Five legal immigrants swore loyalty to the United States during the second night of the GOP convention, giving President Donald Trump an opportunity to tout the incalculable value of U.S. citizenship and to emphasize the new immigrants’ duties to other Americans.
“With the rights and freedoms each of you now enjoys as citizens, there is no dream beyond your wildest reach, because Americans can do anything,” Trump said after the brief naturalization ceremony. Trump then emphasized the immigrants’ moral and legal obligations to other Americans, saying:
Today, you have also accepted the profound duties and responsibilities that come with American citizenship. By swearing the oath of allegiance, each of you has entered a sacred and unbreakable covenant with our nation. You have pledged your undying loyalty to the American people, the American Constitution, and the American way of life. The history and heritage of the United States are now yours to preserve and pass down to the next generation. Our culture, our traditions, and our values are now yours to uphold and live by.
The rights so dear to every American, granted by us and granted by God, and enshrined in our glorious Bill of Rights, are now yours to support, protect, and defend as citizens. You’re now stewards of this magnificent nation, a family comprised of every race, color, religion, and creed, united by the bonds of love where one people sharing one home, saluting one great American flag. Congratulations again to all of you. May God bless you and may God bless our great country, America.
The event was likely intended to help win slivers of votes from pockets of naturalized immigrants in swing states, and also to counter claims by critics that he is anti-immigrant.
Trump’s apolitical speech was sharply different from the speeches given by President Barack Obama to new citizens.
In reality, four of the five immigrants are likely to vote for the Democrat Party, which celebrates them as it promotes chaotic cultural diversity and champions demands for collective rights of competing subgroups instead of the unifying, individualistic ideals described by Trump.
However, given the record of prior immigrant groups, the five immigrants’ future grandchildren are likely to give up resentments and home-country rules, and then split their votes evenly between the two parties.
The migrants came from wildly different cultures — two men from Ghana and Bolivia, and three women from Lebanon, India, and Sudan. Most have been living in the United States for several years, legally, because they were earlier awarded green cards.
The migrants also allowed Trump to emphasize the contributions of skilled migrants, such as medical skills. Trump has repeatedly said he wants to shift immigration rules to favor skilled migrants, instead of migrants who have family ties to prior immigrants.
In reality, most migrants arrive with very limited cultural or workplace skills, or else they get their initial green card from Fortune 500 companies in exchange for taking jobs from Americans.
Democrat candidate Joe Biden’s immigration policy promises to dramatically increase the inflow of unskilled migrants to employers, retailers, and real-estate companies.
He promises a nationwide amnesty for illegal immigrants, rapid increases in legal immigration, and a dramatic jump in refugee settlement. Democrats also promise a temporary halt to border enforcement, the inflow of more visa workers, plus a green card giveaway to many temporary visa workers who already have taken jobs from American graduates.
In contrast, Trump has promised to exclude migrants who depend on government welfare and to bar companies from using foreign workers to replace Americans.
The oath sworn by the new immigrants reflected the United States’ centuries-long history of immigration, including the long period of low immigration from the 1920s to the 1970s:
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.