Written by Robert Douglas   

They told me that the streets in America were paved with gold, but when I got to America I realized that the streets were not paved with gold. In fact, they were not paved at all. Moreover, I was expected to pave them.
— Quote from a plaque at the immigration museum of Ellis Island.

What was my mommy thinking when she arranged to sneak me across the US border to the Promised Land where her dreams for me could come true and my tummy would be full at bedtime and I could sleep without fear from mean grownups.
— Imagined thoughts of a youngster being bused around until she’s deported.

When you choose to leave your homeland to come to the United States, you bring with you a well developed notion of an American Dream that promises opportunity, justice for all and economic security for those willing to work hard.

But not long after you get off the boat or emerge from the Rio Grande, you awaken to the fact the Dream has nightmarish dimensions, too.

Like the discrimination suffered by Italians and Irish in years past, before being accepted into the economic and political mainstream.

And like vitriol of present-day protestors in a rush to send the bus children back to the crushing poverty and brutal oppression in parts of Latin America.

Protestors, some of whom may be descendants of immigrants who encountered a similarly hostile welcome when they arrived.

Of course, the protesters might point out that their problem with the latest surge of young immigrants is not that they’re wretched refuse, but that they’re undocumented.

Bullshit!

In a nation of immigrants, it’s disingenuous to use public policy as an excuse to exclude anyone who risks his or her life to come here. Whether it’s to escape poverty or oppression of a political or religious nature, they’re all refugees and deserve a humane reception.

To classify any human being as illegal — as many of today’s protesters do — is as cruel as it is shortsighted. People who chose to come here have potential to become better and more productive citizens than many people who have the good fortune to have been born here.

It’s time to stop the protests that manifest the worst of America.

It’s time to invoke the spirit of inclusion symbolized by the Statue of Liberty — "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” — and stop indulging the bigots, whether in the street intimidating refugees on a bus or in Washington, where it’s fashionable to pander to voters who've forgotten their roots.

To do otherwise is unAmerican.
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Robert Douglas is a former union official and former business editor for The Palm Beach Post and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. You can contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .