An Open Letter to Donald Trump
Hello Donald Trump,
My name is Giovanni and I am a freshman in high school at Summit Shasta in San Francisco. In my English class, we have been completing a project about war, foreign affairs, and national security. In this project, I have been learning about your “Travel Ban” by reading articles about who it effects. Through this project, I realized that Donald Trump’s “Travel Ban” is a way of fighting wars in customs of airports instead of overseas. It is destroying the idea of the American Dream. I wanted to write to you specifically, because without America’s all inclusive melting pot of culture we can not continue as a major leader of entrepreneurship. People should not have to accept their impending “all American” oppression.
Based on my research, I believe that the “Travel Ban” destroys the American dream and it discourages people from coming to the U.S. to find a better life. This concerns me because the idea of an American dream is a very important reputation that the U.S. ultimately needs; the “Travel Ban” throws these ideals out the window. These freedoms are necessary because the economy is bolstered by the idea that accepts anyone into this country. I know this is true because my cousin, who was born and raised in Egypt, came to the U.S. for education and now is part of the American workforce, creating circulation in the economy. If you get rid of immigrants than the economy will slow and people will no longer believe in the American dream our founding fathers fought so hard for. It doesn’t help that citizenship is a hard reality. In my cousin’s experience, it took her over three years to get her citizenship. The fact that it takes three years to gain citizenship status is wrong. anyone should be able to gain citizenship if they are a resident.
Additionally the ban would weaken the dollar. On Feb 1, 2017 an article written by John Wasik called “Here’s How Trump Muslim Ban Will Slam U.S. Economy” talks about Donald Trump’s executive order that effects the same people as the “Travel Ban” says that it will damage the economy. After the executive order in February of this year Wasik says, “The value of the dollar relative to other world currencies […] declined.” The fact that the executive order lowered the weight of a dollar and then 10 months later Donald Trump releases a permanent “Travel Ban” in the same form that weakens the dollar shows that Donald Trump, is using this ban as a populist fear mongering tactic. His strategy is to get people who are uneducated about immigration, scared of terrorism and get them on his side creating racism, but more importantly their votes. Though this strategy might work at the polls it affects the entire world as people will not be able to immigrate to the U.S. While some might say that the weight of the dollar dropping is worth the increased safety, the Ban doesn’t even create a safer environment for people in the U.S. because the ban does not include people from Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, or Nigeria which have the highest rates of terrorism. Even if these countries were banned this would destroy the American Dream for anyone in the countries.This means that Donald Trump’s “Travel Ban” sets a precedent for racism, slows the circulation of the dollar, and does not make our country safer. For all these reasons, I would like to offer a solution: Let people into America and make sure weapons don’t make it into the wrong hands. While terrorism is a serious problem, banning muslim people from our country should not be an action we take to solve it.
Thus, I strongly encourage you to consider fighting for the destruction of the “Travel Ban,” stricter gun laws and all in all talking about the problem will help solve it. This will make a difference because if people change their mindsets anything can happen. I hope to see you fighting for what is right in America in the future.
Sincerely,
Giovanni Riad
