Immigrants- Thank you to the League of Women Voters

There is no national emergency at the US border. 

Rather, the real emergency is, in fact, the terrible humanitarian crises caused by Donald Trump, by treating families and children like caged animals. Kristjen Nielson* can't deny that the US government is putting human beings who are seeking legal seeking asylum, in cyclone chain link cages.

https://www.rrstar.com/opinion/20190223/letter-us-league-of-women-voters-stands-with-immigrants

An echo opinion letter published in the Rockford Illinois, Register Star. The League of Women Voters U.S. CEO Virginia Kase issued the following statement: “By declaring a state of emergency, the president abuses his national emergency powers and undermines Congressional authority — all for a wasteful, ineffectual border wall that will not make our nation safer.

“The American people expect the president to fulfill his executive responsibility for sound management of public funds, not sidestep Congress in order to force funding for a border wall that the American people have not sanctioned.

“The league objects to this abusive declaration of a national emergency.”

The League believes that immigration policies should promote reunification of families, meet economic, business and employment needs and be responsive to those facing political persecution or humanitarian crises.

Those seeking asylum, desperate people who are escaping the fear of death in their Central American countries, are not breaking any laws. Rather, they are obeying U.S. law, that says asylum seekers may present themselves at any port of entry. 

They must, by law be admitted and given a process to determine whether they will be given asylum.

Diversity and immigration have made our country great. Immigrant families must be treated with the same dignity and respect we afford to citizens of the U.S. League of Women Voters stands in solidarity with immigrants and our partners in the immigrant rights community.

— Jo Minor, chairman, League of Women Voters of Greater Rockford

*Mika Brzezinski co-host of MSNBC "Morning Joe", launched a blistering attack on Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, after her testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee.

Paul LePage criticizing innocent people on FoxNews- makes no sense (as usual!)

Maine needs immigrants, not LePage’s opinions

MaineWriter - My letter to The Forecaster editor Feb. 4, 2019

(With a personal P.S. added to this blog)

Dear Forecaster, When Fox News interviewed former Gov. Paul LePage about his wrong-minded criticism towards Maine’s asylum-seekers, he made assumptions about the needs of the state’s aging population. He was wrong to say that Mainers who “lived their lives in Maine are without services in their aging years or with their disabilities.” He assumed the reason is because of asylum-seekers. The fact is, the state’s population growth is pretty much flat. Population growth is having an impact on the number of caregivers who will provide care for all Mainers, including the aged and those with disabilities. Maine’s nursing shortage is another contributing factor challenging the access to care for our citizens.

In fact, the correct response to this looming problem is to support allowing asylum-seekers to work while they wait for their legal proceedings. Moreover, welcoming immigrants is the best way to provide for the population needed to sustain Maine’s workforce. Immigrants are needed to work in the tourism industries. It’s pitiful to see the former governor speak about asylum-seekers like they are somehow a problem, when welcoming them and other immigrants could help to overcome Maine’s caregiver and service-sector shortages.

Juliana L’Heureux
Topsham

P.S. What I wanted to include in this opinion was a statement about Paul LePage's personal immigrant ancestry.  He is a Franco-American. His family were among the tens of thousands of immigrants who came into Lewiston and other Maine cities for the purpose of finding work in the industrial and textile mills. In fact, LePage is a hypocrite to criticize other people for aspiring to achieve the same opportunities that the members of his family were offered, when his relatives obtained work in Lewiston's mills. 

White supremacist zealots are dangerous, not innocent immigrants - echo from Utah

Echo opinion in support of protecting migrants and asylum seekers published in The Daily Utah Chronicle a University of Utah newspaper, by Andrea Alvarado 

Alvarado: The Real Danger is White Supremacy, Not Refugees

Fox (propaganda) News and Donald Trump market the innocent immigrant caravan from Central America as the greatest threat to the safety of America. Lies! In fact, we must be worried about the supremacists that are inside our border. (MaineWriter: Refugees and asylum seekers are not dangerous, but white supremacists are radical right wing extremists who are capable of executing violence.  Supremacists are intent on perpetrating the evils of man's inhumanity to man.)

Legal and illegal immigrants in their majority are not violent criminals preying on law-abiding citizens. 

Studies have shown immigrants are less likely to commit a crime than a native-born citizen of the United States. Nonetheless, the general perception of immigrants from poorer nations is an inherent proclivity towards violent behavior which seems to justify refusal of entry for asylum seekers.

The existence of the migrant caravan has been known for months. Their stories have been documented and shared by the news throughout the world. Unfortunately, this hasn’t moved the president or his administration to consider hearing their plea for asylum. They claim open borders are the first step towards the corruption of American culture, even though these people escaping gangs and poverty from Honduras are only asking for an application for asylum. 

It is not a surprise attack or a threat to American sovereignty, but mostly for thousands of malnourished refugees who are so afraid for their safety. They have walked through countries to escape the violence at home. Nevertheless, they are still vilified as a plague, bloodthirsty criminals disguising as women and children.

Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen have defended their decision of firing tear gas into a different country! Not only did this violate international law protecting refugees seeking asylum, but the United States actively ignored the established Mexican border. 

Instead of allowing the refugees to present their cases and apply formally for entry to the country, the administration is challenging international agreements that are meant to keep nations safe from foreign intervention. In addition, the U.S. troops were deployed to the border to protect the country from tired and still distant refugees instead of spending Thanksgiving with their families. 

Even though the rhetoric surrounding the caravan has portrayed it as the greatest threat to the United States in modern history, the true terror is already inside our borders.

While Homeland Security is tear-gassing refugees on foreign territory, right-wing extremists are sending explosive devices to former and current government officials and slaughtering other American citizens in places of worship. But the narrative is drastically different when reporting these sorts of incidents. They are “mentally ill,” “delusional” or flat out “sick.” 

Meanwhile, these Central American refugees have been called “bad people,” “terrorists” and “criminals” without any reason. The president is afraid MS-13 and ISIS members are hiding amidst the caravan, but instead of advocating for a background screening of these refugees, he resorts to violence.

While Trump blatantly condemns this group of people that have done little to deserve it, he is failing to address the growing violence against minorities and his own critics. These acts of violence that can disrupt and end the lives of any law-abiding citizens are isolated incidents to the Trump administration and Fox News. The term “terrorism” is rarely used when describing these horrific events while a caravan of poor immigrants is rapidly labeled a national emergency. The truth is white supremacy and the anti-immigrant rhetoric go hand in hand.

letters@chronicle.utah.edu

@TheChrony

Saint Patrick - immigrant, migrant and slave

"America has Abraham Lincoln, Britain has Winston Churchill, and South Africa has Nelson Mandela. These men are honored for what they overcame and accomplished with their political power, but St. Patrick, because of what he accomplished in the conversion of a population, did so without any power."-from Consider the Gospel.org **
When right wingers stigmatize refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and immigrants as people who inordinately consume our attention and resources, think about the life of St. Patrick. Think about what he accomplished, as one man, who carried the unwarranted stigmas attributed to the desperate refugees we must help in today's world.

There was a time when the Irish were the desperate refugees who fled by tens of thousands to escape starvation cause by the devastating great potato famine. In spite of their desperation, the Irish eventually become political "influencers" in the Northeast.

In Celtic Ireland, Saint Patrick himself rose to the highest levels of Roman Catholic leadership. Even during in his lifetime, he was recognized for his leadership, all while overcoming the stigma of being a migrant, an immigrant and slave.

Even Donald Trump's own mother Mary Anne McCue Trump was a Scottish immigrant and her son was elected US president.

Ireland's church leaders call us to remember the root of their nation's conversion to Christianity. In fact, the transcending leadership figure was in the person of St. Patrick, who was a migrant, an immigrant and a slave.

Irish archbishop: St. Patrick was an ‘undocumented migrant’-The Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin (Credit: Archdiocese of Armagh)

St. Patrick called himself an 'unlearned refugee'. Archbishop Armagh, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland called the faithful to remember that St. Patrick was first brought to Ireland as a slave, by traffickers, and that many today find themselves displaced and without status in our world.

ARMAGH, Northern Ireland - The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland urged the Irish people and those of Irish descent, especially while celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, to remember the plight of migrants.

Archbishop Eamon Martin - St. Patrick’s modern-day successor as Archbishop of Armagh - used his message for the March 17th feast of St. Patrick, to recall how the church leader and saint was first brought to Ireland as a slave, by traffickers.

The archbishop said that “as Irish people, we cannot think of Patrick without acknowledging the enormous humanitarian and pastoral challenges facing growing numbers of people who find themselves displaced and without status in our world.

“This is so shockingly exemplified by the refugee crisis here in Europe,” he said.

“Prompted by the situation of thousands of displaced people around the world, let us think about Patrick the ‘unlearned refugee’ (as he once described himself), the slave in exile, Patrick the undocumented migrant,” Martin said.

Referring to, among others, the estimated 50,000 Irish people living illegally in the United States, the archbishop - who is also president of the Irish bishops’ conference - pointed out that “many of our compatriots remain undocumented in various countries around the world and, in some cases, feel vulnerable and treated with suspicion.”

The archbishop pointed out that “St. Patrick’s experience of isolation and captivity as a teenager transformed and shaped his whole life and his relationship with God. His lonely time as a slave on the hills of Ireland became a transforming experience, where he felt embraced by the fatherly love of God.

“I invite you to pray for refugees and for all displaced families at this time and, wherever you are, to encourage the hospitality and welcome for which we Irish are famous the world over,” Martin said.

Meanwhile, to mark the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, Catholic and Protestant cathedrals in Armagh were to be illuminated in green. Tradition holds that St. Patrick founded the ancient see of Armagh.

Anglican Archbishop Richard Clarke will lead those gathered in prayer at St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland (Anglican) Cathedral, then guide the group via torchlight to St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, where they will be welcomed by Martin.

Organizers said this symbolic expression of the unity of the churches reflects St. Patrick’s own journey of uniting the Irish people with Christianity.
**Patrick was born in Britain when the Roman Legions had left the British Isles in the early 400’s CE. Britain was a lawless place then full of anarchy, looting and kidnapping. In His Confession (one of two of his extant writings) he states that when he was ‘sixteen’ (Confessions 1) or “almost a beardless boy” (Confessions 10) he was captured by Irish slave-traders, taken to Ireland, sold as a slave where he tended his master’s herds (probably pigs) for seven years. Back home his grandfather had been a priest and his father a deacon so he had been raised in a relatively well-off household. However he had never accepted true faith. He describes himself in his youth as a “sinner”, who along with his hometown friends “did not keep His (God’s) precepts, nor were we obedient” (Confessions 1). However, during his lonely years in a barbaric place, amidst a foreign language, strange customs and deprived opportunities, the teachings sown into his heart in childhood sprang to life. He describes his herder life as one “…out in the forests and on the mountain … in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain…” (Confessions 16)  (Maine Writer- in today's world, everyday is St. Patrick's Day when we are summoned to support the world's desperate immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers and trafficking victims.)

Maine people in the sad position of listening to Governor LePage

I'm mystified about why Governor Paul LePage is obsessed with denegrating Maine's immigrant community and the asylum seekers when his own family were French-Canadian immigrants.  I'm especially distressed about how Governor LePage intimidates asylum seekers because they work so hard to be accepted.  

Governor Paul LePage has changed the way people think about Maine.  Instead of thinking "LLBean" the state is now becoming affiliated with the LePage habit of using outrageous rhetoric, unsubstantiated claims about "germs", racism and anti-immigration rhetoric

When my husband and I were recently in Prague in the Czech Republic, we were asked the inevitable question about where in America we lived? We were surprised when our questioner didn't respond by saying, "Where's Maine?". Instead, the questioner said, "Oh, that's the state with an outrageous governor!". Today, I received a telephone call from a friend who regularly vacations in Palm Springs, California. At one time, when he visited Palm Springs, the conversations about Maine about "LLBean"; but now the response to Maine is a groan about our Governor.

A Portland Press Herald editorial opinion explains this distress:
Our View: LePage keeps up misinformation campaign against asylum-seekers

The governor's most recent screed - his weildy speeches- about newcomers to the U.S. paints Maine as inhospitable and feeds unwarranted fears.

For the leader of a state that is struggling to maintain its population, Gov. LePage has always had a counterproductive approach to immigration. Now it is bordering on delusional.

On Tuesday night in Freeport, at his most recent town hall-style meeting, the governor called asylum-seekers “the biggest problem in our state.” Never mind the opiate crisis, struggling rural communities and the demographic time bomb that is Maine’s aging population – the real issue, according to LePage, is the relatively small number of people who arrived here seeking a new life after fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries.

Fortunately, this is a battle that the governor has lost at nearly every turn. Unfortunately, he continues to wage it, spreading misinformation, giving Maine a reputation as an unwelcoming place, and providing a foothold to anyone with a tendency to fear and loathe newcomers of different races and ethnicities.

HELPING NEW ARRIVALS
The governor’s case against asylum-seekers – at least he didn’t erroneously call them “illegal immigrants,”as he has before – is twofold.

First, he says that scarce state and federal funds should go to Maine residents.

That is at least a reasonable argument, but one that LePage and his allies lost, as others rightly argued that it is not an “either-or” situation, and that Maine both has an obligation to and can benefit from new arrivals.

As a result, a bill was passed giving asylum-seekers the right to collect General Assistance while their application for asylum is processed, during which time they cannot legally work.

The bill went into law without LePage’s signature, and the Republican Party eventually launched an unsuccessful effort to put on the 2016 ballot a referendum that would have effectively overturned the law. The party has said it will try again for 2017.

Until then, LePage can continue to argue that Maine doesn’t have the resources to help asylum-seekers, but the law says they are entitled to that aid, and he has no right to muddy the argument with misleading claims that speak to people’s worst fears about immigrants.

‘FOREIGN TYPE DISEASES’
Which brings us to the governor’s second point: that asylum-seekers bring to Maine“hepatitis C, tuberculosis, AIDS, HIV, the ‘ziki fly,’ (sic) all these other foreign type diseases that find a way to our land.”

On this issue, the governor should be ashamed of himself. There is absolutely no proof that asylum-seekers and other immigrants are contributing to anything approaching a public health problem, and to suggest that Mainers are in danger because of their presence is the worst kind of rhetoric.

According to the most recent data available, rates of AIDS and HIV have remained relatively flat in recent years, even as the number of asylum-seekers has grown sharply.

In the same period, hepatitis C has increased slightly, though that has been attributed to the rise in the use of heroin.

Most of the tuberculosis cases in Maine do indeed come from foreign-born residents, but with an average of fewer than 16 cases a year in the prior three years, it is hardly a crisis.

And while LePage is right that asylum-seekers are not screened for medical problems with the same urgency as refugees, there is no evidence that it has created problems here.

So, rather than make the state inhospitable for immigrants, Maine should make sure asylum-seekers have access to health care when they arrive here, as part of a comprehensive effort to welcome them, and put their energy and talents to good use.

I certainly don't like listening to Governor LePage because, frankly, he is an embarrassment to our nation and to Maine.