The Trump administration has begun revoking the citizenship of Americans born in the United States, even confiscating U.S. passports at the border, according to tonight’s report in The Washington Post. These include Americans not only born here but who served in the U.S. armed forces, who are Hispanic and were delivered years ago by midwives.

The State Department says that it suspects the midwives forged the birth certificates. Sound familiar? Donald Trump argued that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate was a fake as a means of suggesting he wasn’t qualified to run for the presidency.

If this administration can revoke the passports of American military veterans simply by expressing doubt about the foundation of their birth certificates, it can revoke any American’s passport on an equally flimsy excuse. It was routinely done in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to the point of becoming the official explanation for ethnic cleansing and expulsion of political dissidents.

The Trump administration has demonstrated that it might reverse itself if confronted by overwhelming opposition to unpopular decisions. The most recent was the McCain flag controversy, but these also include the ill-considered closing of U.S. borders to all Muslims.

What happened tonight is an emergency. The right to cross U.S. borders in either direction is a right of all Americans guaranteed by the U.S. passport. If Latinos can be deprived of this right at the whim of the administration, any American can.

That is why it is imperative for Americans who care about our freedoms to call our elected representatives and senators as soon as possible and tell them that cancelling the citizenship of Americans and confiscating passports at the border is not acceptable.