Anti-deportation protests across US will hurt immigrants

Protestors in Phoenix marched on the state capitol and on the office buildings housing federal immigration officials.

Thousands of protestors marched in downtown Los Angeles, shutting down the freeway, as a statement against Trump’s deportation plans.

Across the country, similar marches are taking place in the first weeks of the second Trump Administration, and a common theme at these protests: Tons of Mexican flags and Salvadoran flags, and a lot fewer American flags.

If I were trying to say “don’t send me or my neighbors back to Mexico, I want to stay in the U.S.A. ” I don’t think I would express that by waving a Mexican flag.

Having pride in one’s mother country and ethnicity is a very American thing. But these aren’t Cinco de Mayo parades. They are political demonstrations addressing America’s immigration laws—what those laws should be and how we should enforce them.

In this context, where a protestor is objecting to U.S. laws about who gets to live in America, the Mexican flags don’t scream “I love America and I want to stay here,” they scream “I reject America and do not accept its laws as legitimate.”

These protestors are, unfortunately, making the argument that the most strident anti-immigration forces make.

The lesson from this ugly scene isn’t mostly about whom we are kicking out of the country, it’s about whom we should be inviting in to the country.

If you ask Big Tech or other large employers, they say the most important foreigners to get here are good workers. There’s something to that. Especially since Americans have been having fewer and fewer babies for 18 years, we will soon have a shortage of workers.

But if our migrants are all just worker bees, then the deal is that they get to come here, they do work, and in exchange they get paid money, on which they pay taxes. It’s all very transactional, and it’s not good immigration policy.

Let remember those Mexican flags. Why do they bother us?

They bother us because we are proud to be Americans and we think the people we allow into this country should be proud of America, too.

President Trump and Congress have an opportunity to reprioritize our immigration policy and to build it around welcoming in people who want to be Americans.

We should expand the number of immigrant visas and prioritize young couples. If you just got married and you want to raise your children in America, so that they will be Americans—we want you here. Again, pride in the mother country is great, but one’s ultimate loyalty and national identity should be as Americans.

There are hundreds of millions of people around the world who want to be Americans—not merely to live in the United States or work in the United States, but to immerse themselves in our culture and our history.

We want immigrants who love this country, serve this country, and get totally pumped up when they watch Rocky IV. The folks we welcome here will, when the World Cup rolls around, root for their country of origin, but they should root even harder for the underdog USA, and they should call Team America “we.”

And when these new Americans protest in favor of or against our president or in favor of or against our laws, there shouldn’t be any question which flag they wave.