What Is American? 5 - Citizenship

It's generally recognized by Americans of all political persuasions that America has a nation feels far less unified than it has within living memory.  Even during the upheavals and conflicts of the 1960s, somehow it seemed that all Americans still had more common ground then than they do now.

That's because they did: the Americans of those days may have disagreed on how to apply the principles and liberties of being an American, but everyone agreed on what they were, and nearly everyone agreed (admittedly some grudgingly) on who Americans were.

Today, as we've seen in this series, that's no longer true - the Left proudly demands the abolition of fundamental American rights that our forefathers fought for, stripping First Amendment free-speech rights from those they disagree with, abridging Second Amendment rights of self-defense wherever they can get away with it, and attempting to return us to the bad old days of naked bigotry by skin color.

At the same time, though, it seems that the Left values American rights so tremendously that they want to extend them to everyone in the whole wide world, no matter how undeserving.

Let's take just one current example: Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate, the five-times-deported, seven-times-convicted-felon illegal alien whom a San Francisco jury - where else? - recently found not guilty of murdering Kate Steinle by shooting her in the head: "the discharge could have been accidental."  Never mind that the death occurred during the commission of at least two felonies: being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and being an immigrant (never mind being illegal) being in possession of a firearm.  And we thought California was serious about gun control!

In a sane world, this human scum would be thanking his lucky stars he isn't getting up close and personal with Old Sparky and would be scuttling back to Mexico before something bad befalls him.  Isn't it enough that this violent, impoverished, homeless vagrant, who has no right even to walk our soil and breathe our air, has benefited from millions of dollars worth of free legal services in evading justice?  But no: his free lawyer is now suing the Federal government for colluding with the state government in attempting to try him for his crimes.

That is what our governments are supposed to do, in fact just about one of the first principles of good government: to use the power of government to protect the citizens from those who would do them harm.  His attorney J. Tony Serra seems to feel that good government requires doing the exact opposite.

Which is more than a little bit strange.

If there is anything that just about all Americans can agree on, it is that Nazis are bad.  We have Nazis here in these United States, unfortunately, and they have a First Amendment right to spew their filth; but we keep a close watch on them and, as soon as they step over the line into threatening violence, the law comes down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks.

But when it comes to foreign Nazis, they are expressly forbidden in our immigration laws from ever being allowed into the United States.  Indeed, a Nazi can come here undetected, become a naturalized U.S. citizen, live as an American for decades, and then when he is caught, his citizenship is revoked and he is deported like the lowliest Mexican wall-jumper.

The point is; we do not want Nazis here, and if they aren't born here, there's no legal, moral, or rational reason we should have to tolerate them.  So we don't.

But while Nazism may be the most extreme of undesirable things, there are a lot of other moral failings we don't want either.  We don't need murders or rapists; we don't need child molesters or prostitutes.

Our immigration laws reflect this common sense: immigrants convicted of a felony can be immediately deported, as can immigrants convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude."  "Generally this requires intent to cause great bodily harm, defraud, or permanently deprive an owner of property, or in some cases to act with lewd intent or recklessness."

This covers quite a lot of ground, and particularly these days there may not be much agreement as to exactly what constitutes moral turpitude - those who originally wrote the law would certainly include a conviction for sodomy, whereas today that's become a protected Constitutional right.

But surely we all ought to be able to agree that a felony, duly convicted in court, ought to be good enough reason to deport an immigrant, who has no right to be here but is merely a guest?  If you had a houseguest and caught them rifling through your purse, you'd show them the door at the very least.

Which brings us back to Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate, the five-times-deported, seven-times-convicted-felon illegal alien.  Just exactly how bad do you have to be before the Left agrees, well, yeah, let's throw you out?  Apparently only Nazis qualify - thank God for small favors.

But we can't help but ask, what sort of American would want to voluntarily expose their fellow Americans to the depredations of foreign predators when we don't have to?  Don't we have enough all-American criminals we have to put up with?  If someone hates their fellow Americans to that degree, is it even reasonable to consider them an American themselves?

The depraved Mr. Garcia-Zarate is quite enough of a villain for one article, but there's more to be learned from his story.  In the next article in this series, we'll discuss his attorney, J. Tony Serra, and his California colleagues.