President Trump will have you believe that our national security is under threat by a group of refugees seeking asylum at our border. That’s the story he tells us. But the real threat we are facing is already within our borders, and it’s not refugees or immigrants. For generations, we have offered refuge to migrants fleeing danger.
What’s at stake is not our national security if we let them in, but our national character if we don’t.
As news hit that a caravan of refugees was coming to our border fleeing violence and extreme poverty, Trump responded by calling them an invasion and deploying National Guard troops. As soon as they arrived at the port of entry, the administration said they didn’t have space to accept more asylum seekers and left over 200 people, mostly women and children, camping outside in the hot days and cold nights without shelter or blankets.
By keeping out asylum seekers, what are we letting in?
The Trump administration has facilitated the poisonous rise of racial hatred and scapegoating within our country, threatening the very values that this nation was founded on. His association of immigrants and refugees with invaders and rapists, feeds racial profiling and vigilante violence targeting immigrants and people perceived to be immigrants. When the president shows support — direct or indirect — for white supremacists, it normalizes white supremacy.
Whether or not we have always lived up to principles of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” they are the source of the values that have welcomed the disenfranchised and those fleeing violence and persecution. The strength of this nation has never been found in our rejection of those who come our shores; our strength has always been in the uniting power of the values we share and the country we’ve built together.
The caravan of asylum seekers exposes the president’s failure of American values. We must be warned and vigilant, but not against those who heed the call of the Statue of Liberty. The damage we do to ourselves by not rejecting Trump’s position is far greater than any damage a caravan of tired, hungry refugees presents.
The people of this country know how to protect our founding principles. When we found ourselves under the leadership of a president who has repeatedly insulted, degraded, and even admitted to assaulting women, we organized the Women’s March. When Trump signed the “Muslim ban,” suspending our refugee program and banning entry for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, we gathered in the thousands at airports across the country in protest, and provided free legal support to release travelers who found themselves suddenly unable to join their loved ones.
This caravan presents an equally defining moment to show who we are as a people. And we’re beginning to rise to the occasion. While the administration has maintained that refugees will not be admitted, hundreds have responded to the arrival of the caravan by opening their homes. Just last week a group of 70 refugees succeeded in presenting themselves at the crossing, each holding in their hands a piece of paper bearing a name and phone number of someone they’ve never met but who is ready to welcome them. Now is the time to add our voices and energy behind these acts of American moral courage and humanity.
The tired, poor, “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are literally knocking at our door. They are neither figurative nor proverbial.
Their names are Ivan, Gabriela and Jonathan, and they come from countries like Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, and from the African continent. They have walked thousands of miles for their freedom, courageously holding onto the hope of the United States despite the messages of hostility the president has been tweeting at them.
They believe in the values that unite us more than President Trump does, and they have brought with them a challenge: What are our values?
