YES! Immigrants Welcome Here

I am not Native American.

My ancestors were immigrants. They emigrated to the United States between the late 1600s and the early 1800s, coming from England, Scotland, Wales, (northern) Ireland, and Germany.

The earliest of them arrived in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. Many stayed in that part of the United States; others moved west. They settled into their new country, welcomed by others who came before them.

That is not always the case here.

On Friday, my country's new president -- for whom the majority of Americans, including me, did not vote -- signed an executive order that included barring "entry into the United States for 90 days from seven predominantly Muslim countries linked to concerns about terrorism" -- Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen." *   He also indefinitely suspended the resettlement of Syrian refugees, and was roundly criticized by The New York Times and other respected newspapers.

Today (Saturday) the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), which Phil and I are members of, joined with other groups to file a lawsuit challenging that executive order, and a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, "has granted a stay on deportations for people who arrived in the US with valid visas but were detained on entry," according to The Guardian (US edition).

Travelers from those countries were being held in detention in airports in New York City, Atlanta, Houston, and Detroit, and protestors were on the ground at JFK Airport, as well as major airports in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Philadelphia.

Nicholas Kristof, one of my favorite New York Times op-ed columnists, wrote an evocative essay today about his father, who was an immigrant from Romania (now Ukraine), sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. The seven-minute video, as well as the op-ed piece, are well worth viewing -- as is this New York Times article today about "one of the last Syrian refugee families to be accepted into the United States" -- by members of a Jewish synagogue.  

The pin that I photographed today is now on the coat I wear most often. Perhaps it will spark some conversations.

* The New York Times, January 27, 2017, in an article by Michael D. Shear and Helene Cooper

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