​Hey Trump: The American Promise to Its Immigrants Is Hope, Not Hate (Norway Is a “Shithole," Too) by Brittany Moffatt

Hey Trump,

My great-great-grandmother is from Norway, and I guarantee she’d tell you it is a shithole country, too!

Let’s reverse time for a minute back to 1873. My great-great-grandmother boarded a boat from Norway with her husband to come to America. Not only was she leaving what she felt was a terrible country for a better one, but she was eight months pregnant! The bravery, courage and trust she had in the promise of America has lived on in the heart of every immigrant since America’s founding.

My great-great-grandmother gave birth to my great-grandmother, Oceana, on the voyage over. As a mother, I know how terrifying birth is, let alone on a filthy migrant ship in the middle of the ocean!

America is the land of promises and no one makes more promises to someone than a new mother to her baby. You promise to keep them safe, cherish and care for their every need.

That’s why as terrifying as it was for her to board that ship, the prospect of staying in her country was worse. No one should question a personal and very hard choice an immigrant from any country makes.

The sad truth is, every country is a shithole until it listens to what’s best for its people and transcends politics to put the interest of its citizens above that of big corporations, separatist political parties and individual investors.

Every immigrant is an American once they hit these shores and, as born citizens, we owe it to them to live up to the promise that this is America, “the land of the free and the home of the brave!” 

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