We can stand up to these extremists and counter their harmful misinformation by having conversations about immigration with people who know and trust us, and by sharing the truth on social media. We’re making it easy for you!

Use our tool below to share this ready-made post on your favorite social media platform(s). The post includes the text and image you need, and a link to our shareable pdf with facts about immigration. We also have real stories about immigrants who are a vital part of the American fabric. All you have to do is a few clicks to share! Earn your Easy A by sharing today.

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Amidst the hateful rhetoric, it’s important to remember that, while Americans disagree on how to improve our increasingly stressed immigration system, the majority of us support humane immigration policies and legal pathways to citizenship.

Watch this quick video as a reminder of how extremists are using immigration as a topic to scare and divide us, and how we can — and must — rise to this challenge and reject their hate and division.

We’ll be taking a break from our >Easy A next week to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, but we’ll be back the following week to talk about what we can do to support immigrants and immigration in the face of oncoming threats.

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Who Are Immigrants?

The United States is largely a nation of immigrants from all over the world. We are each diverse threads that weave together to create the beautiful American fabric.

Immigrants are not a monolith. They come from many different countries for many different reasons. Everyone is an individual with their own unique story. Whether they are fleeing war, violence, corruption, economic instability, climate disasters, or looking for opportunity, they share a desire for safety and a future for themselves and their families.

Immigrants come to the U.S. through work, student, or family visas, as asylum-seeking refugees, or meet the legal requirements for naturalization. They contribute to our communities and economy by starting businesses, serving in the military, or working in areas like healthcare, childcare, agriculture, construction, government, and service, to name a few.

Truths About Immigrants

Extremists want us to fear immigrants, so they spread dangerous myths and disinformation. But immigrants are not the problem. The problem is the partisan politicians who are dehumanizing and othering immigrants to divide us and gain political power. The scarier and more negative the lies are, the more quickly they spread and take hold. Let’s look at some facts instead.

• TRUTH: Immigrants are less likely to be criminals. US Census data shows that immigrants have never committed more crimes than native-born citizens.
• TRUTH: Most fentanyl is brought into our country by American citizens, not by immigrants.
• TRUTH: According to economists, as immigration goes up, more jobs are created — including jobs for native-born citizens. Many of the industries listed in the section above rely heavily on immigrants for their workforce.
• TRUTH: The health and stability of our economy depends on immigrants. They reduce labor shortages and contribute billions of dollars a year — yes, billions — to Social Security, Medicare, and state and local services.
• TRUTH: Only citizens can vote and have their vote counted in federal and state-wide elections.

It’s also true that our current immigration system is not equipped to handle the increase in people seeking citizenship. We can debate how to fix it, but most Americans agree, we want to solve our immigration challenges with humane policies and legal pathways to citizenship. We want our politicians to find solutions, not scapegoats.

Keeping the American Fabric Strong

So what can we do? It may feel difficult in light of the recent election results, but we don’t have to lose our values or our hope for the future.

We can have conversations with the people we know. We can stand up to partisan talking points and myth-bust their disinformation by sharing facts and real immigrant stories — starting with our own family histories. We can reject the othering of immigrants and seek to find similarities and honor our differences. We can support immigrant-owned businesses in our communities and immigrant families in our local schools. And it’s never too soon to look for like-minded politicians to support in the next election cycle.

The strength of our American fabric comes from the tight weave of our diverse threads. Let’s not let hateful politicians tear that fabric apart.

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