Paul Sassone

What does President Trump have against my grandfather?

Were he alive today, my grandfather never would pass muster of the immigration bill the President is supporting.

That bill would fundamentally change the criteria for immigrants to the United States. Immigration to the U.S. largely has been determined by family relationships. Preference is given to people who are related to U.S. citizens.

The bill backed by Trump would create what its sponsors are calling a “merit-based” system for deciding who gets in.

What does “merit” mean?

The bill defines merit as job skills, education, English-speaking ability, high paying job offers, age, record of achievement and entrepreneurial initiative. Albert Einstein wasn’t young when he came to America, so he might have trouble getting in today.

What I know for sure is that my grandfather would not meet Trump’s criteria. He didn’t speak English, wasn’t young, didn’t have high-paying job offers, had little education.

All he had when he boarded that ship in Italy was to make a better life for himself and his family. It was the same dream as millions of other people all over the world who hoped to find liberty and a decent standard of living in the great democracy of America.

Under the bill the President favors immigration still may be based on family relationships, though the numbers will be greatly reduced.

But, if this bill had been law in the early 20th century, my grandfather never would have left Italy. And I never would have existed.

In fact, many of the neo-nativists who clamor against immigration and immigrants wouldn’t exist. They forget we are a nation of immigrants.

And people didn’t leave their country when they were well educated and had high-paying job skills. They left because they were on the bottom in the old country. They were the very people the supporters of this new bill want to keep out.

To set your heart against people like your own family is blind or hypocritical.

We often say that this or that is un-American. But this Trump-backed legislation is truly and profoundly un-American. It strikes at the very roots of what America is.

It should not be allowed to enter the laws of the United States.

–Trump-backed immigration bill is un-American–