October 15th 2019

By Gabe Ortiz

Daily Kos

Donald Trump falsely claims that U.S. cities are constantly facing danger and an “invasion” and any other hateful shit you can think of due to immigrants and refugees—during an unhinged rally just last week, he launched into a disgusting tirade against Minnesota’s Somali community—when in reality they’ve helped “revive the cities he scorns,” The New York Times reports.

“Research by Dowell Myers at the University of Southern California has shown that immigrants increase home values in sagging markets,” research finds, and it’s not just their financial contributions, either: “Other studies have shown that some of the biggest urban crime declines have been in neighborhoods where new immigrants have arrived.” In fact, immigrants are actually less likely to commit crime compared to U.S.-born Americans like, say, the president’s former personal attorney, former presidential campaign chair, or, well, him.

While not specifically mentioned in The Times’ research, Latino and Asian immigrants have also been credited with helping fuel population growth in graying areas of white supremacist Steve King’s home state of Iowa, in turn boosting the farming and meatpacking industries. In major cities, “Hispanics contributed more than any other racial or ethnic group to city population gains, or reduced population losses, according to Diversity Explosion by William Frey, a demographer.

Historian A.K. Sandoval-Strausz also cites Latino immigrants in particular for revitalization in American cities, where, in just a few examples of their roles, they staff restaurants, assist in childcare, “and carry out the renovations and housing construction that newly prosperous cities have seen.” Trump should know this himself: immigrants, including many lacking legal status, have worked as his personal housekeepers and helped build his Washington, D.C. hotel.

“There would be no golf club in Bedminster or any of his many other properties without the labor of undocumented workers who helped build the facilities, maintain the course, and take care of the hospitality of the guests,” his former housekeeper Sandra Diaz said in July. “We also staffed Trump and his family, fed them and their guests, cleaned their rooms. There were hundreds of undocumented workers laboring around the clock for Donald Trump. There probably still are many more.”

Posted with permission