Ilhan Omar's Call for Support Against Trump Admin's New Immigration Rule Backfires
Two decades after becoming a citizen herself, Rep. Ilhan Omar still doesn’t get it.
The controversial Somalia-born lawmaker who represents Minnesota in Congress was apparently outraged over a Supreme Court ruling released Monday that, according to The Associated Press, allows a Trump administration policy to into effect requiring new immigrants to show they won’t be a burden on U.S. taxpayers if they are allowed residency in the country.
To most Americans, that kind of requirement might seem like a matter of common sense, but to open-borders advocates in the Democratic Party, it smacks of turning the country’s back on its traditional promise of the potential for a better life.
In a tweet Monday, Omar sought support on social media from those whose ancestors came to the United States poor.
But some answers she got were definitely not the kind she was looking for.
Naturally, Omar kicked off her tweet with the quote on the Statue of Liberty from the Emma Lazarus poem “The New Colossus.”
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” she wrote.
Then the kicker: “Retweet if your immigrant ancestors wouldn’t be let in if this means tested immigration policy was in place then.”
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”Retweet if your immigrant ancestors wouldn’t be let in if this means tested immigration policy was in place then. https://t.co/tfUQK0kphz
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 27, 2020
Omar was doubtless aiming for Democrats who think turning the country into the world’s largest open-air welfare state is what the Framers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.
With 1.9 million followers, she got some of the benighted to be on board.
But many spoke to the real issues rather than talking points from a Democratic agenda.
Some were from immigrants themselves.
~ Stop with the BS, I am an Immigrant and I came here legally, and I Didn’t expect Anyone else to pay for me to make a living!
— Ani (@EgryAni) January 28, 2020
And many were from Americans who had the good fortune to have forebears with the courage and will to leave their home countries for a new one — a country where they never expected to be given their livelihood, just the chance to make a better life for themselves and their descendants.
My family immigrated here in ‘68. There were NO hand outs. EVER. They hit the ground running. Taking any job available to non English speaking ppl. They became business owners within 3 yrs. That’s the kind of ppl they were allowing in then, that’s what we need now. Period. #MAGA
— ?? ELISABETH ?? (@Elisabeth242) January 28, 2020
Poor doesn’t equal using public services. My parents came here, got work, had 14 kids and never used the system. They understood the beauty of the free country they now lived had plenty of opportunities for our family. Living in America is a privilege and blessing!
— Pistol (@pita_guns) January 28, 2020
They came without any promise of welfare or food stamps or free healthcare. Only the promise of living freely in the greatest nation on earth pic.twitter.com/O0tTsIJa3q
— Legal Immigrant – Revered like Elvis (@1776Legal) January 28, 2020
When my ancestors arrived, government welfare was not a choice. They came over and worked to build a nice life with blood, sweat, and tears. Immigrants should not come here expecting hard working Americans to support them.
— book_nerd (@merelypresent) January 27, 2020
My immigrant ancestors had to be sponsored to come to the US, which meant they were required to have jobs. Not just “show up, hope and get free benefits”. In my ancestors cases they were coal miners who worked in hard conditions so their children would have a better life.
— MAZ (@mzanolli) January 27, 2020
There were more, but the idea was the same.
The Americans who would begrudge any immigrant from the outside world a chance to live in this country are vanishingly few, and not a major part of any political movement.
What matters to Americans is that the immigrants who come here — regardless of race or creed — are the kinds of people who will contribute to the building of the country, not living off its largesse.
It would seem logical that a woman whose own family escaped the hell-hole of a Somalia wracked by civil war would have more appreciation for the laws that helped make it the kind of country any family should be grateful to be able to join.
But that logic apparently doesn’t apply to Omar, who is reportedly facing a federal probe for allegedly skirting the immigration laws of her adopted country through a sham marriage with her own brother.
There might well come a day when Democrats free themselves of the left wing that seems so ascendant in the party today, rogue lawmakers such as Omar and her “squad” mates — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
But they can start with getting Omar voted out of office.
According to a 2018 Associated Press report about her immigration troubles, Omar became a citizen in 2000 at the age of 17. Yet her official congressional biography doesn’t bother to even mention an event that should have been of surpassing importance.
Two decades after becoming a citizen, and even after holding a federal office, she still doesn’t get what it’s all about.
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