What a hypocrite! @realDonaldTrump makes hateful and racist rants every day about how immigrants are “bad” for the country, but he had no problem hiring undocumented immigrants to help him build the Trump Hotel in DC or Trump Tower in New York City.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 22, 2018

Why is the Trump administration bombarding us with messages about immigrants being bad? They are making this huge deal about “open borders.” They are portraying immigrants as murderers, rapists, criminals, gang members, etc. They are parading people on stages holding up pictures of family members murdered by immigrants. Somehow, it’s made the country think that immigrants are something bad, criminal, to be avoided, to be punished.

The president keeps saying that we “want open borders” because we don’t think building a wall makes sense, or because we believe separating children from their parents at the border is inhumane and immoral. 

The president should take a class in Logic 101. I do not “want open borders.” Of course, our borders should be controlled and we need immigration legislation that makes sense.

Both statements can be true:

1. I do not think we should have open borders.
2. I do not think building a wall would solve any of our immigration problems.

To get his way, logical or not, Trump misstates reality and disseminates untrue facts.

Check out my post on immigrant statistics and note that immigrants in America are way better educated than American-born people, they start more businesses, and they have more college degrees. Of the 400 richest Americans (according to Forbes), 41 are immigrants. Even illegal immigrants (undocumented migrants as we call  them) have a place in our society by working in low-wage jobs in agriculture, food service and – yes – in Trump properties.

To solve the undocumented migrant problem, I believe we need to institute a proper guest worker program, so the migrants can live here legally while they are gainfully employed, contribute to our society and economy with their services, and pay taxes to support our system.

In the modern world there is no way to keep poor people out of rich countries. You can build walls, only to find that the people fly over the walls or dig under them. The solution is proper trade, fair integration, mutual collaboration on solutions, and yes, enforcing the laws of the nation.

Immigrants have made this country what it is today. Trump’s great-grandfather was an immigrant. Trump’s wife is an immigrant.

I am an immigrant, and I am proud of it.