Love thy immigrant neighbour
Senator, I need to ask you, are we Nazis now? Are you okay with this?
Is history being repeated?
Dear friends,
There are so many people under attack just now for merely being who they are, so many individuals, so many communities, under assault, it's hard to know how to stand up for them all. Obviously, as the mother of a trans youth, I am a fierce ally of the trans community. But, I am also deeply worried about our immigrant neighbours. It is beyond terrifying watching the US government unleash their masked gestapo to kidnap brown folk and send them to concentration camps. They have a daily quota of kidnappings to fulfill for their uber-nazi boss, Stephen Adolf Miller, and, it seems that they are ramping up their violent attacks. Any way you spin this story, it is painfully reminiscent of what happened to my European kinfolk during the Holocaust, and it's up to us to not let this piece of history repeat itself.
Great Britain?
Of course, xenophobia is not just an American problem. Recently British cities have been swarmed with throngs of (white) Brits waving St. George flags and Union Jacks, demanding that we stop caring about immigrants. While grannies protesting an actual fucking genocide in Palestine are thrown to the ground by cops and arrested, the British government seemed pretty happy to allow parades of white-supremacist taking over the streets to intimidate and threaten anyone less pasty. Great Britain, eh? The same country that has invaded, colonized, and completely screwed over every corner of this planet is bellyaching about immigrants crossing their borders. Oh, the irony!
Racism is alive and well on this side of the border too.
It should come as no surprise that racist, anti-immigrant sentiment is alive and well right here in Canada, too. Earlier this month, BC's Premier Eby, stupidly proclaimed, "The majority of people using our food banks have been in Canada for less than two years. Our homeless shelters have new arrivals to Canada in them instead of people who have been living on our streets for a while.” Sigh. Yet another politician blaming immigrants for the widespread suffering that is the direct result of decades of governmental neglect and the inherent failings of capitalism. When will they ever learn that it's not immigrants destroying everything, it's the fucking oligarchs?
Not satisfied with just blaming immigrants for EVERYTHING, in reference to the Province's plan to challenge a recent decision on Indigenous treaty rights, Eby popped out this doozy: “These are profound issues that are hard to consider in the absence of the real people … the homeowners, the business owners, who will be affected by this decision,” presumably indicating that Indigenous people are not "the real people". Not only was this extremely offensive, but he was, of course, also ignoring the fact that all of us who are not Indigenous to these lands are immigrants.
If we're not Indigenous, we're immigrants!
Not being indigenous to this continent, I do not truly consider myself Canadian. though I am immensely grateful to call this place home. I am both first and second generation American, and a relatively recent immigrant to Canada. My maternal grandparents both arrived at Ellis Island in the early 1900's from Eastern Europe/Russia as young Jews escaping pogroms. A few decades later, my father landed in New York at the age of 16, a Holocaust orphan leaving behind a homeland that would have happily killed him a few years earlier. Eastern Europe was a wildly dangerous place to be Jewish, and, miracle of miracles, my ancestors escaped in the bowels of ships that crossed the choppy Atlantic waters, disgorging them on the shores of America.
My grandparents made a life for themselves in California where my mother lived almost all her life. My father spent a few decades in California before accepting a job in Ottawa, Ontario, and eventually becoming a Canadian citizen, thus paving my path to Canadian citizenship. I am the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants, and I bet you, too, are the descendant of people who came to this continent to escape extreme hardship or certain death in their homelands. My Scottish husband is an immigrant. So are our children. If we are not indigenous to these lands, then we are all immigrants.
Even if we can't relate, immigrants still deserve our compassion.
Obviously, the immigrant experience is close to my heart, but, even if your ancestors immigrated so long ago you have lost the thread that connects you to their journey, we must all speak up against the rising anti-immigrant vitriol and violence hitting our communities. Even if you can't remember your family's stories of losing everything, leaving everything behind, enduring unimaginable hardship, risking it all, we must believe that the people showing up in our cities, working crap jobs, and suffering exploitation could tell us similar stories about why they left their homes. No one risks losing everything, leaving their home behind unless their life depends on it. The least we can do is help these new immigrants to feel safe now that they've made it to the Land of Plenty. Whether an immigrant holds the correct legal documents or not, they deserve our compassion, our support, and our humanity.
Who are these dear friends who are falling like dry leaves?
This line from Woody Guthrie's song Deportees has been on repeat in my brain lately. To start with, many of these dear friends, like the ones in the song, are the ones who nourish us. I can pretty much guarantee that everything you and I eat is thanks to immigrants. My guess is that every single one of those masked ICE thugs, like us, eats food brought to these shores by immigrants. Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, bagels and schmear... Thank you, immigrants. And who grows and processes and serves the food that lands on our plates? Immigrants. These dear friends are the friends who feed us. They are also our neighbours. They are members of our community. They are our friends. And, we must all fight for their safety which is in serious danger right now.
But what can I do to help immigrants?
The answer to this question is - A Million Different Things. Got a birthday coming up? Why not do a FaceBook birthday fundraiser (or any other kind of fundraiser) for the ACLU or a local organization that is directly working on protecting immigrants?
Redirect a portion of your spending to organizations that support immigrants. My sister canceled her Amazon Prime and is making a monthly donation to the ACLU with the money she's saved from canceling Amazon.
There are apps for tracking ICE in your neighbourhood. I read this week that Apple (bootlicking bastards!) has removed the ICEBlock app, but there are other apps out there, and there are incredibly clever techies who will continue to find ways to let Americans alert each other about ICE whereabouts.
Whether you're in the US, Canada, the UK, or any country that is scapegoating immigrants, find your local refugee or immigrant support centre and find out how you can help.
Show up to protests. Get creative. Wear pins, t-shirts, hats, or anything with symbols of solidarity. Participate in freeway banner hangs,
Let our targeted neighbours know that we are allies. Download signs to put up everywhere that let immigrants know you're an ally, and ICE know that you will not cooperate.
Print off these Know Your Rights cards and leave them in public places like public bathrooms.
Boycott and protest bootlicking businesses. En masse, we had a devastating effect on Tesla's profits. Together, we can cause all kinds of mayhem on those corporations that obey in advance and are willingly supporting the illegal violence from ICE.
Support immigrant-owned businesses. While the big corporations crumble under Trump's authoritarian boot, buying from small immigrant-owned businesses puts money in the pockets of those under threat while taking it from the bulging bank accounts of mega corporations.
And from Jess Craven:
"If you’re struggling with depression over the current situation, then, I urge you to do something—anything!. Make a chalk drawing on your driveway that counters disinformation like the one pictured above. Put a NO ICE sign in your yard. Call your representatives. Write a letter to the editor. Text five friends about the No Kings protests on the 18th."
Me? I write letters.
Are we Nazis now? 21-07-25
Dear Senator,
This administration that gained votes by lying about immigrants “eating your cats, eating your dogs”, is now treating thousands of kidnapped prisoners worse than animals, and this is completely unacceptable. Add today’s report to the many other daily reports of violent assaults, deprivation, and all kinds of physical and mental abuse inflicted on the thousands of prisoners being held in these concentration camps, and our country is looking more and more like Nazi Germany. Why are you not demanding this stop?
Trump campaigned on ridding the country of violent criminals, yet the vast majority of detainees have absolutely no criminal record (unlike the Felon–in–Chief!). Rounding up 3,000 individuals a day as commanded by Stephen Adolf Miller and Kristi Puppy-Killer Noem based solely on the color of their skin, locking them up in inhumane conditions, beating them and abusing them is nothing short of race-based fascism. Masked ICE thugs are swarming our streets where they are illegally and violently abducting children, women, legal migrants, US citizens, as well as undocumented immigrants. These victims are not violent criminals. What do they all have in common? The color of their skin. Stephen Adolf Miller is an unelected, power-hungry white supremacist wreaking havoc on our nation. Why have you not demanded his removal from office?
What we are witnessing is what Hitler did in Europe, and yet you continue to support this lawless regime. Senator, I need to ask you, are we Nazis now? Are you okay with this? I’m not and I insist that you honor your oath to uphold the Constitution and defend your constituents. I expect to hear you publicly challenging this violent, cruel, lawless behavior from Trump and his henchmen.
Our immigrant neighbours need our love right now, so let's show them, however we can, that we have their backs.
Love & solidarity,
Jessica
