Over the last two weeks, there have been letters to the editor, “Immigration Revisited” (Jan. 30, 2025); “Immigration Today Is Very Different Than It Was in the Past” (Jan. 30, 2025); “Being an Immigrant Does Not Mean Supporting Bad Immigration Policy (Feb 6, 2025); all in response to “I Am an Immigrant (Jan. 23, 2025), that in turn warrants its own response.
I am the director of a foster care program for migrant children. These children have come to the United States without a parent or guardian, or in a few cases, separated from family members at the border or along the journey. The majority of them come here fleeing physical and sexual violence, labor and sex trafficking, drug cartels and gang violence, religious persecution, lack of educational and fiscal resources — all to seek refuge and a better life here. My program currently has youth ages 9-17 from the following countries: Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Venezuela, Liberia, the Congo, Haiti, Mauritania, and Egypt. They go to school, do a variety of acculturation and recreational programming with the agency, work with their attorneys for legal relief — and they are currently terrified. They do not know what policies and executive orders will come down from the current administration and what this will mean for their future here.
My agency was founded in the 1800s as a Jewish organization, to aid Jewish immigrants and orphans. My CEO often reflects on the significance of my program and how it fulfills our agency’s vision and our original mission. I’ve always related the Passover story to the story of immigrants throughout time.
I imagine some of the writers of these anti-immigrant letters are only opposed to the immigrants who participate in criminal activity, which can be valid. But criminals come in all shapes and sizes — citizen or not. And when you conflate actions of some to a whole group of people, you begin to lose your humanity.
If you think that ICE roundups and the administration’s policies will end at only the criminals, you’re mistaken. There have already been reports of ICE coming into schools and supermarkets. ICE officers currently have daily arrest quotas that they must fill. When you have a number to reach, you can prioritize quantity over quality. Inevitably, innocent people will get caught up by ICE to meet the mandate.
One recent letter spoke about the immigrants’ culture and values clashing with that of an American. Think about what has been said about Jewish people in various societies — how we didn’t belong, we didn’t assimilate, how we are “different.” I recently heard a quote of an SS officer during the Nuremberg trials that stated he didn’t dislike Jews personally, but didn’t like what they contributed to society. While it was undoubtedly written out of concern, the letter also invokes the same undertones as that quote.
If my family in Poland during WWII had the option to cross over a border with a neighboring country illegally, I would have begged them to do it. I often think about those ships that were turned away from a variety of countries — just for its occupants to have to return to Europe and perish in the Holocaust.
In a time where we are fighting rampant antisemitism and Jewish hatred, let’s be careful about the rhetoric we use, and let’s reflect on our Jewish values and our own history.
