What Does "Being American" Mean?
By Jean Godden
After hearing damning talk about immigration from Trump and his allies, it’s somewhat consoling to learn that we’ll be joined by 250 new citizens on Saturday, July 4. The event – the city’s 41st annual July Fourth swearing-in – takes place at noon that day at the Seattle Center’s Fisher Pavilion. Judge David G. Estudillo, chief U.S. District Judge for Western Washington, will preside.
The 250 who will be pledging allegiance this year is a smaller number than in past years. Last year’s July 4th event welcomed more than 500 new citizens from 79 countries. It is lamentably obvious that President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies have exacted a heavy toll. This is a price that, in the long run, all of us will end up paying.
As a nation, we actually profit from immigration in various ways. For starters, take the fiscal effects of immigration. The CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, looked at immigration over three recent decades – a period from 1994-2023. The institute discovered immigrants, both documented and undocumented, contributed far more in taxes (local and national) than they received.
The study found that the economic benefit derived totaled $14.5 trillion dollars. Without that gain, the nation’s public debt would be twice the size of our Gross National Product (GNP). Fact is, one could conclude that immigrants have been subsidizing the U.S. government. This counters Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief staff, who claims “immigrants are sucking us dry.”
https://www.postalley.org/2026/06/28/what-does-being-american-mean/