This is a land of immigrants, and most come here for opportunity, a second chance.
While I was growing up in Flushing, Queens, we socialized exclusively with other Chinese immigrants. I was forbidden to make contact with nonapproved, non-Chinese peers outside school. That was fine with me.
The voters in my district, and around the country, have demanded that Congress get a hold on the influx of illegal immigrants and tighten the security around our borders.
The suspicion that immigrants are not to be trusted or are unpatriotic is not just wrong; it is un-American. And dangerous.
The fact of the matter is, this country is not going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. What are we supposed to do with them? What are we supposed to do with these kids?
A big part of the anti-immigration narrative is the perception that the majority of immigrants are poor, uneducated, and unskilled.
My father lost his leg in 1927 playing soccer. A kick broke his leg; gangrene set in. They sawed it off. So he didn't get what a lot of Irish immigrants got, which was a job on the Waterfront - he didn't get that.
Conservatives forget that citizenship is more than a thing to withhold from immigrants. Progressives forget it's more than a set of rights.
It is always easier to have somebody to blame, but immigrants are not the cause of the country's economic woes.
