We are all undocumented now.
We Americans no longer have undeniable legal status in this country. Our rights, our organizations, our jobs, our health, our schools, our laws, our constitution — all are now provisional, subject to the whims of the self-proclaimed “King” in the White House.
Our very citizenship is provisional now. The U.S. Constitution may say that all persons born here are citizens. But the King says he may cancel the Constitution by executive order.
He says he is only seeking to keep out the children of undocumented immigrants, or of “invaders” or “terrorists.” But the precedent the King is setting is clear: Any of us may be declared terrorists or invaders or children of same. Any of us may be stripped of citizenship, jailed, deported. Your U.S. birth certificate is just another piece of paper.
We are all undocumented now.
The government itself is also provisional. We used to believe that when Congress appropriated the money for some service or your own government job, that service or job would be there. But Congress’ appropriation power is constitutional, and the King does not care what is constitutional. The King and his billionaire friend fire people and shut down agencies as they wish.
The government promised you money after the fires burned down your community? So what? The King will only provide it if you enact laws to suppress your own votes.
You say the courts will stop the “extralegal” Trump actions. But the King says he does not have to obey the courts or the law because he is trying to save the country. He is ignoring rulings. He and his allies are seeking to remove judges who dare get in his way.
The King already owns the Supreme Court, which is now giving its due consideration to his obviously unconstitutional cancelling of birthright citizenship. The Court already cancelled prosecutions of the King, and granted the King legal immunity for any “official act.”
The King may prosecute anyone who offends him. He said as much at the Justice Department.
So, like our undocumented neighbors, we all must live in the shadows.
We also must live without economic rights. Yes, we might have union contracts or economic regulations or Social Security accounts, but the King may cancel them all. He may launch tariffs against friendly neighbors with whom we have trade agreements that the King himself negotiated. He may seize whatever land he likes, from Greenland to Gaza.
You say you have the right to protest, under the First Amendment. Alas, that is a right in the Constitution, too. The King says he has the right to declare an insurrection and use violence against protestors. He just arrested and is seeking to deport a legal U.S. resident who was a pro-Palestine student activist. He says he’ll arrest others.
You may think we can overturn such actions with voting. But there is no right to vote in the Constitution. And the King may ignore election results he doesn’t like anyway.
What do we do?
Now that we are all undocumented, maybe we should listen to those who have been undocumented the longest. Many undocumented immigrants are here because of authoritarianism and attacks on democracy in their own countries. They can teach us about fighting people like The King.
“Learn from immigrants,” advised Angelica Salas, who leads the immigrant rights group CHIRLA, at a Zócalo Public Square event. “And understand when you don’t protect the most vulnerable in society, you open the door. … A lot of what is being tested (by the administration) is being tested through us.”
If we listen to undocumented immigrants, we might learn how to defend ourselves from federal officials who might take us away on a whim. And we might realize that our decades of failing to legalize our undocumented neighbors have left all of us in danger.
Maybe then we will finally understand that protecting ourselves from a tyrant requires fighting for everyone.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.