$1,280 to salute the flag they won't let you afford

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-03

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: $1,280 to salute the flag they won't let you afford

Trump's DHS jacks the citizenship application fee past what working families can pay while posing for naturalization photos at Mount Vernon for the 250th — the bunting covers the invoice, the waiver line is empty, and the people the celebra

They’re going to throw a goddamn naturalization ceremony at Mount Vernon on July Fourth — George Washington’s porch, the founders, the whole 250th birthday pageantry — while the Trump White House pushes a rule to charge $1,280 just to apply to become one of us. Not a typo. Twelve hundred and eighty dollars online. Thirteen thirty on paper. And they’re killing the fee waivers. What the actual fuck.

This is what the so-called party of the working family does. They wrap themselves in the flag, drag immigrants to a ceremony at the founding father’s house for the cameras, then jack the price of citizenship past what a warehouse worker or a farmhand or a mother with two kids can scrape together in six months. The civics test already got harder in October. Enforcement is grabbing permanent residents and citizens off the street. And now the bill of admission is being raised so the folks who need the waivers the most — the people who can’t float twelve hundred bucks — get pushed out the back door while the donors get the photo op.

This is what ‘America First’ means in practice. Big patriotic show on the front lawn, gated citizenship in the back. The public story is the flag and the Mount Vernon backdrop. The real deal is a policy designed to make the naturalization rolls whiter and richer while everybody pats themselves on the back for the ceremony. Same scam as the family-values Bible-thumper who takes the food stamps away — costume up here, cruelty down there.

Tsuboi at Asian Americans Advancing Justice called it survival. That’s not a metaphor. That’s the price tag they put on becoming American now, and the waivers were the only thing standing between a working-class applicant and a door that slams shut in their face.

You want to celebrate the 250th? Cool. Then quit pricing the next batch of citizens out of the goddamn room. Take the flag pin off before you raise the cost of the oath, you hypocritical, freedom-frying, donor-owned sons of bitches. Eat shit and tear up the rule.

Source story: DHS proposes raising citizenship fee to $1,280, ending waivers.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-03
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: human migration, government policy, civil rights, law enforcement, communities
Storylines: us-immigration-enforcement
Primary entities: Department of Homeland Security, United States, new US citizens, naturalization
Themes: immigration, informed_citizenship, 250th anniversary, belonging
Floor values engaged: Accountability of power, Informed citizenship, Equality & fairness