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Given his family's journey, Romney has no right to shut out refugees

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on

Time to break out the family photo album.

The Romneys know all about immigrants and refugees -- because that's what they were in the 1880s. Your great-grandparents were Mormon refugees, escaping intolerance and discrimination in the Midwest. At the time, the region was largely Protestant -- and not especially welcoming of those who weren't. It wasn't just that Mormons couldn't get a job. The threat of violence was real.

The elected officials, and local law enforcement, were of no help. Either they shared the anti-Mormon prejudices of the mob, or maybe they were merely tapping into -- how did you put it? -- "something which the people feel very deeply."

Either way, your great-grandparents needed a safe haven. Refresh my memory. What was the name of the country that graciously took in your family and offered them refuge? Why, what do you know? It's the same country that today bears the brunt of Trump's anti-immigrant zealotry: Mexico.

As you know but rarely discuss, your great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, fled the United States and crossed into Mexico in 1885 without an invitation. He helped build the Mormon enclave of Colonia Juarez in Chihuahua, where he lived with his son, Gaskell -- your grandfather.

During the Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920, Gaskell returned to the United States -- again without an invitation. And he brought with him his family, which included his son, George -- your father.

Fun fact: Your father (future Michigan governor and 1968 presidential candidate) was born in Chihuahua, and so was my grandfather (future farmworker) who also came to the United States during the revolution.

 

Why the short memory, Senator? You do realize that -- if Trump had been running U.S. immigration policy at the beginning of the 20th century -- your grandpa and mine could well have been kept out of the United States and forced to stay in Mexico.

And we'd be having this conversation in Spanish.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.

(c) 2019, The Washington Post Writers Group


 

 

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