Idaho governor sends message to President Trump in support of refugees

On Oct. 1, 1997, Suketu Mehta, his parents and his sisters boarded a plane in Bombay to begin new immigrant lives in New York City. A teenager then, Mehta and his family were greeted by balloons rising to the ceiling as each new arrival passed through the gates of welcome, a far cry from the treatment immigrants to America receive today.

Mehta, a proud American, would distinguish himself as a writer, author, journalist and professor, his latest and most powerful work being “This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant Manifesto.” It’s a hopeful book about immigration that does not hide the author’s angry and passionate response to how President Trump has turned too many citizens of Mehta’s adopted country against immigrants today.

“This Land is Our Land” reminds readers of the global hypocrisy as colonization over recent centuries robbed countries of the resources that would have carved out a middle-class existence for its citizens, forcing many of them to flee their native countries for the developed world where there are jobs and opportunity. Add the ecological devastation of climate change to the immigration equation and we have what Mehta terms “survival immigration,” a planet on the move from the south to the north.

Mehta reminds his readers how absurd it is to see a southern border with a wall standing between immigrants and small towns in America dying for lack of young people to pick up the slack of those who have left. In many small towns in America, more people are dying than are being born, and as so many younger Americans head for the big city, it’s more difficult to farm the land, staff the retail outlets and show up for menial work some Americans do not want.

You can hear Trump rail against immigration at his latest rally with the tired myths of immigration, but Mehta destroys the misconceptions one by one. No, immigrants are not taking jobs from Americans. They take the jobs Americans are increasingly rejecting. No, immigrants do not increase the crime rate, easily proven by recent studies such as one from the conservative Cato Institute showing that crime rates among immigrants is actually lower than that of native-born Americans.

Yes, they do inject cultural differences into America, and what’s wrong with that? Isn’t that what constitutes the quilt of cultural influences that weave the fabric of the America we celebrate today? My grandmother spoke only Polish until the day she died, but her children went on to fight America’s wars, work in its factories and raise their children, one of whom is writing this column.

Trump has insulted or offended immigrant and asylum seekers from all corners of the earth. His policies reduce the quotas of refugees allowed in the U.S. His executive orders bar refugees from certain countries and slash the number of immigrants to historic lows.

His policies at the border separated more than 2,600 children from their parents until a federal judge’s ruling forced the government to reunify children with their parents. Even since that ruling, the ACLU reports that more than 900 children have been separated from their parents. Some parents were told they could have their children back if they turned to the south and headed home. Many did, only to learn that their children were sent to American states with no way to establish contact. A federal magistrate judge summed it up when he said, “what you’ve done, in effect, by separating these children is you’re putting them in some place without their parents. If you can imagine there’s a hell, that’s probably what it looks like.”

As weak-kneed as Republicans are in standing up to Trump’s policies and his racial and ethnic vitriol, it’s reassuring when Republicans do challenge the red meat Trump throws at his base and his fellow Republican officeholders.

That is exactly what happened recently when Trump by executive order gave states and local governments the right to reject refugees, a cynical move seemingly designed to embolden states to turn away refugees. Not only has a federal judge ruled Trump’s executive order in violation of a congressional statute, but Idaho Gov. Brad Little and at least 17 other Republican governors displayed the independence of mind and judgment to separate their states’ policies from the mindless rantings of Trump at his base rallies.

The letter that Gov. Little sent to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo supporting the decisions of Twin Falls and Ada counties to accept refugees simply recognizes and endorses a 45-year history of refugee resettlement in Idaho. It also sends a message to the White House that playing games with immigration and refugee policy will not work in states that value the role newcomers from other lands have played in their communities. CNN has reported that 39 states have submitted letters of consent such as the one Little sent.

Gov. Little’s tersely worded three-sentence letter did not explain or justify his decision, a contrast to that of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who acknowledged his state’s history of welcoming refugees. He commiserated with refugees who “have been forced from their homes and we love giving them a new home and a new life.” As for Idaho, the rich cultural heritage that Basque immigrants gifted Boise over the years serves as a lesson to anyone who questions the role immigrants and refugees have played in the lives of our communities and state.