What A Refugee-Turned-Labor Leader Thinks Of Our Backlash Against Refugees

[applegrove]

What A Refugee-Turned-Labor Leader Thinks Of Our Backlash Against Refugees

by Dave Jamieson at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tefere-gebre-refugees_564e5a0de4b0258edb30d414?utm_hp_ref=politics

"SNIP............

By any measure, the 47-year-old has done quite well for himself. Although he couldn't understand spoken English when he arrived here as a teenager, Gebre is the first-ever immigrant elected as an officer of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, which has 56 unions representing more than 12 million workers. Some have seen his ascension as a symbol of the changing demographics of organized labor, which, like the U.S. workforce as a whole, is becoming less white and more diverse.

Gebre says his background as an immigrant, and particularly as a refugee, shaped his ambitions and his activism.

"I just wish Americans understood the spirit, the determination and the heart of people who want to be refugees," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's Afghanistan, or Central America or Africa or anywhere else. They're the most driven people, who want to better themselves and help us build as a country. We should be blessed to have a lot more of them come here.

"I don't think we can afford as a country to say no to these people," he added.



.............SNIP"

[pampango]

1. "America's hospitality toward refugees is now facing its most difficult political test in a

generation. Millions of Syrians have fled the violence of the country's civil war since 2011. Following last week's terror attacks by Islamic State extremists in Paris, governors around the country and lawmakers in Washington -- most of them Republicans -- want to block or slow down the admittance of refugees from Syria on the grounds that terrorists may sneak in among them.

Many Democrats, too, have argued that the existing process is already demanding and sufficient, and that resettlement plans should not be put on hold given the humanitarian crisis.

"There is already a really, really high bar," Gebre said. "It's just been disturbing this week to listen to people say we need more vetting. We already have more vetting. It's disheartening to hear politicians who know what the truth is just rally up xenophobic attitudes in this country."

Just as bad as the rhetoric, Gebre claimed, was the passage of the bill on Thursday. A White House threat to veto the bill did not stop Democrats from joining the Republican majority to pass it 289-137. Although Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the legislation does not have a chance of getting through the Senate, Gebre argued that the bill sent a loud and unsettling message."