Should America Still Welcome Immigrants?

• Author: Feliz, Wendy
• Position: Debate

Citing the economic crisis created by the pandemic and the need to protect American workers, President Trump announced in June that the federal government would "temporarily suspend immigration into the United States." Trump's executive order bars most foreign workers from entering the country and sharply restricts the number of immigrants allowed to come and start new lives. The policy is a major shift in how the U.S. government has traditionally viewed immigration, and it prompts a fundamental question about the role immigrants play in our country. An advocate for immigrants and a U.S. congressman face off on this important issue.

YES

Americans care deeply about freedom. We also work hard, love our families, and take care of our neighbors and communities. These powerful values bind us across race, ethnicity, religion, and immigration status. In fact, these are the very threads that knit our country together and are a powerful part of our founding story.

Newcomers who accept the challenge of leaving behind old lives to build new ones in America are the kinds of dreamers who have helped build our nation for generations. In fact, America's history is, in part, made up of successive waves of new people from different places arriving with little more than dreams of building a better life and becoming part of the great American experiment. They live the American motto e pluribus unum--out of many, one.

Immigrants are critical to the functioning of our communities: Just like other Americans, newcomers care for the sick and elderly, teach students, build homes, and feed the nation by picking crops and opening restaurants. Newcomers also raise families, practice a faith, and watch favorite sports teams compete on the weekends. And importantly, newcomers are helping fight COVID-19 alongside their U.S.-born colleagues as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, grocery store clerks, and delivery drivers.

Asking whether America needs immigrants is like asking whether our nation should even exist at all. You might even say the question is designed to divide us and push us to turn our backs on others. This is the opposite of what we must do in a time of national crisis. We need everyone working together to move America forward.

The most important indication of who we are as Americans is how we treat other people. Most Americans know that being a welcoming neighbor is part of what makes us strong. We are a nation that welcomes new ideas, new energy, and new...