Xenophobia and Trump #340
By Hank Silverberg
I am second generation American. My parents were born here, my grandparents were not. As I have written before in this blog, two-thirds of the people now residing in the United States are less than three generations removed from their immigrant ancestors. President Trump was reminded of that this past week when the newly elected German Chancellor, Friedrich Mertz, visited the White House. Mr. Mertz presented Mr. Trump with a gold framed birth certificate of the President's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, who was born in Germany in 1869 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1885. Mertz said, "it's a small present to remind you of your family."
Friedrich Trump left Germany to avoid the draft (irony?), but was able to come to the United States because of chain migration--his sister already lived here and the U.S. needed foreign labor.
It was a trend that cannot be forgotten or shoved aside. Immigrants built this country. One of the major feats of the 19th Century was the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad connecting the East and West coast by rail for the first time. It was financed by the famed Robber Barons of the time through political schemes and stock manipulation. But the picks, shovels and explosives which built the economic engine of the industrial revolution in the United States were wielded by thousands of Chinese and Irish immigrants. They were recruited for the railroad work and then restricted, harassed and discriminated against for decades after it was completed.
Many American families have stories of their ancestors who came here seeking a new life, struggled at first and then succeeded despite prejudice and xenophobia which reared its ugly head from time to time.
And so we are in one of those times again. The contributions of today's immigrants, legal or illegal, cannot just be thrown aside and ignored.
They construct our buildings, clean our houses and hotel rooms and mow our lawns. They work long hours at poultry factories, picking produce or laying asphalt. They buy and sell real estate, care for our children or wash dishes at the local restaurant. They do the same jobs our great-grandparents did when they got here.
But now, those who are here illegally face deportation, even though they have contributed an estimated $2.2 trillion to the country's economy each year.
Which Industries Employ the Most Immigrants?
Employed civilian workers 16 years old and over, 2022
Yes, there is a criminal element in some cases, but they are a small minority. Most Americans support finding the bad guys and putting them on trial and deporting them. But that is not what we have seen in the last few weeks. What we have been witnessing are armed ICE agents in full combat gear, tracking down waiters, dishwashers and construction workers and throwing them in detention centers without the due process of a hearing or trial. In some cases, American citizens have been grabbed in ICE raids and often spend time in jail before they are able to prove their legal status.
And this does not even include the attempts to limit foreign students from attending college in the U.S. despite the billions of dollars they contribute to the economy.
This is not what America is supposed to be. We apparently have learned nothing from the past and are therefore condemned to relive the nightmares of the 19th and 20th Centuries.
It is no surprise that protests have erupted. There will be more of them. How they are handled by law enforcement, the courts and local, state and federal government will set the mood for the next decade and beyond. And since much of the fire has been fueled by the proliferation of misinformation and fake propaganda on the internet and social media, we may soon long for the calmness of the "turbulent" 1960's and 1970's.
News You May Have Missed!
A Rough Summer at National Parks
The cut-backs in workers at our national parks are becoming very obvious to park visitors. One must just look to the most famous of them all, Yosemite National Park in California where nearly all the staff, including scientists, are taking turns cleaning campground toilets. The staff hydrologist and an invasive species expert are now at entry gates processing visitors because the lower paid seasonal workers and junior staff are no longer there. At Crater Lake in Oregon, the loss of one snow plow operator could make it impossible to clear the ice and snow from the roads before visitors start showing up in the summer weather.
The National Parks Conservation Association , which is a watchdog-advocacy group for the parks, says DOGE cut 13% of the NPS workforce, which had been about 20,000 before Trump took office in January.
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| (Yosemite National Park, Courtesy NPS) |
And this may be just the beginning. The President's proposed "Big Beautiful Bill" could lead to a 75% reduction throughout the entire National Park System. The NPCA says that could eventually wipe out staffing and budgets in at least 350 of the 433 national park units across the country. It would be the largest proposed cuts in the Park Service's 109 year history. The NCPA's President, Theresa Pierno, says the cuts would be extreme. "It is catastrophic. If enacted by Congress, our national park system would be completely decimated."
Them!
Have you heard about THEM? It's not the 1954 B- grade movie about giant ants, but this invasive species could be a big problem. Stinging Asian Needle Ants are spreading across the United States, and have been found so far in 20 states. The infestation could peak in July or August. These ants are hard to spot because they are very small and blend in well to their surroundings. They often show up while you are gardening or moving wood because it disturbs their nests.
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| (Asian Needle Ant, Courtesy inaturalist.com) |
There have been at least three cases of life-threatening anaphylactic reactions reported and the ants are pretty widespread on the east coast. If you are bitten it will feel like someone has inserted a needle into you, very sharp but quite localized. Scientists say the bite can cause unusual pain that can come and go for hours. The ants are native to China, Japan and Korea, but they were first noticed here in 1932 in Georgia. Right now they have been found as far north as Connecticut and as far south as Florida, but they have also turned up in Wisconsin and Washington State. The scientists are not sure why they are becoming more prolific now.
The needle ants are dark brown and live in colonies in leaf litter, rotted logs, firewood and mulch. They can also nest in potted plants or in lawns.
https://news.yahoo.com/stinging-wicked-asian-needle-ants-100223349.html
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
This week's dumb quote comes from White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She often misses the point on many issues and this is a good example. Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident who was taken into custody and then shipped off to a brutal prison in El Salvador, has been brought back to the United States. He has been indicted by a federal grand jury and will now face trial. Whether he is guilty or not is pretty much irrelevant to the issue at hand. A jury will decide as it should be.
Garcia was sent off to that prison with no hearing, no trial and no due process. But that issue has been totally lost at the White House. You can tell by this comment from Leavitt:
"The Justice Department's Grand Jury Indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat ( sic) Party was wrong and their stenographers, in the Fake News media were once again played like fools."
No one who fought for his return ever said Garcia was totally innocent. Neither did the media. The objections were to his incarceration outside the country without a hearing or trial, a clear violation of the 4th Amendment. That's why the U.S. Supreme Court said he should be brought back. For those at the White House who have forgotten, in the United States a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/frederick-trump-donald-trump-grandfather
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