Mass deportation - really?

I tuned in to the Republican National Convention because I was interested to hear their thoughts and their plans for this country. And then I saw this:

My heart sank and there was a huge pit in my stomach. I had to turn the channel. I could not bear to be a part – even a distant part through watching – of the hate those people and their signs represent. I'm sure they are proud of their actions but there's no other word for it. Hate. As a history teacher, I was immediately reminded of 1930's Nazi Germany when millions of people were deported and sent to their deaths - and when the German people saluted and worshiped Hitler.

I know why those signs were created. The GOP presidential candidate promises to deport 11 million people when he is elected - 11 million people who are our neighbors, our co-workers, our employees, our friends. As a high school teacher, I taught many young people who were brought to this country as babies and youngsters because their parents were desperate to provide something better for their children. They do not have legal documentation. In some cases, families were escaping violence; in other cases, families were escaping poverty and hopelessness. This country is their home, the only home they've ever known. I will tell you right now that those students, more often than not, came to school every day. They put their butts in the chairs, listened, studied and graduated. I've kept up with some of them and they are doing well - working, volunteering, raising families. Please don't tell me they don't belong here!

Another thought … I have a question for those Republicans so proudly holding those hateful signs as they sit down to the dinner table tonight: just who is going to pick fruit in the citrus and fruit orchards? Who is going head to the lettuce fields in the Imperial Valley when the temperature is 109° F? You? Nah, I didn't think so. I sure don't see a bunch of you filling out work applications to do those jobs!

Let's face it: our immigration policy is a failure and we need to do something about it. The current Republican presidential nominee promised the entire four years he was in office that immigration reform was right around the corner. He lied. He and GOP lawmakers did nothing. Absolutely nothing (and for two years of his term, they had the majority in the House and Senate).

In February of this year, the U.S. Senate crafted a BIPARTISAN bill dedicated to border security. It took hard work, compromise, and a desire to work together to find ways to improve this country's immigration policy. This legislative package includes significant changes that would transform border security and the asylum/immigration process. The bill represents the most significant changes to immigration policy in thirty years and amounts to billions of dollars. But the GOP presidential nominee managed to get Republican senators to refuse to vote for the bill they just created! Why? Because he figured it would help President Biden and make it impossible for him to campaign on the border issue. Of course he denies that, but we all know he lies. A few Republican senators have admitted that's exactly what happened.

Republicans and the man they worship quashed that bill! Kamala Harris says she will resurrect the bill and she will sign it the minute it passes and hits the Oval Office. Quite a contrast to the man who promises to deport 11 million people who have been living in the United States. They work, they pay taxes, they contribute to our country, whether you want to admit that or not.

We have a choice on November 5^th. One candidate is filled with hate for anyone other than those who look and act like him – and he plans to deport them. The other is Kamala Harris who will actually work to improve immigration laws for all of us. I will vote for Harris; she won't take us back to 1930's Nazi Germany.