Marielena Hincapié: “Vindman, Yovanovitch and Hill remind us that immigrants represent the best of America.”
In a must-read op-ed in Newsweek, Marielena Hincapié, Executive Director of the National Immigration Law Center Immigrant Justice Fund, expresses her solidarity with fellow immigrants Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and Fiona Hill. She points out that Trump and his House Republican allies degrade our democracy, while the immigrants, who are public servants, safeguard it.
Below are excerpts from the piece entitled, “Immigrants are Standing Up for American Values — Even if House Republicans Will Not”:
Throughout his campaign and presidency, Trump has reliably deployed a toxic, anti-immigrant playbook that aims to scapegoat immigrant communities and distract from his own misdeeds. The impeachment hearings have proved no different.
Faced last month with powerful testimony from Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, an immigrant from Ukraine and Purple Heart recipient, Trump and other leading Republicans scrambled to undermine this decorated veteran with thinly veiled attacks on his immigrant background. Some Republicans even spuriously implied that Vindman was a Ukrainian spy.
But, in fact, Vindman, along with Marie Yovanovitch and Fiona Hill, two other longtime public servants who happen to be immigrants, demonstrated how immigrants make America the country we want it to be: a place where the rule of law matters and citizens stand up for it—even if Republican politicians will not.
…At a time when many of our country’s most powerful leaders are attempting to demonize and dehumanize all immigrants, it’s more important than ever to celebrate how immigrants are upholding our country’s most precious values, from speaking truth to power in impeachment hearings to the daily acts of patriotism and bravery. Vindman, Yovanovitch and Hill remind us that immigrants represent the best of America.
Throughout our history as a nation, one of the main reasons so many of our parents and grandparents made personal sacrifices to leave their families, language and culture behind was that they believed in our democracy. It is no surprise, then, that amid the most virulent anti-immigrant attacks in recent history, it is immigrants who are safeguarding our democracy.
