizens, or those who made minor mistakes based on confusion, may be caught up in an overzealous investigation.
The process for invalidating naturalization was created by statute in 1906, providing that citizenship may be canceled if it was obtained through false statements or fraudulent omissions. It was used inconsistently in the 20th century, with periods of intense activity during the World Wars and the Cold War, and much less often in less parlous times.
During the first Trump administration, the Department of Justice established a new denaturalization effort called “Operation Second Look,” tasked with investigating the citizenship of thousands of immigrants suspected of obtaining naturalization by fraud, misrepresentation, or deceit.
Operation Second Look hired scores of new agents, initially more than tripling the number of active denaturalization cases and promising many more. While Democratic administrations had “focused on those who have done something terrible,” the Trump investigators appeared primed to go after “people who did nothing of note, or whose wrong caused no harm.”
In 2017, the Supreme Court limited the government’s ability to revoke citizenship, unanimously holding that naturalization can only be canceled for “materially” false statements, meaning a lie or intentional omission that would have precluded naturalization in the first place.
Materiality, however, is in the eye of the beholder — or in this case of Stephen Miller, who has declared that he will revive a “turbocharged” Operation Second Look in 2025, consistent with his intention to strip as many immigrants as possible of citizenship as a prelude to deportation.
Miller’s obsessive denaturalization campaign can have extreme consequences, and not only for those immigrants who, rightly or wrongly, find their citizenship challenged or canceled. Even those who successfully defeat a denaturalization case will have been subjected to tremendous stress.
As journalist M. Gessen explained, an expansive hunt for invalid naturalization applications can turn millions of naturalized citizens into second-class citizens, by “taking away their assumption of permanence.”
Even worse, thousands of immigrants, naturalized as minors through a parent’s application, may have their citizenship annulled through no fault of their own. Perhaps worse still, if that is imaginable, many American-born children might find their citizenship in doubt if their parents are denaturalized, given Trump’s pledge to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
Fortunately, denaturalization is a judicial process, with a right to trial in federal court. Unfortunately, there is no right to appointed counsel in denaturalization cases, so every accused defendant will also bear the expense of retaining a lawyer.
For the many without funds for an attorney, there is a significant chance of losing citizenship by mistake or default, which may be exactly what Stephen Miller has in mind.”
The few people who did not argue with me about whether “denaturalization” is a figment of my imagination were then quick to say, “Well, that’s a huge undertaking, reviewing the naturalization files of 24 million people, they’re not going to be able to do that.” I understand people’s urge to want to offer me comfort in a time of distress. I am aware that we are dealing with a bunch of blowhards who appreciate bloviating in all caps on a social media site that rhymes with “Shitter,” and none of them are good “businessmen,” let alone people with experience in policy, rule of law or logistics, but actualizing their racist wet dreams is Not the point. Cruelty is the point. Terrifying and terrorizing people is the goal. Othering people is the point.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
I know that many of us are familiar with this poem, but I want you to read it slowly again, and think about it.
The worst legacy of the first term of the convicted felon about to rule the Free World, again, was effectively making bullying and othering cool again. I knew we were in trouble way back in 2015, when he dared insult Senator John McCain as a loser for being a Prisoner of War. If you can get a jingoistic nation who LOVES THE TROOPS to not go into full-blown rebellion over that, you can get away with anything. And in Campaign 2.0, with the addition of all the billionaire tech bros, they really took it to the next level. They accused immigrants of eating people’s pets in Ohio. They made fun of childless cat ladies. Every vile, cruel thought that has ever crossed anyone’s mind about anything has been normalized. We failed to not only make racism the new Nickelback, but the dams have burst and everyone, including elementary-school-aged kiddos, is just out there othering human beings in any way they can.
One of the saddest things that I witnessed after the election was from a former colleague who pontificated on social media that the Harris-Walz campaign lost because of “wokeness.” Those pesky pronouns of trans folks and those crazy BLM activists yelling about defunding the police.
No, we are not losing elections because some of us are fully committed to the liberation of all of us. We are losing elections because of a dedicated, 40-year campaign against what is good and just. Many folks don’t know that the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 was not concocted out of thin air. The first edition of “Mandate for Leadership,” was released in 1981, to serve as a guiding document for the Reagan administration. These people have been trying to undo the fabric of our society for a long time, which made the passing of President Jimmy Carter such a somber, fitting and somewhat ominous coda to 2024.
Listen folks, the fight we are about to engage in 20 days from now is not just about preserving what is left of a capitalist oligarchy trying to pass for a flailing democracy. The fight we are about to begin is about preserving the very soul of our humanity.
Many people over the last few weeks of 2024 kept asking me, “I know things are going to be bad, but what can I DO?” Well, if you are already capable of sympathizing and empathizing with those who will be facing the most harm, you are already halfway there. I think what is most needed now is for everyone to speak out every day, everywhere. Yeah, I’m a big fan of bumper stickers, yard signs and flags, too, but what we really need to start doing is actually stop tolerating everyday offenses against our humanity. No more “When they go low, we go high,” or trying to catch more flies with honey.
Bring out the vinegar, the pepper spray, whatever you got. Stop trying to piecemeal our rights and freedoms and bargaining with the devil. It’s not the houseless folks, the undocumented (or very-well documented) immigrants, or the trans girls that are ruining what we have. It’s a bunch of greedy sociopaths who would sacrifice (and already are) their own offspring for another record-breaking fiscal quarter profits.
So, will you be here for me when they come for me? Start showing it now, please.