The following poem is on the base of our Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Donald Trump wants to change our immigration laws. He wants to allow only immigrants that can pass a Merit Test -- people that are wealthy, educated, or have marketable skills (and probably White). His merit-based immigration plan violates the spirit of the Emma Lazarus poem -- that America was a second chance for people who could not find jobs or get an education or feed their families in the country they immigrated from.
I doubt that my ancestor could have passed a merit-based test for immigration. While I have not studied my ancestry in detail, I suspect that most were Irish immigrants trying to escape the potato blight that killed millions of their fellow countrymen. They were likely not educated or skilled, and undoubtably were poor. But the United States accepted them anyway -- and through hard work, they made a better life for their children and descendants.
Could your immigrant ancestors have passed a merit-based test? I doubt it. The rich, educated, and skilled people did not come as immigrants. They were doing well where they were. America got the people who were not doing well -- the people who needed a second chance, and were willing to work hard for that second chance.
I suspect if most Americans were honest, they would admit that their own ancestors could not have passed Trump's merit test. Their ancestors, like mine, would have been rejected and sent back to a land where they had no chance to succeed or to feed and house themselves and their families. Their descendants would not be successful and thriving American citizens today.
Trump's idiotic immigration idea is a violation of the American Dream. America was not founded and maintained as a haven for the rich and powerful. It has grown and thrived because it accepted the poor and the disadvantaged, and gave them the chance they needed to better themselves.
Merit-based immigration is a terrible idea, and it is un-American. We must not let it become the law.