Editor,
Recently, we have all heard of Mr. Trump telling horrible stories about immigrants who are accused of eating pet cats and dogs, who are filling up “our” hospital beds (as if anyone wants to be in the hospital) and are blamed for attacking citizens inordinately. Mr. Trump muses that Democrats are using immigrants to get more voters, one version of the great replacement theory. Yet, that defies logic and facts.
“Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born people by a large margin,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice (Debunking the Myth of the Migrant Crime Wave, 5/29/24). Mr. Trump says "they" are "invading us" and are “poisoning our blood.” He claims that these “others” are sent as a hostile force. Not so. No caravan arrived.
What nonsense! Put aside the fascist rhetoric for just a moment and consider when "we " were "they." To explain, most citizens’ ancestors immigrated for "a better life” in the U.S. These folks made the hard choice to leave home, possibly motivated by circumstances far worse than their perception of life here.
I bet we can think back to the stories we were told in our youth. Our grandparents may have reminisced about the travels of their mother/father or their grandmother/grandfather. I imagine there are tales of struggles of voyages, hardships on adventures ending in a place here on the U.S. map. At what point do these travelers change from "they" to "we?" How long does it take for an immigrant to be accepted as one of "us?" Almost every family makes that transition as a natural part of assimilation into a culture. So, what gives Mr. Trump the right to look down his nose so disdainfully at immigrants. Most of what Mr. Trump says about immigration is racist, and nonsensical. Would he act so nastily if most of the immigrants were Caucasians coming from Europe, as his grandparents did from Scotland and Germany? Mr. Trump wants to round up immigrants, like this is 1942. We were they once.
Here are some facts about the newest among us. Immigrants constitute 18% of the US workforce and "do not take jobs away from native born workers." This comes from a report by The New York City Comptroller’s Office in an article called "Facts, Not Fear; How Welcoming Immigrants Benefits New York City." That report says that immigrants are "more likely to create jobs than native born people, as many newcomers start businesses.” Lastly, please vote. Mr. Trump is wrong about immigration. Vote.
Mike Myers
Battle Ground
