Read New Medium Piece by Frank Sharry HERE
Washington, DC – In a new Medium piece, “Fighting for American Democracy Includes Fighting for a Pro-Immigrant America,” America’s Voice Executive Director Frank Sharry notes that “as we reach the one year anniversary of the deadly insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, the story of the threats to our democracy cannot be fully understood without recognizing the central role played by immigration in the radicalization of the GOP” and that integral to the “battle for the soul of America” is to stand up against xenophobia and stand for an America that is unapologetically pro-immigrant.
Read Frank Sharry in Medium: “Fighting for American Democracy Includes Fighting for a Pro-Immigrant America“ and find key excerpts below:
“As we reach the one year anniversary of the deadly insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, the story of the threats to our democracy cannot be fully understood without recognizing the central role played by immigration in the radicalization of the GOP.
As President Biden said today, it’s a “battle for the soul of America.” Integral to fighting for a multiracial democracy is to stand up against xenophobia and stand for an America that is unapologetically pro-immigrant.
The beating heart of Trumpism is nativism
On day one of his run for president, Trump descended his golden escalator to spew anti-immigrant lies (“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists…”). In week one of his presidency, the Trump White House implemented its Muslim ban. In year one, he declared an end to DACA, the program that protects young immigrants commonly known as “Dreamers.” By year two, Trump was separating some 5,000 families at the border – without a tracking system to reunite them. The outcry throughout America and the world led Trump to dial it back. This was but a tactical retreat.
… It gets worse. Today, most in Trump’s GOP not only oppose most forms of immigration, they are increasingly taken with the noxious white supremacist trope called the Great Replacement Theory. Trumpeted by Tucker Carlson on Fox News, the theory argues nonwhite immigrants are being admitted to America by Democrats to replace white people. Once the province of mass killers who perpetrated murderous terrorist attacks on American Jews in Pittsburgh and Mexican-Americans in El Paso, the theory has gone mainstream in the GOP. House leader Elise Stefanik (R-NY) used it to fundraise. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) cited it during a House hearing on immigration. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) went on Fox to call nonwhite immigration a “silent revolution by the Democrat Party and Joe Biden to take over this country.”
…With Republicans radicalizing, it’s up to Democrats to make a stand. They cannot cower, debate and concede. They must summon the political will and courage to fight for an expansive and inclusive vision of American democracy.
This means taking on the structural impediments to progress and delivering on legislation to protect the the voting rights of all and the principle of majority rule. This means fighting against the countermajoritarian project of the Republican Party and for a multiracial majority that supports an open society. This means fighting for immigration reforms that welcome rather than exclude. This means organizing a broad front for democracy that repels the tide of extremism in order to preserve and advance the American experiment.
The choice could not be clearer. We either fight for and strengthen an America comprised of people from every corner of the globe who join in a noble quest to make freedom, equality and justice real in the lives of one and all, regardless of birthplace and background, or we watch as a white identity movement diminishes our democracy, demonizes “the other” and uses the levers of government to drive power and wealth into the hands of the few. Unless we redouble our efforts, January 6th will become not a warning sign but a national holiday.
Failure is not an option.”
