Drawn by the promise of American opportunity, immigrants have routinely traveled to the U.S. from other continents fleeing political or religious persecution and economic hardships.
However, in today’s political rhetoric, the flow of immigrants to the U.S. has been described by some as an invasion, almost like a plague infecting the purity of America.
Last year, the Marshall Project documented many of President Donald Trump’s claims that unauthorized immigrants are criminals, monsters, killers and gang members who are poisoning our country, taking our jobs, eating pets, stealing public benefits and committing violent crime in sanctuary cities.
Those wild claims have turned into real-life policy. And it’s been playing out on the streets of Chicago and its suburbs daily since the start of “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Even for those among us who don’t buy into those harsh words, by not consistently and loudly rejecting both the administration’s language and actions, we are tacitly endorsing the policies fueled by such rhetoric.
We’re also ignoring our history.
The president has blamed America’s so-called open borders and the policies of his predecessor for the scourge of illegal immigration.
But America’s borders were far more open more than a century ago, when 12 million European immigrants arrived here — from countries like England, Germany and Ireland — in the last 30 years of the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. Our borders remained largely accessible from 1900 to 1915, when another 15 million immigrated to America from southern and eastern European countries like Italy, Poland and Russia.
Like today’s immigrants, many of those European immigrants struggled with language barriers, finding work and adjusting to American culture. They also faced resistance and prejudice from native-born Americans who viewed them as competition for jobs and opportunities.
But eventually, the rough spots, including the racism, were smoothed out, and they were adopted as fellow Americans.
The same can’t be said for many of the immigrants of color from Africa, Asia, Central America, Mexico and South America who’ve arrived here since the early 1900s. Those immigrants are still fighting for the acceptance of native-born Americans, many of whom are descendants of the European immigrants of years past.
It’s hard not to get swept up in the day-to-day, blow-by-blow happenings surrounding immigration enforcement. But when you get a chance to reflect, during those few quiet moments between news headlines, the irony of the moment is hard to ignore.
It’s so thick you can cut it with a knife.
How can a nation full of the descendants of immigrants, on land stolen by foreign colonizers, be so opposed to the arrival of people seeking the same things their ancestors did years ago?
How can Americans glorify the hardscrabble lives of European immigrants as they fought for their place in this country — including those who formed actual gangs and earned their livelihoods through organized crime — while stereotyping and demonizing others for taking a similar path?
If Americans can celebrate yesterday’s immigrants for their resilience and temerity, and overlook their questionable choices, surely they can do the same for today’s immigrants.
If Americans can acknowledge that their place in this country was solidified by their ancestors being allowed entrance to this land, surely they can pay it forward and allow the entrance of others to build a similar legacy.
Perhaps it’s hard for them to see their great-great-grandparents in the faces of today’s migrants, but they’re largely the same — seeking refuge from persecution and poverty in the world’s wealthiest nation. They’ve ventured here with the same intentions, and they’re worthy of the same opportunities.
Alden Loury is data projects editor for WBEZ and writes a column for the Sun-Times.