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Ivan G Thompson
a book bubble about
The Making of a Great America Where the Church and the Founding Fathers Fell Short
Religion & Spirituality
Author Insight
Hatred of Immigrants vs. Immigration Policy
I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, when candidate Trump made his famous statement about Mexican immigrants being “rapists and murderers.” I was working as a teacher in a school run by “Friendly House” charities, founded to support the Hispanic community. The student population was easily 98% Mexican. As a teacher and a leader in the school, I was stuck trying to explain to students how a man who could end up making such racist remarks could end up being president. Distrust of immigrants is as old as the Founding Fathers when the Irish and the Germans were viewed as undesirable immigrants. I point out in this book that Trump’s grandfather, a German fugitive, (fled the draft) and his mother, an extremely poor Irish immigrant, fit his own undesirable immigrant narrative and, indeed, the narrative of our Founding Fathers who, though we don’t like to acknowledge it, looked at America as a “New England” for the English. In this chapter, specifically, I point out how Benjamin Franklin complained that England was “emptying its jails” and sending convicts to the American colonies. There is a difference between immigration policy reform and stirring up hatred of immigrants. One is needed; the other never is. I watched candidate Trump go from laughing-stock-dark-horse to front-runner fueled by the flames of the racial animus that he stirred up. It worked for him once. Why wouldn’t he do it again? God help America if we believe that making her great again can be achieved through hatred.
Book Excerpt
The Making of a Great America Where the Church and the Founding Fathers Fell Short
This is an excerpt from the chapter entitled "They're Not Sending Their Best ":
They’re Not Sending Their Best
“And just so you understand, this is the way life works: These are not their best and their finest. These are not you coming across,” he said, gesturing to the audience. “These are people ― and some are very fine, I’m sure ― but they’re sending their killers, their rapists, their murderers, their drug lords. This is what we’re getting.” (Foley, Donald Trump Once Compared Unauthorized Immigration To ‘Vomit’, 2016)
In one of President Trump’s most divisive and inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants, he paints a picture of the Mexican government emptying its jails and sending its criminals to the US. By so doing, he recklessly casts a shadow of fear and hatred over Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal… The president seems to strike a balance with the words, “some are fine I’m sure.” (Trump, 2016) But in his Arizona campaign speech, he went into great detail of murder after murder, committed by illegal immigrants…
The stereotyping of Mexicans by the president is typical of how immigrants have been treated throughout our nation’s history. One of the things that the president has forgotten is that America has become great by overcoming the negative stereotyping of immigrants. A cornerstone of America’s greatness is that it has helped immigrants blend into the great melting pot that it has become…
A look back in history shows that the earliest immigrants from England weren’t among, their “best.” Here’s an excerpt from an article entitled “Criminals Among the Pilgrim Fathers”:
“Long ago it has been proven, even if many Anglo-Americans prefer not to be reminded of it, that our largest supply from the criminal ranks, has been brought to our shores by England during the colonial period and even later. Therefore many a ‘real’ American will find it advantageous, if he does not resort to extensive retrospection in regard to his ancestry, when he is confronted by informed witnesses…when hordes of criminals and undesirables of England were shipped to the American colonies.” (Abendpost, 1899)
We tend to look at the original immigrants only as Pilgrims, but history shows that America’s earliest leaders had the same concerns about immigrants that we have today. Excerpts from Ben Franklin’s writings below detail murders, robberies and other serious crimes committed by the criminals sent from England and Germany:
“We call Britain the mother country; but what good mother would introduce thieves and criminals into the company of her children to corrupt and disgrace them?... to receive your outcasts…emptying their jails into our settlements…
…the transporting of felons from England to the plantations in America is, and has long been, a great grievance to the annoyance of his Majesty’s good subjects there, but contribute greatly to corrupt the morals of the servants and poorer people among whom they are mixed…
Immigrants from Prisons of England Should Be Shipped Back. The felons she [England] planted among us… why should we not employ those vessels in transporting the felons to Britain?...
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