A Nation of Immigrants Turns on Them

Sundays

This is what America First looks like.

My friends and I grew up thinking it was a good thing that America was a country of immigrants; that the people who came here were drawn by the promise of a better life, a strong democracy, and the chance to participate in the so-called American dream; that our different traditions, cultures, and beliefs made us stronger.

My great-grandparents and my grandmother on my dad’s side all came through Ellis Island, so I believed the Emma Lazarus poem, engraved on a bronze affixed to the statue’s pedestal, meant something:

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!

These were words to live by—they made us proud.

Republicans have long eroded the notion that immigrants are a vital part of our society and, especially during Donald’s tenure in the White House, they’ve weaponized the issue of immigration to a degree we hadn’t seen in modern American politics.

Donald’s very first move in office was to implement the Muslim Ban. His anti-immigrant hatred, stoked by his base and mainstreamed by his party, led to even more extreme acts against people who crossed our southern border to escape horrific conditions or dangerous situations in their countries of origin. He ripped families apart and put children in “camps.” Many of those families have still not been reunited.

For months now, Donald and JD Vance have been making up a set of vicious lies about a group of Haitian immigrants who are here legally. During the debate, Donald repeated one of those lies like a madman: “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the dogs!” He and Vance know they’re lying—Vance admitted it: "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do."

Donald has said that, as far as he is concerned, the Haitians are here illegally (even though they are not), and has threatened to deport them and other legal immigrants on the first day of his second term.

This afternoon, Donald is holding a rally at Madison Square Garden. New York City is solidly blue and, with the exception of Staten Island) we hates him here. In Manhattan, the borough Donald lived for decades—the only borough that matters to him— he got only 9.7% of the vote in 2016 and 12% in 2020. In Queens, the borough in which he grew up, he got 21% of the vote in 2016 and 26%  in 2020. There is, therefore, no electoral reason for him to be here. New York City—and New York State, for that matter—will always be deep blue.

Donald’s holding the rally for two reasons. First, to infuriate and demoralize us by bringing his vile message of hatred to our home. Second, to rile up his base with the kind of anti-immigrant, anti-democratic rhetoric that was very likely heard at the first pro-Hitler “America First” rally that was held at Madison Square Garden in 1939.

This is a partial list of the speakers who will be appearing today:

• Sen. JD Vance

• Speaker Mike Johnson

• Rep. Elise Stefanik

• Rep. Byron Donald

• Tulsi Gabbard

• Rudy Giuliani

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

• Lara, Eric, and Donny

• Elon Musk

• Stephen Miller

• Tucker Carlson

Every single one of these people is a fascist or so desperate to be attached to power that they are perfectly comfortable enabling fascists. If we don’t win in November, these are the people who will be running our government.

The Trump campaign likely knows that 20,000 people attended the Nazi rally in 1939. What we need to remember today is that outside of the arena, over 100,000 people protested.

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FEATURED VIDEO OF THE DAY: JOHN KELLY GOES ON THE RECORD ABOUT DONALD’S ADMIRATION OF HITLER