The Left Seethes As Trump Requires Immigrants To Actually Like America

Brianna Lyman  Visit on Twitter @briannalyman2

If Americans want America to survive, they must reclaim the moral clarity of the Founders and say, without apology, that not every idea deserves a seat at the table and not every person who wants to be in America deserves to be here.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Tuesday they are updating their guidance so that radical anti-American foreigners can’t receive a change in their status in the United States — a common sense change long overdue.

Days after the USCIS announced updated guidance requiring applicants for citizenship to show they are “worthy” of becoming U.S. citizens, the agency updated its policy for aliens applying for immigration benefits (like work permits, citizenship, green cards) so that officers not only take into account an alien’s compliance with immigration laws, but whether that alien “has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused the views of a terrorist organization or group, including those who support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, and antisemitic ideologies.”

Naturalization already requires an oath of fidelity to the Constitution, so the updated guidance merely reflects the last step in the formal citizenship process, but the usual suspects responded in shock that America would insist newcomers be pro-America if they wish to stay here or pursue citizenship.

Senior fellow at American Immigration Council Aaron Reichlin-Melnick posted on X that requiring aliens to support America is now “McCarthyism.”

Reichlin-Melnick says the term “Anti-America ideologies or activities” “has no prior precedent in immigration law and its definition is entirely up to the Trump admin.”

CNN’s Jessie Yeung wrote an article citing “critics” who “liken [the update] to McCarthyism.”

Time’s Miranda Jeyaretnam framed it as “restrict[ing] immigration to the U.S. by some,” before saying the guidance is raising alarms “for critics who have raised concerns about the Trump administration appearing to inject more subjectivity and political bias into U.S. immigration.”

But these complaints expose the deeper problem. For decades, America’s immigration system has prioritized paperwork over principles. We’ve admitted foreigners based not on cultural compatibility or shared values, but on box-checking. The result has been a steady inflow of people who, in many cases, do not share allegiance to the nation they enter and therefore could never make good Americans.

Take, for example, people like Mahmoud Khalil, who we allowed to come here on a green card. Khalil thanked us by leading “activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.

full story at https://thefederalist.com/2025/08/20/the-left-seethes-as-trump-requires-immigrants-to-actually-like-america/