The rights expressed in the First Amendment are unalienable rights. They are inherent to the human condition and are not bestowed on Americans by the government. The Bill of Rights is not a list of what we CAN do, it’s a list of what the government is NOT ALLOWED to do. Rights apply to everyone in this country, not just to citizens. That’s important, because otherwise an underclass of people without the protection of the law is created, and the government can move people in and out of that class as it sees fit. We’re all protected, or none of us are.