Like many second-generation immigrants, I find the sense of ownership and responsibility I feel for my home fascinating. When I read American history, the country’s victories and glory feel like mine, and so too do its defeats and shame. America’s story feels like my story. Why does American identity feel so curiously malleable and open? What makes a person an American? What holds together our national identity? Immigration and birthright citizenship have always been close to the core of those questions. The idea that one merely needs to be born in the country to be its citizen is not unique to the United States — it is common in the Americas, though it is rare elsewhere — but it helps define it, together with America’s particular history of immigration. Donald Trump’s first run for the presidency, so based in a narrow view of what it meant to be an American, gave these questions fresh relevance for me. And his executive order aimed at restricting birthright, along with his broader agenda on immigration, made the stakes of the answers sharp and material. Read more: Here’s what we’re focusing on today:
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