A Nation of Immigrants                            

    By Hank Silverberg 

     Once again, the ugliness of racism, bigotry and ignorance has found its way into the ongoing debate over immigration laws. The catalyst this time was a comment from President Trump that was widely quoted out of context.  Answering a question about MS -13, the violent street gang that has infested Latin America and many American cities large and small, the President called them “animals.”   

      Reaction to that comment brought out the ugliness. It was mis-interpreted by many as a reference to Hispanic immigrants in general, and for once the President had a legitimate beef.  That’s not what he said. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aib5Ts2cDI8&feature=youtu.be

     A few news organizations pointed out the error. Others did not. The reaction was swift, negative and predictable because of Mr Trump's history on the issue. He has called immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants, "rapists and murderers," so it's hard to separate this latest comment from the many that came before. 
       But here’s what touched off my anger this time.   

     Ann Coulter, a conservative pundit who has a reputation for speaking before she thinks and misinterpreting everything, jumped into the fray with her usual knee-jerk reaction in her column. She recounted Chief of Staff John Kelly’s earlier comments from last week about the flood of immigrants from Latin America.

 Kelly, forgetting his own Irish and Italian roots, said:

   "They're overwhelmingly rural people. In the countries they come from, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm. They don't speak English — obviously that's the big thing, They don't integrate well — they don't have skills."   

        That, of course, is ridiculous. Any student of history knows that wave after wave of immigrants have come to this country and assimilated with little trouble. Millions of them were uneducated and didn’t speak English when they got here. And in fact, last week a genealogist named Jennifer Mendelsohn posted on her twitter feed a page from the U-S Census revealing that Kelly's maternal great -grandfather was an illiterate Italian immigrant named John DeMarco. In 1900 he had been in America for 18 years, had not become a U-S citizen and could not speak English.       

    Immigrants (those not born in the USA) and their U-S born children are 27 percent of this country’s population right now, or 86.4 million people. That comes from the The Current Population Survey which also says that in  2016, about 21.2 million were naturalized citizens and 22.5 million were here as lawful permanent residents.  An estimated 11.4 million were here illegally.

   A recent poll conducted by the Gallop organization found that 56% of the 331 million people living in the USA can trace their family’s presence in the USA back no more than three generations. If you go back four generations that numbers rises to two thirds of all the people who live in America. These are compelling statistics. 

     So, this brings me back to Ann Coulter, who wrote in her column this week:    

     “All immigrants have been a problem in their own way. Italian immigrants brought us organized crime, something America had never experienced before. Jewish immigrants brought us radicals, communists and anarchists, setting off bombs all over the place. Irish immigrants brought poverty and shocking levels of crime -- also William Brennan and Teddy Kennedy, the two men who did more than any others to wreck our country.” 

 It is ignorant comments like that which continue to divide us.

     Here are the facts, Ann:

     First, millions of immigrants did not speak English when they got here. Italian immigrants may have included a few who became mobsters, but they also brought us nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi in 1901, and Academy Award winning director Frank Capra in 1903, to name just two.

      The comments Coulter made about Jews are downright anti-Semitic.  

(Supreme Court Justice

Felix Frankfurter) 

Jewish immigration brought us, among others, journalist Joseph Pulitzer in 1864, composer Irving Berlin (who wrote God Bless America) and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, both in 1893. Famed scientist Albert Einstein came in 1933 and diplomat Henry Kissinger came in 1938.

     There are millions more not so famous immigrants who arrived in waves in the 19th and 20th centuries, fleeing  war, poverty and famine for a new opportunity in what Ronald Reagan once called "a shining city on a hill." Among them were both sets of my grandparents and my great grand parents. My grandfather, Sam Lippy, who left Poland to escape anti-Semitism and war, was among thousands of immigrants who risked their lives as union organizers in America in the 1930's. It was that type of activism which produced the 40 hour work week, paid sick leave and safe working conditions that all Americans now take for granted.  
       My great grandparents Hyman and Sarah Setlow came from Kiev about 1898, selling a successful business to escape the Russian Czar's pogroms. (Pictured here with their big family.)  Their children, great grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, who include scientists, journalists, teachers, social workers and college professors, have all been participating in the American Dream and contributing to what makes this country great. Their grandson Richard, a biophysicist, won the prestigous Fermi Prize. Their grand daughter, my mother Ruth, did ground breaking work in genetics counseling at Yale. 

(Grandma Frances,front row right) 

    Immigrants have always been the backbone of this country, whether they were black slaves, (involuntary immigrants) whose forced labor built the U-S Capitol building in the late 18th century, Chinese and Irish laborers who built the transcontinental railroad in the middle of the 19th century, or my grandma Frances who made hats for a milliner for pennies in the early 20th century.

     The progeny of those earlier immigrants are now the foundation of this country. Immigrants have always been what makes this country great and makes us different from every other country in the world.
       But if we continue the current trend to reject,ostracize or ignore their contribution to America's success in the past or in the future, the dream will die and America will no longer be--America.    

                                                                                                                            
 
                                               (Your suggestions and comments are welcome) 

                                                   
            (My new book is available at hanksilverbergbooks.com , Amazon.com, BN.com or directly from me by emailing me a through comments below. )  

 Book synopsis:  

The Vice-President of the United States is conflicted. She has risen to her current job by jumping on the bandwagon with President Andrew Freeman who is  now, waging war against America’s biggest enemy—Iran.  Amy Roosevelt must make a decision whether to stay with Freeman or challenge him for the nomination. Though back channels she learns that the President’s health is declining. As Roosevelt ponders her decision, a conservative back bench Congressman from Missouri breaks out of the wanna-bees in the other party and also decides to run.  All this plays out as the man known only as Ishmael, continues his campaign of violence.