We Should Honor and Welcome Immigrants -- And We Need Them!

 I’m writing this week from an Alaskan cruise. Finally, a post-pandemic vacation on a ship where everyone had to be fully vaccinated and also test negative before boarding. (Not possible in Florida, thanks to their idiot governor — will that policy win him re-election? Let’s hope not!)

Anyone who has been on a cruise ship knows that 90 to 99% of the crew is international — mostly Filipino, but also Caribbean, Central American and other Asians. On our ship there are 1,800 crew serving 2,500 Americans. A crew member I spoke with could only name three American co-workers.

Without immigrants, legal or illegal, our vegetable and fruit growers would be hard pressed to get laborers at any price, and roofing companies would be hard pressed to replace hundreds of roofs after a hail storm.

America needs to come to terms with the kind of racism epitomized by Donald Trump’s immigration policy. We need to appreciate those who walk hundreds of miles or more to enter America to make a living and support our economy.  

From HuffingtonPost.com - "Data Disappeared" - Trump hides data that doesn't match his rhetoric

Four years ago, Donald Trump won the presidency while relentlessly fearmongering about refugees. So it came as no surprise when, in March 2017, his White House ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to study the long-term costs of refugee resettlement. A few months later, HHS returned with their results: Far from being a drain on resources, refugees had, in fact, contributed $63 billion more in government revenue than they had received in benefits between 2005 and 2014. The numbers were not to the White House’s liking—and so senior adviser Stephen Miller simply buried them. “The president believes refugees cost more, and the results of this study shouldn’t embarrass the president,” he reportedly told agency staff.

That’s just one example out of a myriad of instances during the last four years where the Trump administration has purposefully destroyed, manipulated, subverted and sidelined data—the lifeblood of a functioning government. Are honey bee colonies on the verge of collapse? How toxic is mercury? Are people of color paid less for the same work? How economically devastating has the COVID-19 pandemic been? The Trump administration’s war on data has made each of those questions, and many more, harder to answer—and thus harder to do anything about. As writer Samanth Subramanian puts it in the introduction to Data Disappeared, “by attacking numeracy, it is attacking democracy.” In 2021, for example, the United States will accept no more than 15,000 refugees, down from an annual average of 76,000 during the Obama administration.

Over the past year, a team of reporters at HuffPost has tracked and vetted these data distortions, using published accounts, NGO reports and government documents. What we present to you today is by no means an exhaustive list. Instead, it’s a chilling collection of the Trump administration’s most consequential and well-documented assaults on science—and reality itself.

Thanks for reading and take care,

‌Richard Kim

Enterprise Director, HuffPost

Click here to read the full story

What Is Behind Trump’s Opposition to Immigration, Legal or Illegal?

All of us (especially Native Americans) know that this country was built by immigrants. In school I wrote a term paper on “Jacob Riis, and the Rise of Municipal Reform.” His story is that of a Danish immigrant who loved America but saw the suffering of fellow immigrants in the tenements of New York City and worked his whole life to improve conditions, winning the respect of, among others, New York Police Commissioner Teddy Roosevelt along the way. 

His 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives (Amazon link), is a textbook for how one man can make a difference, making him a role model for myself among, I’m sure, so many others who wish to leave the world a better place than they found it.

Journalism was his tool. He met TR when he was a police reporter for the New York Tribune, and the two of them would venture out together late at night in the slums to witness (and report on) the terrible conditions. Not only is Jacob Riis my role model in journalism, Teddy is my role model in politics. He actually cared about people and, despite being from a “blue blood” American family (like me), he appreciated immigrants.

Donald Trump is not in that tradition.  Have you noticed?

It’s not that Trump doesn’t value immigrants. He hired many of them to work in his father’s buildings, and to build his skyscrapers and casinos (link to Vanity Fair article). His often racist and certainly xenophobic tweets about immigrants are not rooted so much in a personal animus towards them, but he says those things because they appeal to a base which does feel that way. Fear is such a great tool for a politician, and the president is masterful at using fear to stimulate and mobilize his base.

What’s puzzling, though, is how his opposition to immigration has spanned the entire spectrum of races and nationalities. Although he spoke of welcoming blond-haired Norwegians as immigrants (link to Reuters article), even white Europeans (like Jacob Riis) are not welcome in Trump’s America. We should, I suppose, consider them “collateral damage” in the campaign to keep America from diversifying any more than it already has.

The five black and brown immigrants who were nationalized in the White House recently didn’t know that the footage of that event would be used as window dressing for the Republican convention (link to ABC News segment), masking the president’s actual attitude toward all immigrants. They probably feel used, but who among them is likely to complain? It’s just so sad to see them used that way.

The purpose of such tidbits is to give his fans the means to deny his (and their) true racism and xenophobia.

By now, Trump supporters probably realize that his actions and statements (which they love) aren’t rooted in core beliefs, but so what? Although he has been a pro-choice Democrat in the past (link to BBC report), what’s the problem? Trump has found his happy place as a pro-life, anti-immigrant politician. Those voters feed his ego more devoutly (guns drawn!) than progressive voters ever would.

Unemployment hits 49-year low, as ICE continues to deport tax-paying laborers

I keep waiting for the media or politicians to link these two issues. Back in January I reported economist Elliot Eisenberg's opinion that we can't grow the country's economy without more workers. It is short-sighted to take working people and force them out of the country.  These people, because they are working, are paying taxes -- including Medicare taxes that you and I benefit from and they'll never benefit from -- yet the Trump administration is deporting them, often leaving their American citizen children without their family's main financial support and depriving us all of needed service workers.  I'd like to see someone beside myself (and Mr. Eisenberg) point this out!

Meanwhile, our government allows foreigners to get student Visas so they can earn PhD's from MIT and elsewhere, then force them to take their knowledge and skills back to their home country.  I like the proposal of "stapling a green card to their diplomas!"