Calling immigrants ‘vermin’ who ‘poison the blood’ is as anti-American as it gets | Opinion

Immigrants!

It’s so convenient to label them all “subhuman” or “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Those labels, spewed by people whose immigrant ancestors were most certainly also demonized when they first arrived, are just as racist and hateful now as similar words used during earlier waves of immigration.

Another convenient — and inaccurate — label is “illegal”: inaccurate because it — again conveniently — dismisses many immigrants’ complicated circumstances.

I heard Oscar Arias, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, speak in Independence several years ago. He said that most people don’t want to leave their homes, don’t want to become immigrants.

Most leave because they have to, fleeing famine, violence or threats to their livelihoods or to their families. Hunger, insecurity, persecution, inadequate income or none at all — these are powerful motives for pulling up roots.

Those who are demonizing current immigrants and calling for their deportation should envision what they themselves might do if their families were faced with certain famine or death at home. Go ahead, walk a mile in their shoes.

Some years back, I visited the office of the International Organization for Migration in Nairobi, Kenya. There, I saw Somali refugees who were escaping violence and death. They brought with them their culture, language, and traumas, but little else. It fell upon the IOM to help them understand the behaviors and customs of the new and totally unfamiliar home they were heading to — an almost impossible task, but so much better than dying of hunger or being murdered.

As a teacher of English as a second language, I became all too aware of the suffering and hardships refugees (new immigrants, in other words) had to endure. Some had to leave home carrying only a backpack, escaping military or other forces persecuting them because their religion wasn’t the one the government sanctioned.

A deeply offensive American politician recently said that immigrants “know nothing about God.” Did he mean his own politically-sanctioned God?

One student I know who was persecuted in her home country because of her faith had to flee, and made her way to Kansas City where she knew no one. Let me repeat that: where she knew no one.

Others came from Central America where life had become too dangerous. They left with the bare minimum, walking, sometimes carrying children or riding a dangerous freight train called “The Beast” to get to American soil. At the thought of being forced to go back, they were terrified.

The land of opportunity — isn’t that what this greatest country in the world prides itself on being? Isn’t that what is advertised again and again all over the planet? “Give me your tired, your poor,” right?

But is deportation the only opportunity this great land should now be offering those “yearning to breathe free”? Is hate the welcome they deserve?

In all my years of teaching, the students I have encountered have been ordinary, God-fearing, strong people eager to make a good, safe life for themselves and their children. They are not “poisoning” anyone’s blood.

They work — hard. They pay income and Social Security taxes, even though they cannot claim benefits until they complete the difficult work to become citizens. They contribute millions to the economy.

Are they perfect? No. But they accept jobs nobody else wants — often dangerous work — risking their lives to take care of and feed their families in the United States and their home countries.

They work in slaughterhouses, quietly packing beef for our hamburgers, chicken for our wings, pork for our barbecue ribs. They quietly harvest our lettuce, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, apples and grapes. If we want them deported, we should stop eating.

They die in tragedies like the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last week, where they were working in the dead of night before they were thrown into the frigid river below: Maynor from Honduras, Miguel from El Salvador, Alejandro from Mexico, José and Dorlian from Guatemala.

Say their names. They are not “subhuman.” They are sons, fathers, friends. They are people.

If we believe they are “vermin,” we should take a good, hard look at the person in the mirror. Cautiously, because we — descendants of immigrants — might not like what we see.

Elsje Smit of Lenexa is a retired teacher of English as a second language who has lived for extended periods of time on four different continents.