The moral responsibility of human beings is to protect everyone, regardless of whether they are American or not (Short)

People who are not Americans have moral worth and value, not just Americans.

Jim: The most poignant moment was where he isolated on this idea of, will you stand for US citizens, or will you stand for illegal immigrants? Trump: If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

There is a moral value that has long existed that stated that all human life has equal value. It doesn’t matter your race, nationality, religion (or lack thereof), etc. All human life has equal value. Period. Yet what the president of the United States just said goes against this moral value in its entirety. He just said that the first duty of the United States is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. No Mr. President (as if you deserve that title), I’m afraid that is not correct. The first duty of the United States government is to protect everyone, regardless of whether they are American citizens or not. Yet at the same time I realize that the president of the United States is just representing the views of the people who elected him (which happen to be Americans to no one’s surprise). This us vs. them view of it is either Americans or it is illegal immigrants who benefit instead is a false dichotomy and is faulty zero sum thinking that sadly many Americans believe today. It’s too simplistic to think either that illegal immigrants benefit at the expense of American citizens or that American citizens benefit at the expense of illegal immigrants. There are cases where both American citizens and illegal immigrants’ benefit (such as exposure to different cultures in which immigrants get to express their cultural identity and citizens from the home country get exposure to different cultures) and there are cases where both American citizens and illegal immigrants are harmed (such as climate change). It is not as simple as one group benefits while the other group suffers. Yet the cumulation of these beliefs has led to many Americans adopting the moral view that the lives of American citizens are of greater value than those of immigrants without legal status (even with legal status in some cases among those who adopt ethnonationalist views) and people of any other nationality. Is it ethical for us as Americans to think that our lives are of greater value than anyone else’s or even everyone else’s?

Now, there are those that will argue that the president is just simply arguing that we should look after Americans first, then we can look after others. We’re not arguing that we shouldn’t look after other people who aren’t Americans at all, but rather we will look after them after America solves its own problems. Yet there are a couple of issues with this argument. The first issue I have is that I find that it is an excuse just to not already be doing it now. You can improve the lives for the people in the country you are living in while at the same time helping people living in other countries. Another factor to consider here is that in at least some cases (if not a majority of cases) issues affect many or all countries and not just one. Also, the United States is always going to have issues in some way, shape or form. So, if America is always going to have issues, then does that mean we should never help people living in other countries? It just seems that you can keep claiming that America has its own issues to deal with and don’t have the time and resources to help any other country and just keep pushing other countries problems into the future indefinitely. One can say we will solve all our country’s problems a year from now but then a year passes by and new problems pop up and then we will solve these problems a year from now and then this keeps going into a continuous cycle where helping other countries just keep getting pushed back more and more and more indefinitely.

I know someone reading this will probably ask the following question: Will I stand for US citizens or for illegal immigrants? The answer is that I reject this false dichotomy. I will choose to stand for both and always will.

Sources:

VandeHei, Jim. “Trump taunts Democrats at the 2026 State of the Union.” Axios on YouTube. Published February 25th, 2026. Accessed March 17th, 2026.