Immigration Heritage Month, first established in June 2014 and observed every year since, is a time to honor and celebrate the shared diversity that connects more than 40 percent of U.S. citizens who can trace their ancestry back to immigrants, and who continue to transform and shape our country.
But this year—this moment—is unlike any other. Donald Trump is manufacturing a crisis in Los Angeles and an excuse to flex his unlawful use of the National Guard to clamp down on dissent. The fact that he’s unleashed this terror in the middle of National Immigration Heritage Month underlies his hypocrisy and venality.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks for the city when he said, “This National Immigrant Heritage Month, we want to say clearly and firmly: Chicago will always be a welcoming city. You belong here.”
“You belong here.” Those three simple words that ought to be universally understood and accepted are being challenged by a crackdown on immigrants that undermines our most basic principles of fairness and democracy.
Instead of celebrating the ways immigration has strengthened our society, the Trump Administration is obsessed with deportation, travel bans and revoking student visas. “You don’t belong here,” they say, but NOW members strongly, powerfully disagree.
NOW opposes the Trump Administration’s cruelty in dealing with immigration. The list of ways they subvert the rule of law grows by the day:
- attacks on habeas corpus
- blatant ignoring of court orders
- bans on refugee settlement
- revoking protected status for hundreds of thousands of refugees from dangerous countries such as Venezuela and Haiti
- declaring an end to birthright citizenship
- arresting legal asylum seekers at their immigration check-ins
NOW members in 30 cities and counties across the nation are still going to take part in the month-long celebration that, organizers say “is intended to inspire, uplift, and support immigrant communities in our cities and the nation.”
Here’s a list of participating municipalities and more about the “You Belong” campaign being launched in honor of Immigrant Heritage Month by Cities for Action, a bipartisan coalition of nearly 200 U.S. mayors and county executives.
And here’s a video, “I Stand With Immigrants,” featuring artists and their loved ones sharing what makes them proud about their own heritage and the value of our collective recognition of everyone’s unique story.
In years past, Immigration Heritage Month was more of a time to commemorate proud achievements. But this year, this month is also a call to action, one that NOW members are ready to meet.
We stand with immigrants this Immigration Heritage Month and remind ourselves that diversity isn’t only something we celebrate, it is who we are.