These are the profoundly American words found at the Statue of Liberty inviting ALL people who dream of building better lives for their families in our country:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
And in stark contrast, President Trump and the Republican Party demand the following when it comes to who they let cross our borders to find the American Dream.
1) A “big and beautiful Wall” that will cost Americans at the very least $18 billion and change. A wall that would serve as nothing more than a big, symbolic “F@&# you” to our family and neighbors in Mexico and farther south.
2) Ending “chain migration” which is what xenophobes and white nationalists refer to when allowing entire families to emigrate to America. They feel that too many people from Mexico and South America are being admitted to our country so they want to break up families and only allow portions of them to enter.
3) Creating an un-American point system where immigrants are allowed entrance according to their perceived value to America. In other words, if you are educated, wealthy and a person of means, you are in.
But if you are poor, uneducated and oppressed, don’t bother applying. Trump and the GOP don’t want anything to do with you.
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Trump has made his call to arms and white nationalists and racists across America have emerged from their holes to fan the flames of fear.
Fear of the immigrant.
Fear of the person of color.
Fear of the other.
Fear of getting knocked off the top of the American food chain.
Fear of becoming a minority.
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America has always been about open arms and open borders.
Welcoming the tired, the poor, the homeless and the wretched.
We have no room for fear in our country.
America needs immigration reform but not like this.
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A boy looks through a hole in the US-Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico.
Photograph: Edgard Garrido/Reuters
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