A brief acknowledgment today as I celebrate my eighth anniversary of becoming an American citizen, which I first wrote about last year:

It’s an odd feeling to be—in even a small way—celebrating seven years as an American citizen, just days after American democracy gave us, for the second time, a Donald Trump presidency.

Yet it is also fitting, as the reason I became an American citizen seven years ago was because American democracy gave us, for the first time, a Donald Trump presidency.

I’ve touched on the subject of citizenship several times on this site. For example, I referenced the uniqueness of being a naturalized citizen in America: Birthday Candles or Eulogies at 249?:

Natural-born Americans have no requirement to declare, freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that they will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that they will bear true faith and allegiance to the country—thus solemnizing their citizenship.

Taking this oath is an actum deliberatum—a deliberate act—a declaration of our intent to expand the American tapestry. Citizenship is not something we take for granted, and “America” is not an idea we abandon easily.

I also acknowledge the delicacy of my (and all Americans’) citizenship. For example, in You Can’t ‘Deport’ a U.S. Citizen, Yet We All Recognize It’s Coming, I note:

While it’s legally difficult to denaturalize and expatriate U.S. citizens, it’s not legally impossible.

These concerns are becoming more palpable by the day, as Revoking Citizenship for Crimes Is Now a Trump Regime Priority. Such threats aren’t mere conjecture, as demonstrated in Rosie O’Donnell Torches Donald Trump After His Unhinged Threat to Revoke Her Citizenship, where I observed:

The media is treating Trump’s outburst as something worthy of debate—as though there’s a legitimate question of whether or not the President of the United States of America can just decide to revoke an American’s citizenship—rather than with outright ridicule….

As I noted in Joyce Vance on ‘Taking Away Your Citizenship’:

This regime is coming for anyone who doesn’t support them. It doesn’t matter if you’re here legally or not, rich or not, citizen or not.

In last week’s off-year elections, a naturalized citizen became mayor-elect of New York City for the first time in nearly 50 years. He is, naturally, being threatened with denaturalization.

Despite these threats to citizenship, I remain optimistic. In Kieran Healy on Becoming ‘American’, I wrote:

Seven years on and I still remember how I felt as I got sworn in as an American citizen. The feeling never fades, but it crystallized my view of my adopted country—as I’m sure it did for many others. More than most, we’re acutely aware when America strays from her ideals, and we remain resolute in their defense—a fierce loyalty not to what America is, but to what it claims to be.

I’m confident Zohran Mamdani—who became a U.S. citizen the year after I did—also remembers how he felt that day and evinces the same fierce loyalty to what America claims to be… and will therefore be a tremendous mayor.

Because immigrants… we get the job done.