A Republican congressman says he's open to deporting Melania Trump and Elon Musk, and a Democrat congressman wants to strip Musk's federal contracts — while millions of illegal aliens cross the southern border without a second thought from either party. If you're still wondering who Washington works for, it isn't you.
Florida Rep. Randy Fine told NewsNation's Nichole Berlie that anyone who lied on immigration paperwork should be denaturalized and deported. Asked whether that standard applies to the First Lady and the world's most prominent free-speech advocate, Fine didn't flinch: he said he didn't know their circumstances but stood by the principle. "I believe anyone who lied on their paperwork to become a citizen should be denaturalized and should be deported," Fine said, according to Newsweek. He then called for reevaluating every naturalized citizen since 1990.
Fine's comments came in the context of a federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar's immigration paperwork — a probe that has produced a raid on her home and more than a dozen grand jury subpoenas, per the Associated Press. Omar has not been charged. The longstanding allegation that Omar married her brother to facilitate his immigration remains unproven, and Omar has repeatedly denied it. But Fine used that investigation as a springboard to float denaturalization proceedings against two of the most recognizable allies of the America First movement — neither of whom, by Fine's own admission, faces any known allegation of fraud.
Newsweek framed Fine's answer as evenhanded — the same standard for everyone. That's the spin. The reality: there is no allegation against Melania Trump or Musk. Fine injected their names into a conversation about citizenship fraud to appear reasonable to the same press class that would never give him credit anyway. Meanwhile, the actual southern border — where millions have entered illegally, no paperwork required — went unmentioned.
On the other side of the aisle, California Rep. Sam Liccardo is doing the same work with different means. Liccardo told CNN's Anderson Cooper that "Elon Musk and Starlink need to lose contracts," specifically hundreds of millions in BEAD broadband grants administered by the Commerce Department. The pretext is Ukraine — Starlink throttling that Liccardo blames on "an oligarch" enabling the deaths of Ukrainian civilians. Breitbart reported Liccardo's complaint that the Defense Department outsourced critical service to Musk, yet his solution isn't Pentagon reform. It's punishing the contractor who built the system.
So here is the bipartisan picture: a Republican floats denaturalizing the First Lady and the man who reopened free speech on a major platform; a Democrat moves to strip that same man's government contracts. Both invoke the rule of law. Neither addresses the open border, the cost to Americans, or the question of what national interest is being served.
Fine says start with Omar and keep going. Liccardo says start with Musk's contracts and keep going. The only people they agree on targeting are the ones who disrupted the Washington consensus. The millions who walked in without paperwork? Not on the agenda.
The founders debated citizenship in those taverns — how to build a nation of Americans, not a subject class ruled by a permanent elite. They didn't envision a Congress that saves its hardest line for the naturalized citizens who dared to join the fight against that elite.
