Why I Vote - These Are The People Trump Is Keeping Out of America

By TRISHES

I remember being a child watching the first bombs drop into their country on the evening news. Sometimes I wonder where they were at that exact moment, they themselves small children too. That night I felt my stomach turn as tears rolled down my cheeks and I wasn’t sure why. Now I know I was hurting for my future friends.

Since the 2016 election, I’ve gotten to know a family of refugees and they’ve become like family to me. To escape violence from a well known terrorist organization, the Zaheeds* moved to Los Angeles from the Middle East. While language has been a barrier at times, we’ve gotten to know each other over food, Jenga, and Google Translate.

I’ve also had the privilege of spending time with asylum seekers in Tijuana. I’ve colored dinosaurs with a little boy whose foot had twisted from walking from Central America, the soles of his shoe flapping out like a tongue. I’ve given condolences in broken Spanish to a woman whose son was captured and dismembered by gangs. I’ve made crowns out of balloons with a teenage girl who does her homework in a tent by the light of her cell phone.

Within the same four years, the Trump administration has continued to lower the ceiling on refugees (with last year’s 30,000 cap the lowest it has been since the Refugee Act 1980) and restrict the number of asylum applicants. The local Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement Office in Glendale that I met the Zaheed’s through has closed its doors, as not enough refugees are coming in to sustain their existence.

This policy falls in line with the president’s rhetoric that immigrants are “ taking our jobs”, asylum seekers “bring large-scale crime”, and that refugees are a “trojan horse” for terrorist organizations. Last year, Senior advisor for Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, even went as far as to write that he “would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched America’s soil.”

It’s easy to feel anger upon hearing this sentiment, but more than anger I’ve felt sadness. Some of it is a sadness for the millions of refugees still searching for a home. A lot of it is a selfish sadness - a sadness for us, the American people, and for what we are losing because of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

I can relay the statistics that prove his statements are false. That countless studies have shown immigrants do not take jobs from residents but actually boost our economy; and that they are less likely than residents to commit crimes. I could remind you that refugees are actually fleeing terrorism themselves. What those studies can’t tell you is the value that refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants as a whole bring to our lives as individuals.

When I leave the Zaheed’s after an afternoon of snacking on walnuts and raisins and chatting about simple things, I am happier than when I arrived. In a culture that has convinced me that I always need more possessions, their gratitude harvests a gratitude in me. I see the lives that they’ve built from scratch after leaving all they knew, and I wonder what I too can create. Just as immigrants have always contributed to the rich fabric of American culture, the experience and character of refugees contribute something immeasurable to us. They shift our perspectives.

The Zaheed’s values have helped me remember mine. They believe in hard work, integrity, and above all, family. Watching them thrive has been the closest I’ve ever felt to the American dream.

These are the kinds of people that Trump’s refugee policy is keeping out of the U.S. Little kids who like to dress up as superheroes and ride their scooters around the block. Dads who get up at dawn and take the bus two hours to make an honest living. Moms who always make sure you’ve gotten enough to eat before you leave the house. Moms like my mom. Kids like your kids. People like you. The people that Trump is keeping out of America are our children’s future playmates and our future friends.

A lot of my peers in liberal circles are disappointed with our presidential options. Whoever wins the 2020 presidential race, this country will still be due for a reckoning with the racist, colonial history that has poisoned our democracy. It is deeply entrenched and one election will not change that. But there are still people for whom this vote means life or death.

Joe Biden’s platform promises to end family separation, restore our asylum laws to protect that fleeing persecution, reinstate DACA and rescind the Muslim ban.

So I vote for the teenager doing homework on matted blankets on the floor of a tent. I vote for the next young mother landing at Tom Bradley International, rolling a suitcase behind her, and holding a baby on her hip. I vote for the boy with the twisted foot and the broken shoes.

*Name has been changed for the safety of the family.

We want to highlight a beautiful video made by TRISHES. The family in her ‘Language’ music video is the same family depicted in his artcle.

watch TRISHES - Language Official Music Video (An American Refugee Story) below