Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…

Pardon me for missing last week’s newsletter! I have been very busy on the campaign trail as we approach the delivery of mail ballots at the end of the month. It’s critically important that we reach all of the voters ASAP when they get their mail ballots – sign up for our Day of Action on June 28 to help us win.

Now, onto this week’s newsletter.

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor…

I learned this week that one of my neighbors has become a victim of Trump’s cruel immigration policy. After being here on long-term visas for the last 10 years, she was recently forced to return to her country of origin to apply for a green card. Her family doubts that her green card will be granted, and her young son doesn’t know when he will see his mother again.

Trump changed the visa and green card application process to deliberately discourage immigrants from seeking permanent residency. The message is clear: We don’t want you here, go away. The same message is sent in immigrant detention centers, where conditions are so tortuous that immigrants choose to “self-deport.” In Baldwin Michigan, detainees at the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest went on hunger strike this spring to protest “being treated like animals.”

It’s a cliche, but it’s true: We are a nation of immigrants. Despite the many ugly seams in our history, generations upon generations of beleaguered people from around the world found a better life here. As a young American, I was raised to take pride in the words written on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Today, the lamp is extinguished, and the door closed. Our own citizens are homeless, and the oppressed of the world find no welcome here. Universities like Michigan State, once the envy of the world and a magnet for talented people of all nationalities, are under attack from billionaires who prefer an isolated and uneducated populace.

Immigrants are our friends, our coworkers, and our fellow taxpayers. The people of the world are to be embraced, not feared. When we turn our back on immigrants, we lose our soul as a nation. As your Congressman, I will work to end Trump’s un-American immigration policy, and hold his cabinet and ICE officials accountable for their many violations of the Constitution and common decency.

Votes of Note In DC

Barrett voted to give $70 billion to ICE. Barrett and his party ended the 76-day DHS shutdown by using a procedural loophole to pass $70 billion in ICE/DHS funding through 2027. I would have voted with the Democrats who held the line against masked paramilitary agents kidnapping people off of our streets. (PBS)

Barrett voted to help bosses in labor disputes. The Faster Labor Contracts Act requires employers to start bargaining within 10 days of union certification. It passed with all Democrats and 20 Republicans in support, but not Barrett. This bill will help every single union in the country expand its membership and bring union benefits to more workers, but Barrett would rather the bosses get richer at workers’ expense. (NPR)

12 Democrats voted against the $1.2 trillion War budget in a House committee. The anti-war perspective is gaining steam in Congress. The American people are demanding that our resources be used to invest in our people and infrastructure, not more needless and destructive wars around the world. (Congressman Ro Khanna)

District Notes

A student at Brighton’s Cleary University is being held in Baldwin detention center. Karliana Yosdeylin Perdomo-Gotopo is an honors graduate from Western International High School in Detroit, and a member of the Cleary U soccer team. Her family and the Cleary community are pushing for her to receive a bond hearing. (Michigan Advance)

Data center battles continue. Vevay Township trustees listened to their residents by refusing a land-sharing agreement with Mason for a proposed data center. The fight’s not over – the city of Mason and the landowner will now pursue annexation of the proposed development site. (WLNS)

Historic Coral Gables closing at end of month. I grew up hearing stories about the days when East Lansing was a dry city, and Coral Gables was the nearest watering hole on the other side of city limits. It will be closing at the end of the month. Stop by and have one for old times. (WILX)

City of Lansing “Citizens Academy” applications due June 30. This program, which acquaints residents with the workings of city government, comes recommended by a friend. (Apply here)

Mid-Michigan celebrates Juneteenth! I had a wonderful time at the Lansing Mall, St. Joseph Park, and in REOtown for three celebrations hosted by the Lansing-area Black community. Juneteenth commemorates the emancipation of formerly enslaved people in this country, and the ongoing fight for freedom and self-determination. The Black freedom struggle is an inspiration to me, and a reminder to all of us that America can become a more free and just place when we act upon the higher values of her founding.

There have been some concerning developments in East Lansing with the Human Rights Commission, along with big leadership shake-ups at MSU. I will address these matters in an upcoming newsletter. If there are other matters you would like me to address, please reply to this email.