Comment I posted in response to a like-minded friend who was urging people to stop calling for “mass deportation”; and stop assuming that immigrants are likely to commit crime. (In fact, studies have widely shown that immigrants are the least crime-committing segment of the USA population.)
On a related note, I think the USA needs to be prepared to welcome many many more climate refugees coming across our borders. We need to stop this narrative that we don’t have enough space and enough resources! We have tons of space and tons of resources. Plus, I seem to notice that whenever people are willing to share, things always seem to work out.
Immigrants have enriched our country immensely. Xenophobia is quite un-American. All the more so if you believe, as I do, that in many cases *our own government’s policies* have increased the misery quotient that causes people to feel pressed to leave their homelands and try to make a life in the USA.
Now I will say, I feel like if I were Mexican (or from another country where a lot of immigrants come from), I would probably want to try to find any possible way to go back to my beautiful country and culture, given that the streets are not paved with gold here in the USA. There’s no substitute for one’s family and land and culture.