The Department of Homeland Security has recently come out with a statement that struck many as questionable, to say the least. For a country long celebrated as a melting pot — hence “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” inscribed on the Statue of Liberty — the department’s controversial announcement raises a bigger question: if this isn’t the America we’ve always known, what is it becoming?
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Micah Bock, Deputy Assistant Secretary at Homeland Security, appeared in a public announcement to “dispel a lie that’s permeated American political thought,” asserting that America “is not a nation of immigrants” but rather a “nation of citizens.” While some saw this as a straightforward clarification, others can’t help but wonder if the language was selected with a deeper purpose in mind.
The Root caught up with Stephen C.W. Graves, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Africana Studies at Oklahoma State University, to get his take on the announcement. According to the political expert, the shift in messaging appears intentional rather than accidental.
Redefining American Values
“This has been a pattern I’ve been noticing, easily since 2023,” Professor Graves told The Root. “What we’re hearing from this [President Donald Trump] administration reflects the concerns of the average poor White American. They are shaping this message with that audience in mind, knowing it is their base and the group they rely on the most.”
“This statement about not being a nation of immigrants is a tailored message to their base,” he added.
From the professor’s perspective, the administration is flipping the script on Americans, with the messaging itself potentially revealing more than what meets the eye.
“What he’s saying is: we will no longer be a nation of immigrants, from this point on. This is no longer the program,” Professor Graves said. “We are going to be a nation of citizens, and we are going to redefine what that citizenship means — who can be citizens and who can’t. It’s a redefinition and a reclassification.”
Potential Warning Signs
Similar warning signs have emerged earlier this year as well, from the administration’s declaration of English as the “official language” of the United States to their renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Together, these moves potentially highlight a broader effort to reshape national identity in ways that may extend beyond individual policies.
“This is the Bad Bunny issue,” the Professor told The Root, recalling the Super Bowl halftime controversy earlier this year, when conservatives questioned the global superstar’s citizenship due to his Puerto Rican roots. “This is part of a scheme to turn America back into a founding White nation, where White people are the majority. There’s a bunch of literature on ‘the great replacement theory’ and White fear of becoming a minority.”
According to the expert, ICE is an integral part of this operation by becoming an “immigration police force” tasked with controlling populations due to their refusal to assimilate — choosing instead to preserve their own languages, cultures, and faiths.
“What they want is for immigrants to come here and be White Americans, and if you’re not, you gotta go. Get the hell out,” Professor Graves said, adding that on the contrary, White Afrikaners — prioritized under a U.S. refugee resettlement program, per BBC — will fit right in.
“We’re going to see a new form of DHS, that is not about refugees and immigration,” Professor Graves speculated, “It’s going to focus more on [immigrants] getting the hell out.”
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