"City Upon a Hill" Immigration

America is Great Because of Immigrants

My husband is a naturalized U.S. citizen. His father, a Cuban refugee, endured two years in a work camp under Fidel Castro so that he cwould emigrate to Spain, where he immediately applied for a U.S. visa and waited for years before it was approved. As an attorney, I have won asylum for families fleeing from horrific abuse and probable death who came to our country, a beacon of hope with the promise of justice.

America’s diversity is what makes her uniquely great. It is our competitive advantage. The beauty of American immigration has been we have cast a wide net, ensuring diversity of ideas, skill sets and perspectives. By restricting immigration to just those that can afford to pay the $500,000 investor visa, we are assuring that we fall further behind economically.

Who Are We?

Further, there is a real question here about who we, as Americans, are. Are we the America that erected a Lady Liberty, the Roman goddess of justice, holding a light in one hand to shine the way to our shores, the Declaration of Independence in the other, and etched in her base the exoneration “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free…send these, the homeless…I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Or are we a country who sees the huddled masses at our southern border, mostly women and children, and concludes that they are in fact an “invasion” of “animals”, “terrorists”, “drugs and criminals” who are “trying to rush our borders”[1], with absolutely no proof?

Make no mistake; this latter worldview is one born from a fundamental belief that white people are superior to people of color or, in other words, a tenet of white supremacy[2]. The Trump Administration has demonstrated time and again that people of color are less desirable[3], productive[4], clean[5], law-abiding and trustworthy[6], civilized[7], and educated[8] – in a word, less humane- than Whites. Based on this perspective, this Administration is creating policy that affects every aspect of American society, and most obviously, immigration.

Is this who we are? Is this who you are?

The Facts

The fact is that the U.S. economy relies heavily on the labor and contributions of both documented and undocumented immigrants; 17% of American workers are immigrants[9] and over 20% of the Texas workforce alone comprises immigrants[10].

The fact is that 40% of Fortune 500 companies were started by immigrants.[11]

The fact is that undocumented immigrants pay $11,600,000,000 ($11.6 Billion) in taxes, while documented immigrants pay an additional $328,200,000,000 ($328.2 Billion) in taxes. [12]

The fact is that immigrants are less likely than native-born Americans to commit crimes in Texas and across the United States.[13]

The fact is that the outrageous cost of American healthcare has practically nothing to do with immigrants taking advantage of the system (and is the result of a for-profit, third-party payor model that incentivizes inefficiencies and rewards greed).[14]

Not only do we have room for immigrants, we absolutely need immigrants for future economic prosperity in the face of a shrinking U.S. workforce.[15]

My Position

Our immigration system has been broken for decades. I experienced it firsthand when helping legal immigrants apply for their citizenship. This is a problem of our own creation, or rather, a product of Congress’s lack of political courage to do its job.

If I win on November 3, 2020, the very next day I will relocate at our border and figure out how we reunite the tens of thousands of families from whom we have kidnapped and caged their children, entering the Senate with a concrete plan on my first day in office.

To fix the broken system that even allowed for such inhumanity to be perpetuated on behalf of the United States of America, I would fight for the following:

3-Point Immigration Plan

Completely overhaul our immigration system to create efficient, effective ways for people to legally enter our country based on our economic needs, rooted in data and projections on the changing American economy, and American values. To be clear, this would include:
1. A visa program based on needs of businesses to grow our economy; and
2. A visa program honoring our American values, such as asylum, refugee, and family reunification applications.
Renew President Reagan’s Immigration Reform Act to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, including Dreamers.
Invest in and deploy smart, cost-effective technology to ensure the highest security of our real-world and cyber borders from terrorists and foreign actor attacks.[16]

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/16/trump-immigrants-animals-mexico-democrats-sanctuary-cities/617252002/, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-anti-immigrant-invasion-rhetoric-was-echoed-el-paso-ncna1039286, https://www.axios.com/immigration-crime-border-trump-national-address-facts-6d752931-1a2b-40b2-a9e8-a912853b81ca.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/12/us/politics/trump-illegal-immigration-statistics.html, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/12/trump-incorrectly-links-immigration-terrorism/576358/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacy, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tucker-carlson-s-white-supremacy-hoax-comments-are-dangerous-they-ncna1040066, THERE IS A VIDEO ABOUT THE RISE OF WHITE SUPREMACY IN THE US, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/15/anti, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-supremacy-white-nationalism-entered-political-conversation/story?id=64998396, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/in-trumps-vision-of-a-white-america-immigrants-should-be-grateful-and-servile/2019/07/18/0afb70c6-a8e3-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/04/adam-serwer-madison-grant-white-nationalism/583258/, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/tucker-carlson-s-white-supremacy-hoax-comments-are-dangerous-they-ncna1040066

[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/, https://www.newsweek.com/tk-trumps-anti-muslim-comments-could-come-back-haunt-him-travel-ban-supreme-898086, https://www.npr.org/2018/01/13/577833720/a-history-of-when-the-u-s-chose-immigrants-by-their-country-of-origin,
https://www.npr.org/2018/01/13/577808792/president-trumps-idea-of-good-and-bad-immigrant-countries-has-a-historical-prece

[4] https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/6/16979160/kelly-daca-trump-lazy, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/08/lazy-vs-taking-american-jobs-the-white-houses-mixed-messages-on-dreamers/,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/07/17/donald-trump-racist-president-hates-what-makes-america-great-column/1743525001/

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-referred-haiti-african-countries-shithole-nations-n836946, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/shithole-countries/580054/, https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-rat-budget-trump-20190826-t6oay6qtqzexbefumapeyqp2hq-story.html

[6] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/03/17/trump-sees-immigrants-invaders-white-nationalist-terrorists-do-too/, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-continues-to-cast-some-immigrants-as-criminals, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/30/trump-wont-apologize-immigration-comments-wouldnt-make-10-cents-worth-difference/565712002/, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/29/16713664/trump-obama-birth-certificate, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/central-park-five-trump.html

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/03/17/trump-sees-immigrants-invaders-white-nationalist-terrorists-do-too/, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html, https://www.vox.com/2018/1/18/16897358/racism-donald-trump-immigration,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-ensuring-non-citizens-not-abuse-nations-public-benefit/

[8] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trump-plays-on-immigration-myths, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/us/immigration-public-charge-welfare.html,
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/15/trump-immigration-plan-puts-emphasis-on-skills-education-over-family.html

[9] https://www.npr.org/2019/02/18/695637887/immigration-and-the-economy, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/immigration-us-economy-153952247.html, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/business/immigration-cuts-economy.html; https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/forbrn.pdf, https://www.npr.org/2019/02/18/695637887/immigration-and-the-economy

[10] https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2018/march/foreign-born-workers-important-to-building-texas/, https://www.newamericaneconomy.org/press-release/new-data-shows-immigrants-made-up-nearly-30-percent-of-stem-workers-in-north-texas-in-2017/, https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/06/05/undocumented-texans-contribute-billions-to-the-economy-why-are-we-chasing-them-away/, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/upshot/immigration-america-rise-poor.html,
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

[11] https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2011/06/19/40-percent-of-fortune-500-companies-founded-by-immigrants-or-their-children/#25c428584a59, https://www.newsweek.com/immigrant-founded-fortune-500-companies-us-gdp-1450498, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/12/04/almost-half-of-fortune-500-companies-were-founded-by-american-immigrants-or-their-children/, https://fortune.com/2019/01/15/immigrants-founded-half-fortune-500-companies/, https://www.bushcenter.org/publications/resources-reports/reports/immigration.html

[12] https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/us/taxes-undocumented-immigrants/index.html, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/4-myths-about-how-immigrants-affect-the-u-s-economy, https://www.vox.com/2019/3/1/18241692/undocumented-immigrants-pay-state-local-taxes, https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2016.pdf, https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2015/03/26/chapter-1-occupations-of-unauthorized-immigrant-workers/, https://itep.org/immigration/