I once overheard a conversation between two Metro bus drivers who happened to be of East African descent. The two were playfully boasting about how much available over-time they were getting. Instead of saying “good-bye” when they parted; they commanded each other to ‘Make that money!”

I once spent a couple of hours in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport a couple of years ago. Like in many low-wage jobs in America; the majority of the service work was being performed by legal immigrants and by first and second generation Americans.

In this airport; the majority of the “grunt” and customer service workers were of East Africa ancestry. More proof that legal immigrants today continue to fill an employment demand working in low-wage jobs that white Americans refuse to do. Why? Because Corporate America refuses to pay a union living wage with benefits and because immigrants desperately want to realize the American Dream just like Europeans who emigrated to America’s Ellis Island from 1892 to 1914.

“Almost 58% of the Somalis in Minnesota were born in the U.S. (ABC News). Among the foreign-born Somali Minnesotans, a strong majority – about 87% – are naturalized U.S. citizens (PBS News). The naturalized citizens want to be American and they came here for the promised freedom and for the promised economic opportunities. Does this sound familiar to you? So overall, the “vast majority of Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens: the U.S.-born portion automatically, and for the foreign-born, a large naturalized share. Some community estimates even place citizenship among nearly 95% of Somalis in Minnesota.” (Washington Post).

Trump is a descendant of immigrants. Historians report that Trump’s grandfather left Bavaria (Germany) in 1885 at the age of 16 for the expressed purpose to avoid his country’s mandatory military service. Sound familiar? Like most immigrants, Frederick Trump chose to come to America because of the promise of economic opportunity. Imagine that.

After making his money, including running hotels that included prostitution, Frederick attempted to return to Germany twice but was denied admittance and he returned to America. Why? Where would America be today had Germany taken Frederick back? Wistful.

Now, we have an inadequate, toxic and grotesque president with all of his bigotry, ignorance, and xenophopic zeal denigrating and scapegoating a demographic who is just as much American as him and his grandfather. Somali Americans are proof that immigrants want to come to America to “make that money!” Unlike Frederick Trump, the Somalis immigrants don’t want to return to where they came from. Why should they?

I have a Norman Rockwell print hanging on a wall in my house, depicting caretakers in a collaborative effort cleaning the Statue of Liberty. The caretakers look like America: Asian, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and white. Imagine that. Perhaps Trump should hang this Rockwell in the Oval Office. Although, I think his bigotry and low-IQ would blind him to the symbolism. You think?

Stanley McKie

Enumclaw