{"id":48311,"date":"2021-06-14T15:37:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T15:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=48311"},"modified":"2021-06-14T15:37:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T15:37:40","slug":"immigrants-strengthen-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=48311","title":{"rendered":"Immigrants strengthen us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/u-s-immigration-reform.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-35557\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/u-s-immigration-reform-300x184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"184\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/u-s-immigration-reform-300x184.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/u-s-immigration-reform.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By John Kanelis<\/strong> \/ <a href=\"mailto:johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com\">johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now that Gov. Greg Abbott has declared his intention to shut down the Texas border with Mexico all by himself, I want to say a word or two about immigrants and the strength they bring to this great country.<\/p>\n<p>I am acutely aware that Abbott wants to end &#8220;illegal immigration&#8221; into this country. He wants to stop refugees who are seeking to enter the U.S. to flee oppression, crime, poverty and misery in their home countries. Hmm. Is that a bad thing for the United States?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, they should enter the country <em>legally<\/em>. I know and accept it.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott, though, has targeted specifically criminals who he said should be arrested, detained and then sent back. Let&#8217;s see. I think that has been occurring since, oh, about the time of the nation&#8217;s founding. However, the GOP demagogues continue to insist that President Biden has enacted an &#8220;open border policy&#8221; that allows for thugs to enter freely.<\/p>\n<p>Why do I feel so strongly about immigrants? I am the grandson of four of them. They came here near the start of the 20th century in search of a better life. They left southeastern Europe. Two of them came from what one former POTUS would have called a <em>&#8220;sh**hole country.&#8221;<\/em> That would be Turkey, a mostly <em>Muslim<\/em> nation.<\/p>\n<p>They came. They thrived. They produced their children, all of whom led productive lives; some of them served heroically on the battlefield during World War II; my dear Dad was one of them.<\/p>\n<p>What separates immigrants from native-born Americans is one simple fact: <em>All of them chose to come here<\/em>. They weren&#8217;t granted U.S. citizenship merely as an act of fate, having been born here. They made conscious decisions to build new lives and to call the U.S.A. their &#8220;home.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Someone needs to tell me, though, how many of those who seek to sneak into this country comprise the nefarious criminal element that a former president once said comprised most of them.<\/p>\n<p>Immigrants have helped create this great nation. They should be honored, not vilified.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Kanelis \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com Now that Gov. Greg Abbott has declared his intention to shut down the Texas border with Mexico all by himself, I want to say a word or two about immigrants and the strength they bring to this great country. I am acutely aware that Abbott wants to end &#8220;illegal immigration&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=48311\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Immigrants strengthen us<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2006,2245],"class_list":["post-48311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48312,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311\/revisions\/48312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}