A Boston federal appeals court upheld a New Hampshire judge’s decision to block President Donald Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship. This ban came in the slew of executive orders Trump signed during his first days back in office. Many states, not just New Hampshire, have blocked the ban, but for a native Granite Stater like myself, the fact that our legislature specifically put its foot down gives me a faint glimmer of hope.
I remember learning about birthright citizenship in an elementary school social studies class. We opened our heavy, aging Harcourt textbooks and my teacher read a small paragraph saying that anyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen. From then on, this fact was central to my understanding of what our country was. It gave me the idea that while the United States is not perfect by any stretch, there are certain fundamental rights guaranteed to its people, whether their families have been American for generations or are just starting to be.
Trump has been on a crusade against illegal immigrants since he began the campaign trail for his first term in 2015. But it would be more accurate to say that he has been on a crusade against the idea of an illegal immigrant. He spins yarns at his rallies, on television, on social media, anywhere he is given a platform, about this scary entity called the Undocumented Illegal Immigrant. If Trump is to be believed, this is a sub-human creature that enters the nation en masse, having children to secure their status here and then stealing jobs from the real hard-working Americans, all the while eating our beloved household pets.
Those already opposed to Trump and his rhetoric will dismiss this as a load of bunk, but clearly, it has gotten him the votes he needs to hold two terms in the White House. His voters may not literally believe that immigrants are eating cats and dogs, but they are still boogeymen to them. They find it harder to afford health insurance and higher education, but instead of directing their gaze to the one percent and the politicians under their thumb, they have been successfully led to believe that the Immigrant is to blame.
As our state legislature became more Republican dominated in the wake of Governor Kelly Ayotte’s election, I wondered what was next. Alarm bells sounded in my brain when I heard of proposed budget cuts to the university system and bans on gender affirming care for minors. Every news story about a new N.H. law seemed to suggest that the scales were tipping in an increasingly right-wing direction, with no regard for the people. This latest move, while only the first step in taking on the unconstitutional behavior of Trump, is significant. It shows that, when it comes down to the wire, state governments are willing to stand up for their citizens in ways the federal government is not. I can only hope that this continues to be true, not just for New Hampshire, but for every state under the red, white and blue.
May Cassidy can be contacted at
mcassidy@kscequinox.com
