Apparently, one of the cruelest things America can now do to somebody who wants to live here is ask whether they can support themselves.

That is essentially the argument New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a coalition of cities are taking to court.

New York City is joining Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and others in suing the federal government over changes to the public-charge rule, which can make an immigrant’s use of certain public benefits a factor in deciding whether that person receives a green card or visa.

Listening to the mayor describe it, you’d think the federal government had announced it was putting bear traps around the Statue of Liberty.

Mamdani called the policy an attack on immigrants and warned that people could lose health coverage. He said denying services was about “cruelty,” and that immigrants were entitled to public benefits.

And that’s where I stopped.

Entitled?

I have a very simple question.

Name the countries where you can arrive and say: Hello, I’d like to immigrate here. I’d also like access to your jobs, your welfare system, your food assistance and your health care. Please send the bill to the people who already live here.

Try that in Canada.

Seriously. Drive north and announce that you’ve decided to become Canadian and would now like the Canadians to start paying your bills.

Let me know how that goes.

For much of my lifetime, the principle behind American immigration law wasn’t especially mysterious. If you wanted to immigrate here, the expectation was that you could support yourself. Immigration was an opportunity to build a life in America, not an application for Americans to finance one.

Somehow that idea has been transformed into an act of cruelty.

And everything is “cruelty” now.

Everything is “terror.”

Everything is “racism.”

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the Trump administration’s immigration policies were designed to create cruelty and fear, particularly for nonwhite immigrants.

If that’s the argument, then show me where the self-sufficiency principle says white immigrants don’t have to follow it.

The rule ought to be the rule.

Black, white, brown, European, African, Asian, Canadian, Martian. If you want to immigrate to the United States, America has every right to ask whether you’re capable of supporting yourself.

That’s not racism.

That’s arithmetic.

What struck me even more was the timing.

We had just commemorated the 25th anniversary of September 11.

Days later, the mayor of the city attacked on September 11 is describing federal law enforcement as waging a campaign of “violence and terror.”

Words matter.

ICE agents enforcing immigration laws passed by Congress are not terrorists.

You can believe an immigration policy is too harsh. You can sue the federal government. You can vote against the people responsible for it.

That’s America.

But when every act of law enforcement becomes “terror,” eventually the word doesn’t mean anything anymore.

And California apparently decided New York shouldn’t have all the fun.

A bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature would restrict state and local agencies from hiring certain former ICE, Border Patrol, CBP and DHS employees involved in immigration enforcement during Trump’s second term.

Think about that.

The complaint isn’t that these people broke the law.

The complaint is that they enforced it.

Supporters described the proposal as a “values-based hiring guardrail.”

That’s one heck of a phrase.

California’s values are apparently so refined that previous experience enforcing federal law could disqualify you from enforcing California law.

Meanwhile, somebody who entered the country illegally is increasingly presented as the victim of the whole arrangement.

We’ve somehow reached a place where enforcing immigration law can stain your résumé, while breaking immigration law requires a benefits counselor.

Then came the story that genuinely disappointed me.

Tom Homan says ICE has no plans to conduct immigration-enforcement sweeps at polling places during the midterms.

No plans at all?

Come on, Tom. Not even one?

I’m kidding.

Mostly.

But listen to the politics surrounding this. The mere suggestion that immigration authorities might appear around polling locations generates outrage. Voter ID generates outrage. Election observers generate outrage.

And inevitably somebody asks: What are you afraid they’ll find?

There are legitimate reasons not to turn polling places into law-enforcement zones. Citizens should be able to vote without intimidation. Homan himself described the claim that ICE was planning such operations as another fear tactic.

Fair enough.

But notice the pattern.

Ask for identification: intimidation.

Enforce immigration law: cruelty.

Ask immigrants to demonstrate self-sufficiency: racism.

Hire somebody who previously enforced immigration law: apparently unacceptable in California.

At some point you begin to wonder whether the problem is really the manner in which the law is being enforced—or the existence of the law itself.

Thankfully, before my head exploded, the women of social media arrived to restore order.

One woman informed us that men do, in fact, change: “They get worse.”

Another announced she won’t consider a man unless he earns six figures.

And then came my personal favorite: a woman arguing that Trump supporters shouldn’t be permitted to travel outside the United States.

Why?

Because if they love America so much, they should have to stay here.

Finally, an immigration policy everyone can understand.

You can’t come in.

You can’t go out.

Apparently we’re all grounded.

Then Karolos provided further evidence that none of these restrictions apply to him.

This man has quite the social calendar. Tennis. Concerts. Foreign escapades. He skipped a concert for the U.S. Open because the tennis tickets were free—which, finally, is a policy position I completely understand.

We also learned that Macklemore is off Ed Sheeran’s tour after the controversy surrounding his political remarks, with Macklemore pointing the finger at Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

Ed Sheeran apparently surveyed the situation and arrived at one of life’s great truths:

The show must go on.

Even without Macklemore.

Maybe Washington could learn something from that.

America is a generous country. It is generous precisely because generations of people built something worth coming to.

Immigration should add to that inheritance, not turn citizenship into an unlimited obligation to finance anybody who manages to arrive.

You want to come here?

Wonderful.

Work. Build. Raise a family. Start a business. Become an American. Add your chapter to this extraordinary country’s story.

But asking you to support yourself isn’t cruelty.

It’s part of the deal.

And if we’ve reached the point where saying that is considered radical, the immigration system isn’t the only thing in need of repair.

— Bo Snerdley