I am an immigrant. I came to the US first in 1983 as an exchange student when I was 16. I stayed with a wonderful family in Rochester, Minnesota and fell in love with this country. I returned to Germany to finish school there but knew that I wanted to study here. I returned first for college and then in 1993 for graduate school. I have lived in the United States ever since and became a citizen in 2004.

I have been fortunate to always feel incredibly welcome here. These days re-entering the US is easy for me. I have signed up for Global Entry and can breeze through immigration. But I remember well how challenging it was at times when I was entering on a student visa. Or worse yet during the period known as “advance parole” as part of the Green Card process. I endured several intense interrogations during this time by border agents who were anything but friendly. I understand that friendly isn’t necessarily in their job description, but it was intimidating – possibly by design – even for someone fluent in English (and white and male). I will not forget the desperate people I encountered during those times who were less fortunate than I am. People who did not know or understand why they were being turned away.

It is incredibly upsetting that we are currently repeating one of the grave historic mistakes made by the United States: shutting out those most in need because of fear.  The Twitter account St. Louis Manifest, has been tweeting out one by one the names of refugees who were on the MS St. Louis, which was turned away by the United States, and who were killed by the Nazis upon their return. The president’s Executive Order on “PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES” sends completely the wrong message to the country and to the world. It includes many countries from which there has not been any evidence of a terrorist entering the United Sates and excludes countries, most notably Saudi Arabia, from which we definitely had terrorists (15 out of the 19 attackers on 9/11). Many of the changes that the order calls for have already been in place for quite some time, including the collection of extensive biometric information.

Equally upsetting, the call for a reporting of immigrant crimes in the Executive Order on “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” is another repeat of some of the worst of the past. In this case not the US past, but Nazi Germany which put out lots of propaganda around Jewish crime. The language in the executive order calls specifically to “make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens.” This despite the fact that a recent statistical analysis shows sanctuary counties have lower crime rates. Singling out data on just one group as per the order is bias by decree. 

All of this appears designed to further convince parts of the country that immigration is the big problem of our time. That immigrants are the source of the problems faced by those Americans who are struggling today. It is a purposeful distraction from really crucial issues, such as what to do with our awesome newfound technological powers (machine learning, gene editing, social networks) and how to get ourselves off fossil fuels.

Now I do think there are legitimate concerns about crime and terrorism. And I continue to believe that we need to use technology, including network analysis, as part of law enforcement. And I even think we need to embrace an identity system – albeit a decentralized one – as part of immigration reform. There is so much that we can and should do to make progress. But we cannot start by going back to the worst mistakes of the past and by creating an environment of fear and mistrust that is dividing us. We are not leading the world. We are misleading it.