Read This: Immigration, The American Fabric

Nov 14, 2024 | Easy A, Immigration

Many extremists made immigration and the fear of immigrants a central issue in their 2024 election campaigns, and it worked. A lot of them got elected, including Donald Trump with his promise to conduct mass deportations. So let’s talk about immigration.

Who Are Immigrants?

The United States is largely a nation of immigrants from all over the world. We are each diverse threads that weave together to create the beautiful American fabric.

Immigrants are not a monolith. They come from many different countries for many different reasons. Everyone is an individual with their own unique story. Whether they are fleeing war, violence, corruption, economic instability, climate disasters, or looking for opportunity, they share a desire for safety and a future for themselves and their families.

Immigrants come to the U.S. through work, student, or family visas, as asylum-seeking refugees, or meet the legal requirements for naturalization. They contribute to our communities and economy by starting businesses, serving in the military, or working in areas like healthcare, childcare, agriculture, construction, government, and service, to name a few.

Truths About Immigrants

Extremists want us to fear immigrants, so they spread dangerous myths and disinformation. But immigrants are not the problem. The problem is the partisan politicians who are dehumanizing and othering immigrants to divide us and gain political power. The scarier and more negative the lies are, the more quickly they spread and take hold. Let’s look at some facts instead.

It’s also true that our current immigration system is not equipped to handle the increase in people seeking citizenship. We can debate how to fix it, but most Americans agree, we want to solve our immigration challenges with humane policies and legal pathways to citizenship. We want our politicians to find solutions, not scapegoats.

Keeping the American Fabric Strong

So what can we do? It may feel difficult in light of the recent election results, but we don’t have to lose our values or our hope for the future.

We can have conversations with the people we know. We can stand up to partisan talking points and myth-bust their disinformation by sharing facts and real immigrant stories — starting with our own family histories. We can reject the othering of immigrants and seek to find similarities and honor our differences. We can support immigrant-owned businesses in our communities and immigrant families in our local schools. And it’s never too soon to look for like-minded politicians to support in the next election cycle.

The strength of our American fabric comes from the tight weave of our diverse threads. Let’s not let hateful politicians tear that fabric apart.

Recent Posts

Do This: Celebrate Right to Read Day

Monday, April 7 is Right to Read Day — a day to celebrate and defend our freedom to read while we also bring attention to the rising, extremist attempts to take it away. We are a partner with Unite Against Book Bans, a program of the American Library Association, and...

Watch This: The Right to Read is Under Attack

We are proud to be one of more than 200 organizations and tens of thousands of individuals who make up the American Library Association's Unite Against Book Bans. Together, we’re helping our communities advocate for the freedom to read. On April 7, 2025, we’re...

Read This: A New Era of Fighting Book Bans

In a few weeks, we’ll celebrate Right to Read Day as part of National Library Week. National Library Week celebrates how reading and libraries enrich our lives and communities. It started in the 1950s over concerns that Americans were reading less and spending more...

Do This: Get Your Copy of the Costs of Conflict Report!

We’ve learned that extremism cost our public schools $3.2 billion last year. Now we’re also seeing that President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon fully intend to defund and destroy the U.S. Department of Education entirely. That means our public schools...

Watch This: The Costs of Conflict

A new research report found that extremist attacks on schools and teachers — from book bans to new laws controlling what is taught about race and history — cost our public schools $3.2 billion last year alone! Watch this short video to hear directly from one of the...