The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3586 – September 22, 2025
Main Theme:
A deep dive into the fraught history and current reality of U.S. immigration and citizenship — particularly the weaponization of “citizenship stripping” — with expert guest Amanda Frost. The episode also investigates recent news on Trump-era corruption at the border, chilling developments in immigration policy, and their historical echoes.

Episode Overview

Sam Seder, Emma Vigland, and legal scholar Amanda Frost examine both breaking news (border corruption scandals and denaturalization plans under Trump) and the long, turbulent history of who gets to be an American—and who doesn’t. Professor Frost offers context from her research into the often-overlooked history of citizenship stripping, highlighting the ongoing contest over the boundaries of national identity, belonging, and rights.

Key Discussions & Insights

1. Trump-Era Border Corruption Scandal

• [12:50] Sam Seder details a recent investigation:
  • Tom Homan, former acting ICE Director ("border czar"), was caught on hidden FBI video in 2024 allegedly accepting a $50,000 cash bribe delivered in a “Cava fast food bag.”
  • The bribe was in exchange for promises to award border enforcement contracts if Trump returned to the presidency.
  • After Trump’s election, DOJ leadership quashed the investigation; legal experts contend that Homan could still be liable for conspiracy to commit bribery, even though he wasn’t a public official when the bribe was taken.
    • Quote: "He's making it clear that he has no association with them at that time, which makes the bribery charge harder to pin because he doesn't have the ability to do—he's getting paid on a hypothetical. This is like an if-come bribe, if you will." — Sam Seder [17:55]
  • DOJ impunity and the use of potential blackmail as a loyalty mechanism is discussed.
    • Quote: “The number one test for his administration’s loyalty—it’s not competence. So if you have blackmail over someone... why is Tom Homan out there on every media hit selling the Trump administration’s agenda? It’s cuz he owes them.” — Emma Vigland [20:10]

2. The Weaponization and History of Citizenship Stripping

Overarching Theme:

• [30:27] Amanda Frost: U.S. citizenship is not a settled concept—its boundaries have always been fought over, often to exclude marginalized, racialized, or politically undesirable people.

Historical Patterns:

• Systemic Denial Focused on Non-White, Non-Male Citizens

  • Quote: "The fight is never over... there’s always this push-pull between those who want to define America with an exclusionary definition... and others who say no, that’s antithetical to the values on which our nation was founded." — Amanda Frost [30:27]
    • White men have never faced systematic removal of citizenship; women, racial minorities, and dissenters have.

• Race, Ideology, and Gender

  • Women lost U.S. citizenship by marrying non-citizens (1910s–1930s).
    • Example: Ethel McKenzie barred from voting in California after marrying a Scot, lost Supreme Court case 9-0.
      Quote: “She goes to cast her vote... and she’s barred from voting because she married a non-citizen.” — Amanda Frost [51:42]
  • Naturalized citizens stripped for political views, especially during the Red Scare/Cold War.
  • Mass “repatriations” and deportations of U.S.-born citizens of Mexican descent (Operation Wetback).
    • Quote: "Many of the people sent to Mexico from the United States had never actually lived in Mexico... There wasn’t really any kind of due process." — Amanda Frost [59:31]

3. Birthright Citizenship and Its Precarity

• Dred Scott & the 14th Amendment
  • Dred Scott (1857): Supreme Court ruled Black people, slave or free, could never be citizens.
  • Post–Civil War: 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to all born in the U.S., aiming to overrule Dred Scott and racially exclusive definitions of national belonging.
    • Quote: “If you’re an originalist, you should be comfortable with the idea that the birthright citizenship provision of the Constitution applies far beyond Dred Scott...” — Amanda Frost [54:03]
  • Current Trump legal challenges dispute this, seeking to limit the clause to descendants of slaves (not immigrants’ children).

4. Current and Future Threats to Citizenship

• Naturalized Citizenship No Longer Secure
  • Trump’s DOJ under Sessions and Miller planned/attempted mass denaturalizations (only succeeded on small scale).
  • The second Trump administration planned to use denaturalization as an “immigration enforcement tool.”
    • Quote: “That was the impetus for the book... watching the Trump administration declare that naturalized citizen status was at risk. And that was as shocking to me as it seems like it was to you.” — Amanda Frost [35:19]
• Could Even Birthright (Native-Born) Citizens Lose Citizenship?
  • Frost: It's not far-fetched to imagine attempts, especially against political dissidents or people with “wrong” ancestry.
    • Quote: “I got my eye on this because I think that’s the goal, destabilize everyone’s status.” [42:34]

5. Immigration Policy: Fears, Facts, and Fictions

• "Open Borders" Explained

  • No U.S. politician (including Democrats) supports genuine open borders (free movement like between U.S. states or EU countries).
  • Needs distinction: More legal work visas, modernized asylum, not blanket amnesty or chaotic inflow.

• Labor & Exploitation

  • Many U.S. industries depend on undocumented labor; lack of legal status enables wage theft and abuse.
    • Quote: “We would starve without them. Our food prices would rise without them. We need more legal ways for those people to come.” — Amanda Frost [46:20]
  • Current system benefits employers more than workers; legalizing status improves protection for all.

• Immigrant Contributions & Global Competition

  • U.S. faces declining enrollments and “brain drain” as countries like Canada poach high-skill immigrants frustrated with U.S. policies.
    • Quote: “Immigrants power our economy—and that has never been so obvious as now.” — Amanda Frost [38:12]

6. Defining American Values

• What values are threatened by denaturalization and citizenship-stripping?
  • Constitutional: Due process, equal treatment, non-penalization for ancestry or speech (First Amendment, 14th Amendment).
  • American identity: “We the people” principle, rejection of hereditary caste, suspicion of government power over individuals.
  • Quote: “These are all enshrined in our Constitution. These are not contested—that those are the founding values.” — Amanda Frost [66:55]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "The fight is never over... this book runs through that history. And it is a long and troubling history of denying citizenship to groups and individuals, often on the basis of race, but also on the basis of ideology and gender."
  — Amanda Frost [30:27]

• “He’s making it clear he has no association with them at that time, which makes the bribery charge harder to pin... This is like an if-come bribe.”
  — Sam Seder [17:55]

• "If you have blackmail over someone... why is Tom Homan out there on every media hit selling the Trump administration’s agenda? It’s cuz he owes them."
  — Emma Vigland [20:10]

• "The history of that really is the history of our nation's fight over citizenship and who belongs."
  — Amanda Frost [53:24]

• "If you’re an originalist, you should be comfortable with the idea that the birthright citizenship provision applies far beyond Dred Scott..."
  — Amanda Frost [54:03]

• “These are the founding values of our nation and we have to keep fighting for them.”
  — Amanda Frost [68:40]

Timestamps — Key Segments

• [12:50] — Tom Homan border bribe sting, FBI undercover, case quashed by DOJ post-Trump victory
• [17:15–17:55] — Homan’s third-person defense, legal details of “if-come” bribes
• [30:27] — Amanda Frost introduces the book and enduring battle over the meaning of citizenship
• [35:19] — Durability of naturalized citizenship; history of denaturalization; Trump policy ramifications
• [38:12] — Role of immigrants in the U.S. economy, Canadian poaching of immigrants
• [42:34] — Can even native-born citizens' status be undermined?
• [51:42] — Story of Ethel McKenzie & stripping of women’s citizenship after marrying non-citizen men
• [54:03] — Dred Scott, 14th Amendment, and the originalist argument for broad birthright citizenship
• [59:31] — Operation Wetback: mass deportation of Mexican-American citizens
• [62:28] — Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund; ideological v race-based citizenship stripping
• [66:55] — What are the American values behind citizenship rights?
• [68:40] — Conclusion: importance of defending constitutional values

Conclusion

This episode of the Majority Report delivers a sobering but essential examination of the ongoing struggle over U.S. citizenship, the dangers of weaponizing identity for political ends, and the ways in which immigration policy remains a frontline of America’s democratic and constitutional battles. With Amanda Frost’s expert historical and legal context, listeners gain nuanced insight into the stakes and complexities of immigration, naturalization, and belonging—past, present, and future.