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undocumented immigrants

Democracy

12 real stories that show why ruthless immigration laws are the wrong move.

Immigration policies that rip families apart are a travesty.

Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash

If there's ever been a particularly bad time to be an undocumented immigrant, it's right now.

President Donald Trump, who launched himself into the 2016 presidential race with his support for a multibillion-dollar border wall, has been cracking down on immigration as promised. In addition to tightening border security, he's pledged to remove 2 to 3 million undocumented immigrants "immediately." And he appears to be keeping his word.

Deportation is nothing new, but Trump's plans are unprecedented. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

It's a scary climate we're facing, but unfortunately, it's not just Trump and it's not just America. All over the world, people are more concerned with their countries' borders than seemingly ever before.Nations all over Europe, for example, are tightening up immigration rules and/or ramping up deportations themselves.

Amidst all the noise and rhetoric — every "radical Islamic terrorist" attack that gets waved about by politicians with something that eerily resembles pride, every horrific crime committed by white Americans that's met with deafening silence, every press conference faux pas — there are real people and real families being ripped apart in the name of patriotism.

Their stories are terrifying and heart-wrenching, but they're massively important.

1. A DREAMer gave a powerful speech about deportation. Moments later, she was arrested.

Daniela Vargas, who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old, spoke at a news conference in Jackson, Mississippi, about the importance of the DREAM Act, which aims to help immigrant children who have lived in the U.S. for more than five years and graduated high school receive permanent legal status.

After the event, Vargas and a friend were pulled over and arrested by immigration agents.

2. A Sri Lankan student studying in North Wales was saved from deportation only by a last ditch effort hours before her flight.

Shiromini Satkunarajah, an electrical engineering student at Bangor University, was nearly sent back to Sri Lanka earlier this year. Despite having lived in the U.K. since she was 12 and being only three months shy of graduation, Satkunarajah was only allowed to stay after receiving an outpouring of community support.

3. A woman living in Great Britain was sent back to Singapore without being allowed to say goodbye to her husband and two children.

Irene Clennell had lived in the U.K. since 1988 but was abruptly sent back to Singapore after having her indefinite leave to remain revoked. Clennell is married and has two children with her husband but was not afforded the chance to see them one last time.

4. A mom living in Phoenix was sent back to Mexico. Her children would later face Trump as he addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time.

Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos' children were reportedly in attendance as Trump addressed Congress. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/AFP/Getty Images.

Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos was sent back to Mexico in January this year for having a criminal record. Her crime? Working under the table to provide for her young children.

5. A beloved restaurant manager in a deep-red town in Illinois was arrested, and now the community is reeling.

Most of the people in West Frankfort, Illinois, voted for Trump. They never thought anything would happen to Juan Carlos Hernandez Pacheco, the friendly restaurant manager who seemed have done at least one kind deed for everyone in the community. Now, he's been detained by ICE and is currently waiting to find out if he'll be sent back to Mexico.

6. A Kuwaiti man and father of two living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the other hand, was miraculously spared from deportation because it would cause his family too much hardship.

Yousef Ajin has lived in the United States for 18 years with his wife, with whom he has four children. He reportedly met with immigration officers frequently, but on Jan. 30, 2017, he was suddenly detained.

In February, a judge granted a deportation waiver in order to spare Ajin's family from hardship. Many other immigrants aren't so lucky.

7. One man was caught trying to cross the border and returned to Tijuana. He appears to have jumped to his death shortly after.

The man, Guadalupe Olivas Valencia, had reportedly worked in the U.S. before to provide for his family back home before being deported multiple times. Caught trying to enter the country once again, he seemingly decided jumping from a bridge was his only option.

8. A single mother in California was sent back to Mexico, leaving her two young children in peril.

Photo by Jose Cabezas/AFP/Getty Images.

On Feb. 7, María Robles-Rodríguez was nabbed by U.S. Border Patrol and sent back to Mexico, leaving her twin 18-year-old daughters to fend for themselves.

9. Gay men being deported from Britain to Afghanistan are being told to pretend they're straight.

The British government's advice to gay men being sent home to Afghanistan, where they can be freely persecuted for their sexual orientation? Just don't act gay and everything will be fine!

Seriously.

10. Jose Escobar was detained after a routine meeting with immigration officers. He's a husband and father of three.

Escobar, who has lived in the United States for 16 years, had a deportation scare a few years back but was told he'd be safe if he checked in with immigration agents every year. Only this year, an agent reportedly told his wife, "We're just doing what President Trump wants us to do with the new rules."

Escobar will likely soon be deported.

11. A Mexican man living in Idaho was deported. His wife and the mother of his children could be next.

Tomas Copado ran his own auto body shop in Idaho Falls until he was sent back to Mexico earlier this year. His wife, for the sake of their children, recently had her own deportation deferred.

For now.

12. Some undocumented immigrants may be deported to Mexico even if they're not from there.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

According to several reports, the Department of Homeland Security plans to send anyone who crosses illegally over the southern border of the U.S. back to Mexico, even though they may be citizens of another country.

Needless to say, this is horrendous and possibly in violation of international law.

Statue of LibertyPhoto by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash

Every modern nation needs smart, empathetic paths to citizenship. Any immigration policy that tramples on human rights and rips families apart is a travesty.

It's time to bust the narrative that foreigners primarily come to our country — or any country — to do harm. They come mostly to find opportunity, to escape persecution, or to be with family.

If we can't come to see them as human beings rather than inanimate outsiders, finding the money to pay for a giant wall will be the very least of our problems.

This article originally appeared on 03.02.17

Democracy

It turns out Trump's child separation policy was even more monstrous than we knew

FRONTLINE/Twitter

Of all the harsh immigration policies the Trump administration has enacted, from slashing America's refugee resettlement program to building "The Wall," taking thousands of children away from their parents is by far the worst. The "zero tolerance" policy of separating families at the border drew so much international outrage that the administration eventually abandoned it and was ordered by the courts to reunite the families. In some cases, that process took far more than a year.

Now, an investigation shows that the implementation of the policy was even more inhumane than we knew.

According to the New York Times, five prosecuting attorneys who were told about the new policy in May of 2018 "recoiled" when Attorney General Jeff Sessions told them "We need to take away the children." The attorneys told officials in the Department of Justice that they were "deeply concerned" about the welfare of the children subject to that policy.

A week later, deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein told the prosecutors on a call that it didn't matter how young the children were. Government attorneys had apparently refused to prosecute two cases in which the children were barely more than infants, and it was made clear that they should not have done that.

"Per the A.G.'s policy, we should NOT be categorically declining immigration prosecutions of adults in family units because of the age of a child," John Bash, the departing U.S. attorney in western Texas, wrote to his staff immediately after the call. Bash was the one who had declined the cases involving babies, but Rosenstein overruled him.

This information comes from a draft report of a two-years investigation by the DOJ's inspector general, which included more than 45 interviews with key officials in addition to emails and documents. Officials say the final report could change, but what was revealed is shocking, even for those who are familiar with the policy and its implementation.

ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt expressed his shock at the report on Twitter.

NYT reporting tonight that DOJ officials overruled request to exempt babies from horrific fam sep practice. I’ve b… https://t.co/r5mobBBobg
— Lee Gelernt (@Lee Gelernt) 1602033959.0

Among the revelations in the report:

- A secret pilot program in 2017 along the Mexico border in Texas alarmed government attorneys. "We have now heard of us taking breastfeeding defendant moms away from their infants," one government prosecutor wrote to his superiors. "I did not believe this until I looked at the duty log."

- Border Patrol was stretched so thin from the family separation prosecutions that they missed serious felony cases, with one Texas prosecutor warning the DOJ that "sex offenders were released" as a result.

- U.S. Marshals had no warning before the policy was announced, which led to overcrowding and budget overruns because there was not preparation for it.

- DOJ officials have long claimed that they thought children would be reunited with their parents within hours, but there was no actual plan in place to get families reunited. "We found no evidence, before or after receipt of the memorandum, that DOJ. leaders sought to expedite the process for completing sentencing in order to facilitate reunification of separated families," the inspector general wrote.

Reading the NTY report, when confronted with who was ultimately responsible for the welfare of the children and for reuniting the with their parents, the officials involved in the policy either refuse to comment or point fingers elsewhere. No one wants to be the one to say, "I'm the monster," and of course the individual ultimately responsible for all federal policy is the president himself.

In fact, according to the Times:

"Gene Hamilton, a top lawyer and ally of Stephen Miller, the architect of the president's assault on immigration, argued in a 32-page response that Justice Department officials merely took direction from the president. Mr. Hamilton cited an April 3, 2018, meeting with Mr. Sessions; the homeland security secretary at the time, Kirstjen Nielsen; and others in which the president 'ranted' and was on 'a tirade,' demanding as many prosecutions as possible."

When "Prosecute 'em all!" becomes the policy or even misdemeanor illegal entry cases of asylum-seekers crossing the border in an area other than a port of entry, and no one plans for the fallout, chaos is inevitable and children ultimately pay the price.

"The department's single-minded focus on increasing prosecutions came at the expense of careful and effective implementation of the policy, especially with regard to prosecution of family-unit adults and the resulting child separations," the draft report said.

And what of the Border Patrol agents charged with carrying out the assignment of taking babies out of their parents' arms? One of them spoke to PBS Frontline about what that was like:

"That was the most horrible thing I’ve ever done," said Wesley Farris, a Border Patrol officer who was tasked with… https://t.co/y2yiFqoj4d
— FRONTLINE (@FRONTLINE) 1602093300.0

Make no mistake—children were traumatized by this policy. How could they not be? And that cruelty was exactly the point. Our government decided that punishing parents by traumatizing children would be an effective deterrent for people trying to enter the U.S., no matter what their circumstances.

There are certain lines that we, as a civilized society, simply should not cross. Knowingly causing harm to children is one of those lines. And the U.S. not only crossed that line, but hurdled over it with Trump's "zero tolerance" policy. Our own "of the people, by the people" government deliberately hurting babies and children is what we should truly have zero tolerance for. Not in our name. Not our watch.

From Your Site Articles

immigration

Some people believe that undocumented immigrants exploit our system and get loads of free benefits. It's not true.

There's a lot of confusion about immigration, which is understandable. It's a complex issue, with a lot of gray area. But there are many myths being perpetuated about undocumented immigrants that create an unnecessarily murky picture of the reality.

One of those myths is that people migrate to the U.S. and cross the border illegally so they can receive public benefits without contributing anything to our system. But that's not true.

[rebelmouse-image 19534106 dam="1" original_size="594x395" caption="Unauthorized immigrants make up 5% of the U.S. workforce, but account for more than a quarter of our agriculture workforce. Photo via David McNew/Getty Images." expand=1]Unauthorized immigrants make up 5% of the U.S. workforce, but account for more than a quarter of our agriculture workforce. Photo via David McNew/Getty Images.

An immigration lawyer set the record straight in a viral Facebook post.

Eric Pavri is an immigration lawyer and the director of Family Immigration Services at Catholic Charities of Central Colorado. Responding to people's comments and questions about illegal immigration, Pavri penned a detailed explanation of what undocumented immigrants can and cannot do within our system.

I'm an immigration lawyer. I know that many of my Facebook friends, who are good and intelligent people, honestly have...
Posted by Eric Pavri on Sunday, February 11, 2018

First, he explained how undocumented immigrants pay taxes without being able to tap into federal benefits.

Pavri explained that "only a U.S. citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident (green card holder) can receive almost all types of public benefit — including Medicaid, Medicare, SSI disability, social security payments for seniors, TANF, and food stamps."

But undocumented immigrants still pay into the tax system that funds those benefits — even though they aren't eligible to receive them. "The irony: most undocumented immigrants work under made-up social security numbers," wrote Pavri, "and so receive a paycheck from which social security, federal income taxes, and state income taxes are withheld, and of course they pay the same local sales and property taxes as anyone else through retail purchases, pass-through costs of apartment leases, etc."

Photo via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

"But none of those employees," he continued, "despite paying IN to the system, will ever receive those public benefits listed above, that are paid for by the money withheld from their paychecks. So they are propping up our federal and state government entitlement programs because they pay in but won’t ever take out."

According to the nonprofit, nonpartian Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, undocumented workers pay nearly $12 billion in state and local taxes and pay a higher effective tax rate than America's top-earners do. And because they don't qualify for most benefits, that tax revenue is gravy for the government.

Then Pavri described the few benefits undocumented immigrants do receive. (Hint: They're good for the nation as a whole.)

Undocumented immigrants do receive a handful of "benefits" for what they contribute to the tax system. But they are either provided for the common good or out of basic human decency. Pavri wrote:

"The following are the public benefits that undocumented immigrants can receive in the United States:
1) Public education for children in grades K-12. This was definitively established by a 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe. The Supreme Court in its reasoning explicitly stated that it would not serve the overall public good of the U.S. to leave many thousands of children uneducated.
2) Emergency room services, but only to the point where the patient is considered “medically stable,” at which point he/she is released. These services are not free, however, as in my job I meet hundreds of immigrant families who sacrifice over years to slowly pay off high emergency room medical bills.
3) WIC assistance. This is for milk, food, etc, and available only to pregnant mothers. The rationale is that the children in the womb will be U.S. citizens when born, and therefore it is in the long-term economic best interests of the nation to ensure that they receive adequate prenatal nutrition to improve their chances of being productive citizens in the decades to come.
4) Assistance from police if they are the victim of a crime and call for help. To their credit, the vast majority of our Colorado Springs law enforcement officers take their duty to protect all people seriously. Chief Carey of the CSPD and Sheriff Elder of the EPCSO have made clear that their officers can’t do their most important job – keeping us safe by getting dangerous criminals off our streets – if a whole class of people (undocumented immigrants) is afraid to call 911 to report crimes that they witness or are victim to.
5) Assistance from a fire department. Rationale, besides the obvious moral one: If your house was next to that of an undocumented immigrant family, would you want the firefighters to let that house continue to burn, putting yours at risk of catching on fire too?
And that’s it. Those, to the best of my knowledge, are the only public benefits that an undocumented immigrant can receive in just about any part of the United States."

Pavri then expressed, as someone who works closely with this hardworking and economically challenged population, he wishes he could help them gain access to more of the benefits their taxes technically pay for.

Photo via Robyn Beck/Getty Images.

The notion that undocumented immigrants are coming here and stealing from our benefits system is simply false.

And it's not the only myth being perpetuated. President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed rhetoric about illegal immigration and crime, going so far as to establish a hotline specifically to report crimes committed by suspected illegal immigrants and parading around victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants (and bizarrely autographing the dead victims' photographs, but that's another story).

— (@)

Study after study shows that illegal immigration does not increase crime and there is no clear evidence that illegal immigrants are statistically more likely to commit more or worse crime than native-born Americans. (Simple logic would also dictate that people living some place illegally would try to avoid breaking the law so they wouldn't be deported.)

The facts simply don't support the idea that undocumented immigrants are a drain on the system or that they increase crime. While there may be legitimate arguments to be made for revamping our border policies, the arguments many people use for cracking down on illegal immigration simply don't hold up against the facts.

From Your Site Articles

Judge orders all detained immigrant children released. But only because COVID-19 is 'on fire' in detention centers. - Upworthy ›

Several Oregon Republicans just joined the state's Senate Democrats to pass a bill that would extend Medicaid coverage to undocumented children.

[rebelmouse-image 19473921 dam="1" original_size="700x364" caption="Photo by M.O. Stevens/Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Photo by M.O. Stevens/Wikimedia Commons.

The "cover all kids" bill was approved on July 3, 2017, in a 21-8 vote.

"We could get wrapped up in sanctuary this, sanctuary that. We could get wrapped up with immigration this or immigration that," Sen. Jeff Kruse told KGW-Portland. "This is not about the optics or the politics. This is about health care at a reasonable cost."

Four GOP senators voted for the measure, bucking the majority of their colleagues, who opposed it.

The bill now moves to the majority-Democratic statehouse, where it's expected to pass.

The proposed law would make up to 17,000 Oregonian children brought to the United States by their parents eligible for the program.

The bill's proponents claim the measure will lower costs by limiting expensive emergency room visits.

Groups like the Oregon Latino Health Coalition, which has been advocating the measure for years, believe the law will markedly improve health outcomes, leading to better educational attainment and economic benefits for the state.

While U.S. Senate Republicans continue to consider health care bill that would strip coverage from millions, some state and local GOP officials are working to preserve or expand coverage gains.

On June 30, Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed a bill that would freeze enrollment in the state's Medicaid program, which was expanded under the Affordable Care Act.

John Kasich. Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Kasich additionally joined with two fellow Republicans, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Barker, and four Democratic governors to oppose the Republican-penned health care bill pending in the Senate.

The national debate over how to structure health coverage, and who should benefit, is far from over.

In 2016, California proposed a measure allowing undocumented immigrants to purchase coverage on the state's Affordable Care Act exchange.

A 2014 poll found that a majority of in-state voters were in favor of the expansion while a September 2016 Rasmussen Reports poll found that nearly 60% of voters nationwide opposed it.

For now, in one state at least, a few Republican elected officials are putting the health of kids above politics — and their own careers.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

"I will look at folks with anger in their eyes and they will not listen to the answer that it is less expensive," state Senate minority leader Ted Ferrioli told KGW-Portland.

He voted for it anyway.

Apparently, the first day of Donald Trump’s new immigrant crime hotline went amazingly — just not in the way the Trump administration had probably hoped.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

The Victims of Immigrant Crime Engagement Office (VOICE), established to assist victims of crimes committed by "removable criminal aliens," was reportedly prank-called all day by protesters claiming to have been abused by E.T., Jabba the Hutt, and other notorious creatures from outer space.

The trend was first noticed by Robbie Gramer, a writer for Foreign Policy.

— (@)

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told BuzzFeed that the hotline was "tied up" throughout the day by the protesters.

Alexander McCoy, a Marine Corps veteran and progressive activist, claims to have kicked off the tongue-in-cheek protest with a tweet Wednesday afternoon.

— (@)

"I swore an oath to defend my community and uphold the Constitution," McCoy says. "I see speaking out as a way of continuing to fulfill my oath and standing behind the immigrant community that is under attack."

McCoy, who explains that he finds the term "aliens" intentionally dehumanizing, called the hotline and — after waiting on hold for 20 minutes — was asked if he was calling to report a crime by an "illegal alien."

He told the operator that he'd been abducted and taken to a UFO.

"I heard them give a long sigh," he says. "And they closed out the conversation saying that they'd make a note of it."

Critics of VOICE allege that it unfairly demonizes immigrants — singling them out for suspicion based on their status.

The office was announced during Trump's Feb. 2017 address to Congress during a tribute to four guests whose family members were killed by undocumented immigrants.

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.

Two recent studies conducted by The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform organization, and the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that immigrants — whether documented or undocumented — commit crimes at lower rates than native-born residents.

An ICE official told Upworthy that the VOICE office is intended to provide information to crime victims and does not receive crime reports, and also that he considers the protest a "shameful" stunt at victims' expense.

After McCoy's tweet went mini-viral, other prank-tivists began calling in, adding their own spin.

Michigan resident Lisa Polmanteer used her time on the phone with a VOICE representative to troll Melania Trump — claiming to have been "victimized" by an immigrant living off her tax dollars in New York City.

According to Polmanteer, the operator asked if she was talking about the first lady. When she said yes, he hung up.

Others on Twitter suggested an entirely different, punny approach.

— (@)

While the prank was undoubtedly silly, its message was incredibly serious.

"I feel like the administration is going to use these stories to further demonize immigrants [and] refugees," Polmanteer says. "My grandparents were immigrants. I take it personally, I guess."

McCoy hopes the protest will move participants to support the efforts of immigrant rights groups, like United We Dream, Presente, Mijente, and the DRM Action Coalition, who have been, as he says, "fighting this fight much longer than I have."

He also hopes people will continue to take action against attempts to stigmatize those who come to the U.S. seeking a better life.

For now, that means fighting efforts like VOICE — even if it means being a little annoying.

Or especially if it means being a little annoying.

"I feel like the only thing I can do about it is be disruptive." Polmanteer says. [I'm] feeling pretty overwhelmed and powerless, you know? So I'm a jerk wherever I can be."

Photo by Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images.

This post was updated with comments from ICE.

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"Immigrants don't pay taxes!"

It's a common myth, and some pretty high profile people seem to believe it (including, potentially, the president of the United States).

But it's not true. It's been proven not to be true.

Yet, it persists.

Recently, an Arizona State University student set out to bust this myth once and for all.

Belén Sisa came to America as a child and has since been a recipient of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood), an Obama administration program that aims to help people who came to America at a young age to stay. She posted to Facebook a photo of one of her tax documents, showing she paid $300 to the state of Arizona even though she's undocumented.

MYTH BUSTER: I, an undocumented immigrant, just filed my taxes and PAID $300 to the state of Arizona. I cannot receive...
Posted by Belén Sisa on Sunday, March 26, 2017

She's not the only one. Undocumented immigrants pay over $11 billion per year that goes into programs like Medicaid and Social Security — programs they'll never receive benefits from.

There's a multitude of reasons and mechanisms that make this possible, but according to some estimates, undocumented immigrants actually pay taxes at a higher rate than America's wealthy.

Her post quickly went viral, and soon after, there was extraordinary backlash.

Sisa's Facebook page was overwhelmed with insults, anger, and worst of all, threats.

People called her post a hoax. They told her to "get the hell out of Arizona." Or they found a way to gripe about a college student "only" paying $300 in state income taxes.

That's just what was posted publicly. Sisa's private messages revealed an even darker shade of rage, including people who claimed to have reported her to ICE and worse.

The HATE is real guys. The hate is real. I am legally working in the United States through DACA, and I'm pretty sure the...
Posted by Belén Sisa on Sunday, March 26, 2017

Sisa stood tall amid an onslaught of criticism. For as many people as she angered, even more people came to her defense.

Other DACA recipients from across the country praised her for fighting for understanding. Applause emojis rained all over her Facebook page. Other immigrants shared how much they've paid the government in recent years. Anyone who attacked her was quickly swarmed with dozens of rebuttals.

"Keep fighting girls! You'll make a difference," one friend wrote.

"Thank you for sharing this. May you stay safe and warm where you want to be," added another.

"I admire your strength, Belen! You're undocumented, unafraid, and here to stay," Facebooker Isabella Michaele posted. "We sure as hell have got your back."

Many of the most moving messages were sent directly to Sisa through private message.

This is what makes it all worth it. This is the reason to keep going everyday, fighting & standing together. The love makes me tear up, thank you ❤ #HereToStay #WePayTaxesToo
Posted by Belén Sisa on Wednesday, March 29, 2017

"This is what makes it all worth it," she wrote in a follow-up post. "This is the reason to keep going every day, fighting & standing together."

There will always be people with a warped understanding of the American dream.

People who think the pursuit of happiness is a right that belongs only to a select few, or who can't view the success of others without wondering what it might cost them.

If Sisa's story shows us anything (besides the fact that a 23-year-old immigrant is willing to endure insults and threats of violence by releasing her tax information, while our president refuses to do so), it's that the believers will always be louder.

And that — far off as it may seem sometimes — the America most of us are dreaming of is still within reach.

As controversy over Donald Trump's immigration executive order continues to swirl, in his first-ever joint speech to Congress, he addressed his personal guests Jamiel Shaw, Jessica Davis, and Susan Oliver — whose family members were killed by undocumented immigrants.

Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/Getty Images

"To any in Congress who do not believe we should enforce our laws, I would ask you this one question," the president said. "What would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or their loved one because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?"

It's impossible not to feel for those who have lost loved ones to senseless acts of violence.

The urge to make meaning and place blame in the wake of a tragedy is powerful. But for the president to exploit these families by grouping them together and focusing on the perpetrators' immigration status sends a dishonest and destructive message: that undocumented immigrants are inherently violent, criminal, and not to be trusted.

We can litigate this until we're blue in the face, but it won't change the fact that the president's message is not just damaging — it's wrong. Studies show that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens, and, more anecdotally, that the same goes for undocumented immigrants.

Not only are immigrant families touched by violent crime just as often as the families of those who are born in the U.S. — many are specifically targeted because of their immigrant status.

Srinivas Kuchibholta. Photo by Mahesh Kumar A/AP.

If President Trump truly wanted to use his first speech to Congress to honor families whose loved ones have died senselessly and tragically, he could have also invited...

1. The family of Srinivas Kuchibholta, an engineer from India who was murdered at a bar in Olathe, Kansas, last week.

His assailant allegedly yelled, "Get out of my country" before fatally shooting him.

Srinivas Kuchibholta's wife Sunayana Dumala. Photo by Orlin Wagner/AP.

2. The family of Luis Ramirez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who was beaten to death by four high school football players in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 2008.

One purportedly told the 25-year-old factory and field worker to, "Tell your Mexican friends to get the fuck out of Shenandoah."

Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Photo by Rick Smith/AP.

3. The family of Won-Joon Yoon, a Korean graduate student, who was murdered by a white supremacist while pursuing a computer science degree at Indiana University.

Won-Joon Yoon's parents. Photo by Michael Conroy/AP.

4. The family and friends of Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, a Saudi student at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, who died from his injuries after being attacked during a night out in October.

Students at UW-Stout hold a vigil for Hussain Saeed Alnahdi. Photo by Marisa Wojcik/The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram via AP.

5. The family of Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant killed by teenagers in Patchogue, New York, in 2008, as part of a game called "beaner-hopping," where the group would hunt and beat local Latino men.

Photo by Craig Ruttle/AP.

6. The family of Arlindo Goncalves, a 72-year-old, homeless, Cape Verdean immigrant, who was killed by a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi, in 2009.

Anabela Fernandes, niece of Arlindo Goncalves. Photo by Tim Correira/The Enterprise.

7. The family of Joseph Ileto, a postal worker originally from the Philippines, who was killed by a white supremacist during a shooting spree at a Jewish Community Center.

Photo by Randi Lynn Beach/AP.

For President Trump to highlight the few heinous crimes committed by a vanishingly small number of undocumented immigrants while ignoring the violence committed against the broader immigrant community is shameful.

"As we speak tonight, we are removing gang members, drug dealers, and criminals that threaten our communities and prey on our very innocent citizens," President Trump declared. He went on to propose a new office — Victims of Immigration Crime Enforcement — to serve victims of violent crime committed by undocumented immigrants.

But immigrants, like the rest of us, aren't, for the most part, "gang members, drug dealers, and criminals" — they're just people. And just like U.S.-born citizens, a tiny fraction of them do horrible, unforgivable things — though, it bears repeating, at a lower rate than those who were born here.

Most immigrants go shopping, play basketball, go to work, fall in love, get bored, drink whisky, watch TV, hug their kids, and generally behave the way most normal human beings behave.

Relatives of Srinivas Kuchibholta attend his funeral. Photo by Mahesh Kumar A/AP.

Immigrants who commit deadly crimes don't represent the vast majority who just want to live their lives and raise their families in peace and security, and not be hassled — or worse — for it.

It's perfectly reasonable to argue for stronger enforcement of immigration laws — in a humane, fact-based manner.

It's not OK to implicitly label all undocumented immigrants "killers" and "thugs."

If President Trump truly wants to make America great, he can start by acknowledging that whether or not we were born here or came here with the right paperwork in order, we're all human. And we all deserve to feel safe.