Undocumented Immigrants

First published Jan. 23, 2025

Nearly all of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are escaping poverty, a life-threatening environment, a lack of healthcare, education and opportunity for themselves and their children. They are in search of a path to hope and security in America, especially all the children and young adults who have travelled here in the most trying ways, risking death and in some cases losing their lives. It is a recapitulation of our great grandparents and grandparents’ reasons for leaving Eastern Europe, Ireland, Italy, China, Japan and other places where intolerance, lack of opportunity and danger prevailed. Over time, they added significantly to the commerce and culture of their adopted country. Ninety-seven percent of Americans are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants.

We need national leadership to address the acceptance, integration, education and support of immigrants. They are political pawns. Do not expel immigrants without a history of crime, with young children or unaccompanied children looking for an opportunity at a productive life. Do not rupture families. Do not take away hope. Give the dreamers citizenship. We should expand and expedite the program to vet undocumented immigrants, efficiently, and get them legalized. Do not send these young men, women, children and families back into the void. They need our generosity, concern and support.

We should consider the effort to cast Jews as inferior, undeserving of the protection of citizenship, despite their singular contributions to German and European arts, sciences and commerce. Jews on the S.S. St. Louis were refused sanctuary in 1939 and returned, some to die in the Holocaust.

The circumstances with immigrants escaping poverty, lack of opportunity, the threat of gangs and more is similar to our grandparents escaping the Tsar and the Cossacks. The potato blight of 1845 resulted in two million Irish immigrating to the U.S., one quarter of the population of Ireland. The political unrest in northern Italy and the overwhelming poverty and lack of opportunity in southern Italy and Sicily resulted in 10 million Italians immigrating to the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th Century. Chinese immigration to the U.S. occurred because of a disordered society and lack of job opportunities, which resulted in massive immigration to California. A later Japanese immigration occurred when the U.S. legislated a xenophobic block to Chinese immigration. The U.S. had desperate need for labor, which was filled in part by Japanese immigration. Politically driven immigration tends to bring in more highly skilled workers, whereas economic reasons (poverty and lack of jobs) brings in lower skilled workers but within a generation, those families have risen in education and skills.

Donald J. Trump is the son, and grandson, of immigrants: German (Bavarian) on his father’s side, and Scotland on his mother’s. None of his grandparents and only one of his parents were born in the United States or spoke English as their first language. His mother, from the Scottish Outer Hebrides, was one of ten children who lived in a majority Gaelic-speaking community and in abject poverty. Of the last 10 presidents, only two, Trump and Obama, have had a parent born outside of the United States. Trump’s own immediate family was composed of immigrants: two of his three wives were naturalized American citizens, originally from the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Only one of his five children, Tiffany, is the child of two American-born citizens. Trump’s father was a citizen by dint of his birth in the United States, although conceived in Europe, a Constitutional right Trump would like to eliminate for others. In characteristic fashion, Donald Trump claimed Scandinavian origin rather than German origin in his early biographies but that was a lie perpetrated by his father to avoid being associated with German antisemitism since their business was in New York City, an area with a large Jewish population at that time. This falsehood was retained by Trump.

We need to enhance border control, which has already resulted in a massive reduction in illegal immigration. We should recognize the value and potential of immigrants added to the workforce, vital to our society, and the cultural diversity they bring. We should consider “What is the moral, ethical and humane thing to do?” The attitude of some toward immigrants is reminiscent of Germany’s attitude about Aryan superiority in the 1930’s. The concept of Aryan, a fallacious concept but adopted by anti-Semites in the 19th and 20th century that was appropriated by Nazis and led to the concept of “untermenschen” or a racially inferior group, compared to Aryans or the master race. This idea, of course, is a thoroughly discredited concept but the current attitudes toward immigrants has features of Hitler’s and Nazi ideation.

Then

Now