Citizenship, at Last? William Shatner was on CBS's Late Late Show a few days ago, and an exchange with host Craig Ferguson suggests that Shatner is finally ready to take U.S. citizenship. Ferguson, who is from Scotland, has been very public about having embarked on the naturalization process, and somehow the subject of being nervous about taking the test came up, whereupon Shatner said that he is also scared of his upcoming test! Well, it's about time.
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Shatner was born in Montreal in March 1931 and was in his first Hollywood TV show by 1954, so he has been here for at least 52 years without taking U.S. citizenship! Now, at nearly 75 (he looks terrific for almost 75), he is finally taking the steps to become a U.S. citizen. Why do we allow this? How little do we respect ourselves that we permit foreigners to come into this country and take very good jobs away from citizens, live here as of right, but refuse our citizenship for decades?
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We need to reform our laws to forbid foreigners to live here for more than 10 years without taking citizenship. If they want to retain foreign nationality, they should be expelled from the United States and forbidden re-entry.
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A minor scandal about expedited naturalization for athletes recently came to the fore in connection with the Olympics. A female Canadian ice-dancer, Tanith Belbin, moved (presumably with her parents) to the Detroit area at age 14 in 1998. While there, she met an American boy, then age 16, who needed a partner for ice-dancing, and they clicked. Then a scandalous discussion took place.
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You see, they wanted to work toward being a team in the Olympics, but were of different nationalities, and Olympic rules do not permit foreigners on Olympic national teams. So this American boy actually thought about renouncing his U.S. citizenship so he could ice-dance for Canada! Only the fact that the coach they wanted to work with operated in the U.S. influenced the female half of the team to decide to opt for U.S. citizenship, even tho she'd been living here for years and had taken no steps to take citizenship until this Olympic issue arose.

"It came down to really a question of logistics," said Agosto [the American], who grew up in Chicago. "It was much easier to have Tanith live here and train here than have me live in Canada and come across the border to train and prove I was spending enough time in Canada to meet their residency requirements."

So, U.S. citizenship is only a matter of logistics to you? Then get out of this country and stay out. Take Canadian citizenship, Chinese citizenship, anything that is convenient. Just get out of here.
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Instead, they decided it was more convenient for Belbin to become a U.S. citizen, and we permitted that. U.S. citizenship is only a matter of convenience for applicants, not a sincere desire to assume U.S. allegiance. And we permit these people who have no devotion to this country to take our citizenship. Why?

Immigration rules were changed in 2002 to allow "aliens of extraordinary ability" -- scientists, artists, educators and athletes -- to apply for a green card and visa at the same time rather than waiting 18 to 24 months [as insignificant ordinary people have to]. But because Belbin had applied before 2002, she was stuck under the old rules. * * *

Eventually, though, their legal team got the attention of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who pushed for legislation to speed up the immigration process. After getting caught up in a larger legislative fight for several weeks, the bill was approved Dec. 21. * * *

Finally, ... Bush signed the measure that allowed Belbin and others like her who began their naturalization process before July 2002 to take advantage of the changes in immigration rules. The new measure also shortened the residency requirement from five to three years between the receipt of the green card and the date of their eligibility for naturalization.

Citizenship is not a matter of convenience. It should mean something, at least to us who grant it. If the only reason somebody wants to take U.S. citizenship is to compete on our Olympic team, that's not good enuf. There should be some question, somewhere in the process, "Why do you want to become an American?", and if the answer is, essentially, "Convenience", the applicant should be rejected and deported.
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It is also outrageous that some people get a fast track to citizenship but others have to wait. The mere fact that they actually did win the Silver Medal in ice-dancing is insufficient reason to give an ice-dancer special treatment under law. Where is the "equal protection of the laws" that everyone is supposed to have under our Constitution? A hard-working nurse or bus driver who wants to become a U.S. citizen because they love this country but is shunted aside while some foreign athlete jumps ahead, should sue to have the courts void this evil law. First come, first served. That's the American way.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,287.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 4:06 PM