Under the headline “Immigrants and refugees have much to fear from Trump victory,” a letter by Jeff Thielman (at right), a veteran School Committee member who is president and CEO of the International Institute of New England, was published Nov. 6 by The Boston Globe. It is republished with the author’s permission.
Re “With immigrants, election is all too personal: Many fearful about being separated, sent back” (Page A1, Oct. 30): The Trump campaign’s attacks on “illegal” immigrants have impacts far beyond the undocumented immigrant community. At the International Institute of New England, we support refugees and immigrants who have entered the United States legally after fleeing unimaginable dangers; they seek nothing more than safety and to contribute to the country that has welcomed them.
Every day our staff, more than half of whom are immigrants themselves, perform the impossible job of communicating to families the ever-changing immigration policies that affect their survival and that could become much crueler under a second Donald Trump administration. Our clients are deeply worried that the proposed xenophobic policies of the Trump campaign will strip their legal status and that if he wins this election, they will face deportation and persecution, violence, and even death upon a forced return to their homelands.
Many clients already face this reality due to the Biden administration’s recent decision to not renew the CHNV parole program, a policy under which Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants could temporarily stay in this country legally. Meanwhile, our foreign-born staff, many of whom arrived as refugees and some of whom are themselves humanitarian parolees, fear for themselves and their families, too.
The stark racism of the Trump campaign was further laid bare at the Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden, with attacks on the fully American territory of Puerto Rico and direct insults on the Jamaican and Indian heritage of Kamala Harris. The campaign’s demonization of other cultures goes beyond denying the economic and cultural benefits immigrants bring to the United States and communicates pure hate. It’s anathema to who we are and should strive to be as a nation.
This letter republished Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024.
