Reject Trump's Migration "Pause" & Support Mental Healthcare

America is a great nation because of immigration. We are a nation of immigrants, and we owe everything to the land that accepted us into its enveloping vastness. Many immigrants fled to America to escape religious persecution, poverty, famine, war, and antisemitism. Others were forced here against their will, bound in chains. Immigrants have been arriving on America's shores for four hundred years. On Thanksgiving Day, we pause to reflect on our status as a nation of immigrants. Every iteration of the Thanksgiving story in America includes immigrants 'giving thanks' for having arrived safely at their new home. That is why the horrific shooting of two National Guard troops on Thanksgiving eve is particularly tragic. The shooter was an immigrant from Afghanistan who had worked with US forces during the war. He appears to have acted alone and (according to some reports) was afflicted with mental illness after supporting a CIA-backed unit during the Afghan war. The national identity of the shooter has ignited a paroxysm of anti-immigrant hate led by Trump, JD Vance, Fox News, and right-wing social media. Late on Thanksgiving Day, Trump announced that he would "permanently pause" all immigration into the US from "Third World Countries" and would "terminate" the status of those "illegally admitted" by President Biden who are "non compatible with Western Civilization." Trump ended his hate-filled, racist, xenophobic post by wishing everyone a "HAPPY THANKSGIVING." The shootings are tragic on every level. National Guard member, Sarah Beckstrom, died one day after volunteering to serve on Thanksgiving Day in DC so that others could return home for the holiday. Andrew Wolfe ID'd as the other National Guard member shot in DC is still hospitalized. Both Beckstrom and Wolfe volunteered to defend our nation and deserve nothing but respect, admiration, honor, and sympathy for their service and sacrifice. They did not volunteer to advance the hateful narrative of a president who seeks to divide our nation by pitting the descendants of immigrants against current immigrants. This tragedy is more an indictment of loose and inconsistent gun policies and severe lack of mental health care available in this country. It has little to do with national origin and will not be solved by attempting to deport all 53 million Americans who were born abroad. Attempting that would be an absurd and destructive reaction to the act of one mentally ill man who should never have had a gun. Instead honor Beckstrom and Wolfe by speaking out to defend your constituents who were born elsewhere and who now live in the US contributing to the richness of our communities. Pass laws that enable better access to mental health care. Legislate better gun control laws (red flag laws!) and universal background checks.