Trump's ‘Royal Road' to Citizenship Leads in Wrong Direction for ‘Gun Rights'

“Trump touts $5 million ‘gold card’ as new path to citizenship,” Fox News reported in early March. “'It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated', says Trump.”

It’s actually a variation, or mutation, if you will, of the existing EB-5 program established by Congress in 1990, that, per Newsweek, is “one of many job-based visas offered by the U.S. It requires applicants to create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for U.S. workers with their investment, and they have to first prove they have the capital.”

“EB-5 holders get a two-year Green Card and can apply for an extension. Beyond that is the chance to apply for U.S. citizenship,” the analysis elaborates. But that program, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has resulted in fraud and bureaucracy. And curiously, fraud is what the director of the Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, Lora Ries, has warned Trump’s “gold card” could invite, asking “How is this going to be different? Are you just inviting wealthier fraudsters and corrupt people to exploit this?"

Now might be a good time to ask, “What does any of this have to do with the right of the people to keep and bear arms?” After all, this is Firearms News…

Patience. Before we get there, we need to build on some fundamentals.

"These are vetted people,” Lutnik told Fox’s Brett Bair. “These are going to be great global citizens who are going to bring entrepreneurial spirit, capacity and growth to America. If one of them comes in, think of the jobs they are going to bring with them, the businesses they are going to bring with them, and they are going to pay American taxes as well, so this is huge money for America."

When have we heard that before?

“…I am very disappointed in the xenophobic response from governors across the country today who vowed to keep Syrian families who have passed rigorous background checks from entering their states,” Democrat Senator Tim Kaine complained back in 2015. Left unsaid: What's the source for those "rigorous background checks?" Where do the records come from and what audits have been performed to ensure system integrity and that they are comprehensive and uncompromised? The Assad regime's filing system?  Something else? And isn't baksheesh (bribe) a way of life with administrators there?  And no one else has any interest in falsifying or just plain omitting records, assuming any exist in the first place? Curiously, while Kaine was making this claim, a New York Post headline was warning, “Syrian community leader: ISIS is already in America.”

But surely, foreign investors rich enough to afford the “gold card” will be “great global citizens,” right? Not “great American citizens”? Like Alexander Soros, son of naturalized billionaire George, who told the Financial Times he is “a committed European”? And if it’s not available to all nationalities, expect lawsuits. I’ll bet the bin Laden’s could afford to pay to play.

The thing is, not everybody wants to.

"These successful businessmen, entrepreneurs, they do not simply want to just pay money and lose it, complained Ashok Adusumilli, originally from India, arrived on an EB-5 from Dubai in 2019 [who] now helps others looking to bring their money and business ideas to the U.S. through the EB-5 program.” That existing program and “chasing the American dream” has been great for him, his fortune, and his wife and children, and he admits, “That is why I spent the money."

That, of course, presumes that’s what the American dream is supposed to be about, as opposed to freedom - allow that to flourish and prosperity will follow. Limit it to the politically connected and you end up with millionaire congressmen, and laws written to protect the interests of the elites. It brings to mind John F. Kennedy’s admonition, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

You can be forgiven for presuming headlines like “Rich Indians scramble to apply for EB-5 Visa” appearing in The Economic Times mean they’re looking out for themselves. And it’s understandable if that raises questions about where ultimate loyalties really lie, particularly with oxymoronic “dual citizenship” options and a 2015 change from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services regarding the oath taken by naturalization candidates:  They are longer required “to declare that they will ‘bear arms on behalf of the United States’ and ‘perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States.’”

Most are opposed to anyone outside of the government bearing arms, and it’s safe to assume once granted citizenship, they’ll vote that way. The New York Times even bragged about it in its 2019 article “How Voters Turned Virginia from Deep Red to Solid Blue”: “Guns, that is the most pressing issue for me,’ said Vijay Katkuri, 38, a software engineer from southern India, explaining why he voted for a Democratic challenger in Tuesday’s elections.”

Okay, but that’s an anecdote. What about “pro-gun” Republicans like Vivek Ramaswamy and Kash Patel? First, their willingness to make substantive changes has not yet been tested, but even if their actions end up matching their rhetoric, they’re exceptions to the rule. While there are great patriots of all heritage backgrounds who are ardent Second Amendment defenders, they are in the extreme minority. Per India Currents, “A 2022 Asian American Voter Survey, AAPI Data found that 83% of Indian Americans believe the U.S. needs stricter gun laws.”

Trump with his “gold card” proposes making citizens of foreign nationals who will have substantial resources to impose their political preferences on their host country. And he’s doubled down on a “pathway to citizenship” for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) “Dreamers,” prioritizing “cheap labor Republicans” who ally themselves on immigration with electorate-padding Democrats over gun owners who put him in office.

This also gives a pass to Democrat-aligned teachers unions and administrations. Why is it that countries like India can somehow  churn out employees with superior technical abilities on a pittance of what we spend per capita on students while a significant number of U.S. schools produce functional illiterates, and we’re then told the only solution is to bring in more foreign nationals?

It’s all reminiscent of the story of Greek mathematician Euclid, commissioned by Egypt’s Pharaoh, Ptolemy I, to teach him geometry. Impatient with the prerequisites of having to first understand and then build on basic concepts, Ptolemy complained that the process was too slow. Yes, of course, commoners needed to first master the painstaking detail work, but surely as a privileged exception there had to be a shortcut to understanding the grand conclusions without having to subject himself to such frustrating drudgery.

"There is no royal road to geometry," Euclid is said to have replied, highlighting the reality that basic truths apply to all, regardless of station in life.

Trump’s “royal road” may be paved with good intentions but without new citizens who understand the fundamental founding principles of what it should mean to be an American, we know where such roads lead.

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