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4 OPINION January 31, 2025 www.desitalkchicago.com – that’s all you need to know For Kamala Harris, A Lifetime Of Firsts Means She Won’t Be The Last S ome years back, I was talking with my dinner companion when a young woman of color inter- rupted with an excited query. “Are you Senator Kamala Harris?” she asked in that slightly unbe- lieving tone one uses when meeting a hero in per- son. With a big smile, Harris said yes. The young woman gushed her admiration and they took a picture. Having known and covered Harris since she was Cali- fornia attorney general, I have seen such moments many times. Encounters where people pour their hearts out because they thrill at seeing a part of themselves in her. Harris has always understood that her presence in rarefied spaces is integral to her public service. Each rung on the political ladder has raised not just her career, but the very idea in the American mind of who can do what and when. Two years after that restaurant moment, Harris’s ascension to vice president, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent in the position, gave her another chance to let people “see what is possible unbur- dened by what has been.” And what they have seen is a vice president who flourished in the job. The early days of Harris’s tenure were tough. She came into office in the middle of the pandemic. Interaction in- side theWhite House and travel outsideWashington were difficult. Even without covid, Harris was trapped in D.C. because she was the tiebreaking vote in the 50-50 Senate. She cast a record 32 deciding votes. Once pandemic lockdowns lifted, she began to break free. An active member of President Joe Biden’s national security team, she has traveled the globe, meeting with world leaders on myriad issues and crises. When an unprecedented leak at the Supreme Court alerted the country to an impending decision to overturn the federal right to an abortion, Harris barnstormed the country warning about the threat to reproductive and other freedoms. And she brought that passion to Nash- ville in support of the “Tennessee Three” - state legislators who made themselves heard in a Republican-dominated chamber. Her 19-minute speech defending them against criticism and disciplinary action remains the best of her career. When Harris spoke from the heart, she seemed un- stoppable. That’s the way it felt watching her quickly go from loyal vice president to top of the ticket when Biden ended his campaign last July. Over the ensuing 107 days, Harris picked a running mate, triumphed in the only presidential debate, raised more than $1 billion and un- leashed a palpable joy on the campaign trail. For a host of reasons she lost. But I’m compelled to shine a spotlight on one of them. Harris’s mother, who immigrated from India, under- stood a lamentable truth about America. “She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya” - Harris’s sister - “and me as black girls,” Harris wrote in her memoir, “and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.” No doubt her mother delivered to her the same mantra mine delivered to me when I was growing up: You have to work twice as hard to be considered just as good as any- oneWhite. There is no room for error because the benefit of the doubt is denied to us. So she worked twice as hard. Harris became the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American elected San Francisco district attorney and California state attorney general. She became the second Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. She became the first Black woman to win the presidential nomination of a major political party. While rising to those heights, she had to play by rules set and constantly shifted by those trying to blunt her trajectory and invested in her failure. This is an essential Black experience in America. Harris’s presidential run was thrilling because she was Black excellence personi- fied. Her confidence in the face of racist and sexist attacks on her qualifications and intelligence mirrored the experience of Black Americans up and down the socio- economic ladder. That’s why if you ask anyone Black if they were sur- prised that Donald Trump prevailed over Harris they will tell you no. Why? Because this is a nation always ready to remind us in ways big and small where it believes our place to be. “You may be the first to do many things,” Harris’s mother used to say, “but make sure you’re not the last.” This has been the North Star of Harris’s public service. She has always known that her rise and its attendant achievements were part of what let Americans see what is possible unburdened by what has been. We have to wait for the burden to be lifted and for the possible to be made real. But Harris’s purposeful public service ensures she will not be the last. Jonathan Capehart is a member of the Washington Post Edito- rial Board, writes about politics and social issues, and is host of the “Capehart” podcast. - TheWashington Post By Jonathan Capehart Birthright Citizenship Stunt Is Classic Trump O n Tuesday, his first full day as president, Donald Trump at- tended an inaugural service at Washington National Cathedral. Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde pleaded with the new president. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our coun- try who are scared now,” she said. The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals, Budde said, but pay taxes and are good neighbors. Trump scarcely looked at her. Trump is eager for a fight over immigration and has been for years. He has made no secret of his desire to restrict entry to this country and he won both the Electoral College and the popular vote. A flurry of executive orders signed shortly after his inauguration on Mon- day aim to do just that. Among the most chilling: an attempt to override the 14th Amendment, limit birthright citizenship, and create a subclass of children who were born here, but who, through a cruel trick of timing, are not Americans. The executive order takes effect in less than a month. Babies born in the US after that to undocumented parents would, Trump said, no longer be recognized by the federal government as US citizens. Altering birthright citizenship has been high on Trump’s agenda for years. Never- theless, it is shocking to see the scope. The order not only includes undocumented immigrants, but also includes legal im- migrants whose status is considered temporary. Hundreds of thousands who entered the US legally on student visas, the H-1B program for skilled foreign workers or through refugee programs such as Tem- porary Protected Status would be subject to the same restrictions. No permanent status, no American citizen children. Yes, the H-1B program needs a major overhaul. So do other temporary pro- grams. But this ugly, punitive approach is hardly the way. Ultimately, of course, this will be a matter for the Supreme Court. Trump, his hubris notwithstanding, lacks the power to alter the 14th Amendment, which explicitly states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and sub- ject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Intended to guarantee citizenship for newly freed slaves, the amendment has long been interpreted as establishing birthright citizenship. That principle was affirmed in US v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 case of a Chinese American man born in San Francisco, but to Chinese citizens. The precedent set in that ruling has stood for well over a century. Perhaps Trump thinks there is no way a Supreme Court with a conservative 6-3 majority – three of whom he appointed – would defy him on one of his signature obsessions. Maybe he thinks the long- standing precedent will matter little to the court that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, robbing women of reproductive rights guaranteed by the Constitution for almost 50 years. Or perhaps he expects to fail – as many legal scholars anticipate – but still feels the gambit gives him a talking point and another way to blame opponents for thwarting him. Forces are already gathering to op- pose him. Twenty-two Democratic-led states are filing suit and injunctions will be sought. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed its own lawsuit. They will be busy. The birthright citi- zenship ploy is just one part of Trump’s frontal assault on immigration. He has suspended the entire US Refugee Resettlement Program, believing that Biden admitted far too many refugees. Another executive order requires a plan that assigns the Defense Department’s US Northern Command to seal the borders. Other actions canceled thousands of appointments with asylum seekers and banned entry of Syrian refugees until further notice. And although Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said before Trump took office that the administration would prioritize the removal of criminals, on Monday Trump specifically broadened enforce- ment beyond that narrow charge and re- moved earlier guidelines against conduct- ing raids in schools, hospitals, churches, shelters and more. Trump clearly intends to wage a brutal campaign of “shock and awe” against immigrants, believing that the brutality itself sends the message to “keep out.” But more than immigrants will be brutalized as this unfolds. After Bishop Budde’s plea to Trump went viral, Representative Mike Collins, a Republican from Georgia, posted on X that “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list.” Budde, for the record, was born in New Jersey. Trump has never understood or be- lieved that immigrants are part of what makes America exceptional. Each wave of immigration has made its contributions, creating a mosaic of cultures that enliven this nation and expose us to new ways and new thinking. Have there been rough spots? Certainly. Do we need immigration reforms? Undoubtedly. Many Americans are frustrated with levels that seem to be rising beyond this nation’s capacity to adapt. But this is not the thoughtful, hu- mane reformmany Americans seek. I am a daughter of naturalized immi- grants, and my father believed to his last day that this was the greatest country in the world and that his greatest gift to me was my American citizenship. It saddens me to think that Trump’s America may well become a smaller, meaner place that turns its back on what makes this country truly great – its gener- ous and welcoming spirit, constantly refreshed by the sweat and toil of new- comers seeking freedom. Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion colum- nist covering politics and policy. She is a former member of the editorial board at the Minneapo- lis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter. - Bloomberg By Patricia Lopez