Yes, Superman Is An Illegal Immigrant
Time for some comic book immigration law.
James Gunn’s Superman movie comes out in July, six months into Donald Trump’s fascist revival tour, when “truth, justice, and the American way” will likely seem more fantastic than flying dogs. Gunn insists though that his Superman isn’t a response to any particular “cultural moment.” He told Variety: Superman “stands for something that is solid, for basic human morals, basic human integrity, the basic belief in protecting others, the weak, and being good to people and being honest. He stands for what I think of as the rules that don’t change.”
Yet Gunn’s Superman remains a “strange visitor from another planet.” The fact that he wasn’t born in America or even on this planet is a core part of his character. On the Smallville podcast Talkville, series co-creator Al Gough observed that Clark Kent is the ultimate “illegal alien” (literally). However, someone in the YouTube comments insisted, “The Kents legally adopted him in many versions of the lore. He’s not an immigrant, illegal or otherwise. He was legally adopted, and would have been considered a refugee.” This struck me as the cognitive dissonance that comes when your favorite superhero’s origin challenges your personal politics.
Obviously, Clark Kent is an immigrant. He’s also not technically a “refugee.” The United Nations defined a refugee in 1951 as someone with a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group.” It’s been understood that people fleeing from war, natural disasters, or poverty do not have a right to asylum.
There have been different versions of how Superman’s home planet, Krypton, exploded but it’s usually the result of a natural disaster or global warfare. Consistent among all versions, though, is that it’s the Kryptonians’ own damn fault: In the 1978 Superman movie, the ruling council listens to the crackpot who claims “Krypton is just shifting its orbit.” Yeah, lady, that’s still very bad. Jor-El’s entire “Krypton is doomed” thesis probably includes “planet shifting its orbit.” (Watch below.)
Almost twenty years later, on the 1996 Superman cartoon, the ruling council rejects Jor-El’s findings in favor of the creepy artificial intelligence, Brainiac, that prioritizes saving itself: “If the Council knew Krypton was doomed, they would frantically put me to work on calculating an evacuation plan. A futile gesture, given the time remaining.” Brainiac then chillingly informs Jor-El that “this planet has seen its last sunrise.” (Watch below.)
On Smallville, Krypton’s destruction was the unnatural result of a global civil war. That might’ve qualified baby Kal-El as a true refugee, although the U.S. government denies asylum to anyone “considered a threat to U.S. safety or security,” and even the most liberal government might have concerns about the alien demigod who shoots lasers from his eyes.
There’s also legitimate concern that baby Kal-El’s ship is just the first in an upcoming alien invasion. In the Superman cartoon, Jor-El explains his original evacuation plan to Kal-El’s mother, Lara: “Save everyone in the Phantom Zone, travel to Earth, then bring them back.” That’s colonizer talk! Fortunately for Earth, Krypton’s ruling council was a bunch of idiots.
‘Somebody save me!’
Superman debuted in 1938, and there’s no version of his origin where he formally applies for asylum, mostly because that’s not very entertaining. In Action Comics No. 1, his first appearance, a random motorist found his rocket ship, “discovering the sleeping babe within,” and “turned the child over to an orphanage,” where he’s treated as if he were born here.
The orphanage staff shrugs off the baby’s inhuman strength and rude handling of furniture. He’s white so he passes 1938 America’s primary qualification for citizenship. The Kents are introduced in 1939’s Superman No. 1. They also turn him over to an orphanage, which the inhuman terror wrecks. The staff is thrilled when the Kents offer to adopt him. Of course, a Black Kal-El would’ve been tried and convicted for all that property damage.
They’d continue tweaking his origin over the years, but the kid in a rocket ship part remained. Even if the Kents believed the child was human, there was never any reason to assume he was from this country. The Kents would later hide his obviously alien ship in their barn, which probably violates state and federal laws.
Clark Kent is a (literal) alien “who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers … (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration officers (and) (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the willful concealment of a material fact.”
The material fact is that Clark isn’t human. The Kents willfully mislead everyone about this — so much for those law-abiding “salt of the earth” farm folk. There’s no affirmative obligation to report an undocumented immigrant child to ICE, but you can’t just store advanced alien technology on your property. This isn’t a finders, keepers situation.
In 1986’s Man Of Steel No. 1, Martha Kent dismisses the idea that the alien baby she found in an alien ship is in fact an alien: “He’s as human as you or me!” she insists without any actual medical training to back up her opinion. Jonathan Kent later tells Clark, “She’s a stubborn woman, your ma, and she’d decided right in the moment she first saw you that she was going to keep you. By the end of the drive home, I agreed.” Sorry, but “my wife is stubborn” does not actually exonerate you from human trafficking.
Immigration Fraud
When John Byrne revamped Superman during the height of the Reagan era, he changed Kal-El’s rocket ship into a Kryptonian “birthing matrix,” which opened when he landed in Kansas, so he technically was born in America. This change was very important to Byrne, who didn’t like that Superman used to care so much about his Kryptonian heritage. Now, the “birthing matrix” might’ve proven an interesting legal matter for the courts to decide, but instead Byrne has the Kents lean even more heavily into their immigration fraud. They actually pass off Clark as their biological child, claiming that Martha Kent had been pregnant but shy about telling people after past miscarriages. Fortunately for the Kents, their friends are idiots.
The Kents continue with their fraud even as Clark develops powers far beyond those of mortal men. Deception is a persistent theme in Superman’s backstory. On Smallville, Clark’s adoption papers are forged, which of course is a serious crime.
Adopting children isn’t easy, even if you find them on the side of the road. Legally, the Kents should surrender baby Kal-El to the authorities and file an adoption petition. Of course, they can’t explain where the child came from or whether he has any living relatives. The Kents usually go to great lengths to avoid Clark receiving the type of medical care that might reveal he’s not human. This probably borders on child neglect, considering they don’t know if he’s meeting the benchmarks for a developing Kryptonian. Sure, heat vision seems cool, but it could be the symptom of a serious health condition.
We understand why the Kents enter this life of crime: They don’t want the government to take their son away. This isn’t wholly a selfish motivation, either. Clark Kent’s normal, loving childhood is what makes him Superman. The government raising Kal-El in a controlled environment is the plot of a nightmarish “Elseworlds” tale. Yet, the latter is more “realistic.” The kindly couple taking in an abandoned child from the stars is no longer the “American way.” The Kents are from Kansas, a state Donald Trump just carried by 16 points. Prior to the 2024 election, just 26 percent of Kansans polled believed that immigrants have a positive impact on the state. Even if the Kents are among the benevolent minority, they’d always have to worry about their MAGA neighbors learning Clark is different and turning him in for vivisection.
The Smallville on the CW’s Superman & Lois has a progressive population that responds with kindness and compassion when Clark Kent finally reveals that he’s Superman. There’s no local Riley Gaines who wants Clark and Lois’s sons expelled from school because they have an unfair advantage over her in the class rankings.
In Man of Steel, Jonathan Kent tells Clark it doesn’t matter where he came from, he’s “an American citizen and that means you’ve got responsibilities.” Superman later tells Lois Lane, “I don’t know exactly where I’m from. I guess it really doesn’t matter. What maters is that I think and feel as an American.”
Well, legally speaking, how Superman feels is not relevant, especially now, when Trump wants to ban birthright citizenship — even Byrne’s Reaganite Superman is an “illegal.”
Perhaps Superman’s greatest power, though, is that he looks to all the world like what most people in the 1930s, 1980s, and, yes, in 2025 consider a “real” American. No one ever asks Clark Kent for his papers. I think this is why I struggled to connect to the character as a Black kid growing up in South Carolina. I felt more like an alien than Clark, who enjoyed full American citizenship without filling out a form or marching on Washington.
If the Right can pretend to love Jesus while ignoring everything about him, they can certainly pretend to love Superman while ignoring everything about him too.
Some thoughts....
I always appreciate the unique style and perspective of the author.
“this planet has seen its last sunrise.”
Sunrises and sunsets are only viewed from a local perspective. Depending on how one would prefer to interpret it, the planet itself experiences all it's sunrises and sunsets simultaneously, or it experiences none at all since the planet itself as a whole is always facing its sun.
Regarding when Kal-El arrived in the US, it's certainly interesting to ponder what the tenor of immigration views was like in the latter part of the Great Depression. In 1936, Kansas went to FDR by 7 points. FDR in 1932 and LBJ in 1964 were the only other times in the last 100 years that Kansas went to a Democrat.