Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Immigration as Civil Rights
First of all, I want to profoundly thank each of the 20 “Community Voices” who submitted essays for our 2025 King Holiday issue. While I send out requests to many people, these are the people who answered the call in 2025. While our stated theme is “Civil Rights in the Second Trump Era,” people were free to write an essay on what was on their mind at the time.
I truly enjoyed reading these essays, one of the perks of being an editor. The essays were so thoughtful and stimulating. Through these essays, I am primed for the King Holiday. And by reading them, I hope you become inspired as well.
When I was enjoying my “downtime” these past few weeks — which meant working without pressure or deadlines — I have to admit that I watched a lot of football — collegiate and professional — and what I heard most was the importance of communication between players in order to win the game. I hope that these essays and the entire King Holiday issue facilitates the level of communication that leads to a winning Civil Rights team.
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What is on my mind the most during this King Holiday season is immigration and the threat of Candidate Donald Trump to deport 11 million or more immigrants. Trump’s promise or threat concerns me and many immigrants who are concerned no matter what their status. During the Great Depression, millions of people of Mexican descent were deported to Mexico no matter wehat their legal status. U.S. citizens were deported along with undocumented people. The people in power didn’t care as long as they made their publicly-stated mandate. I am afraid that the Trump Administration will have a similar goal: Deport 11 million people no matter who they legally are.
It’s kind of scary. The significant other of one of my brothers is of Mexican descent. And she is extremely concerned and worried about what will happen to her in this “Great 11 Million Sweep.” As past U.S. history tells us, her anxiety is warranted.
I am proud of Dane County. It has established an Immigration Affairs Office to assist immigrants in becoming integrated into our communities, begin living their American Dreams and contribute to our communities and the high quality of life that we all enjoy. I so enjoy living in a proactive county that facilitates people contributing to the community as opposed to becoming isolated and becoming a burden — through no fault of their own — on the community.
I circulate a lot in the Latine, African, Asian and other communities that have some portion of their communities who are undocumented. They may have legitimate reasons for being in this country — such as domestic violence, political violence and so on — but don’t have the necessary documentation to prove they are “legit” and cam move on with their lives. And you can’t tell them apart from people who have all of the necessary documentation.
Our labor markets are regional and sometimes national. Just look at Elon Musk plying his money so that he can get more H-B1 non-U.S. technical workers into this country. But just as important are the dairy farm workers in Wisconsin who are undocumented and keep our dairy industry viable and alive. There is a regional labor market that has brought them here, just like the Haitians who saved a production plant in Springfield, Ohio. They may not have wealthy sponsors like Musk, but they are just as important to the dairy and other industries in the U.S., something that has “Made America Great” for over 250 years.
It’s really just the color of the new immigrants’ skin that fuels this xenophobic and racist response. But in the long run, labor markets and economics know no skin color. This reactionary Trumpist demagoguery will ultimately lead to the decline of America, removing it from it’s roots of immigration. My people were immigrants too.