Immigrants hating immigrants

It’s odd, sad, and embarrassing that a nation of immigrants has a long history of hating immigrants. Now it has a political party and its president publicly hating Immigrants. One hundred years ago, the GOP tried to ban Irish from coming here, saying we had too many Catholics. At that time, Italians were considered the illegals, with WOP meaning “With Out Papers.” Now brown people are demonized and blamed for our problems, just as the Jews were in 1930s Germany. Hitler said to “Make Germany Great Again,” and “Germany First.”

Unless one is Native American, then we are all immigrants … with millions arriving illegally through Canada decades ago. In 1896, Granddad Drumpf (Trump) fled mandatory military service in Germany. He arrived alone in the U.S. at age 16, as an unaccompanied minor who spoke no English and had no job skills. We didn’t put kids in cages in those days. After striking it rich in the Yukon Gold Rush, he went back to Germany in 1905. He was labeled a “draft dodger” and deported back to the U.S. During World War II, Daddy Drumpf changed the name to Trump, so as not to lose the Jewish business in NYC by having a very German name – even though he and his son, in “The Art of the Deal,” claim to be Swedish.

As the pope said before he was attacked by this president, we should be building bridges, not walls.

Richard Trerise

Spokane