John Kelly went on a wildly racist rant this past week about today’s immigrant families, complaining that they’re “overwhelmingly rural,” can’t assimilate, and are uneducated. Maybe he forgot—or never bothered to learn—his own family’s immigration history. “The father of Kelly’s maternal grandmother was a day laborer named John DeMarco,” NBC News reported, “who could not read, write nor speak English.”
But the White House chief of staff was not just wildly racist, he was also wildly wrong. One conservative columnist noted that “current immigrants assimilate just as well as immigrants in past generations.” All he had to do is check out Twitter, where immigrants, and the children of immigrants, shared their own American success stories:
“My dad came here at the age of 18 from Mexico and works at Walmart to provide for my family,” tweeted Salt Lake City’s Valeria Jimenez. “He has an elementary education, interviewed in English for his Walmart Sales Associate position, and saw his daughter graduate from college last week with honors.”
“I may be the first,” tweeted Iowa City’s Lilián Sánchez, “but I am certainly not the last”:
“My mom had a sixth grade education,” tweeted author and immigrant rights leader Julissa Arce, “and yet she built a business and has two daughters and a son with college degrees who all speak English and those of us who live here define American as much as anyone else. Our skills keep this economy running.Our customs make our culture rich”:
Members of Congress also joined in. “I grew up on a rice farm in rural Japan,” tweeted Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), who is also a cancer survivor. “When I arrived in Hawaii, I didn’t speak a word of English. John Kelly, you don’t understand how immigrants have built our country”:
“My immigrant parents worked hard every day to achieve the American Dream for our family,” tweeted Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), former chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). “Along the way they made history by sending TWO DAUGHTERS to Congress”:
Members of the press also joined in. “This is my mom,” tweeted CNN’s Jim Acosta. “Her parents were of Irish and Czech descent and ‘assimilated’ quite well. They are buried at Arlington National Cemetery”:
My mom picked cotton as a child and came to the U.S. with nothing but a grade school education and hope, yet raised college graduates and this weekend is watching my niece graduate from San Diego State University:
We are truly our immigrant parents’ wildest dreams.