Twitter users share immigrant success stories after Kelly says vast majority ‘don’t have the skills’ to assimilate

Social media users are firing back at President Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly for saying that a vast majority of immigrants coming to the U.S. illegally “don’t have the skills” to assimilate by showcasing immigrant success stories. 

Author Delia Cabe sent out a rallying cry over Twitter on Friday for people to use the hashtag #DearJohnKelly to tweet immigrants’ successful integration stories.

“Let’s start a #DearJohnKelly hashtag,” Cabe tweeted. “If your ancestors came from a poor rural area either in the US or other countries and DID integrate well, tweet it with this hashtag. Their lives deserve to be honored. Give them a voice.

Let’s start a #DearJohnKelly hashtag. If your ancestors came from a poor rural area either in the US or other countries and DID integrate well, tweet it with this hashtag. Their lives deserve to be honored. Give them a voice.

— Delia (@DeliaCabe) May 11, 2018

Cabe appeared to be responding to a Friday interview Kelly gave to NPR in which he made several comments about immigrants in the country illegally.

“The vast majority of the people that move illegally into United States are not bad people. They’re not criminals. They’re not MS-13,” Kelly said in the interview. “But they’re also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States, into our modern society. They’re overwhelmingly rural people.”

{mosads}

“In the countries they come from, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm,” he continued. “They don’t speak English; obviously that’s a big thing. … They don’t integrate well, they don’t have the skills.”

Author Celeste Ng used Cabe’s hashtag to tell the story of her father who was born in rural China and who moved to the United States to get his Ph.D. before working for the Department of Interior and NASA.

My dad graduated from the University of Hong Kong, then immigrated to the US for grad school and got his PhD. He then worked for the US government—first for the Bureau of Mines (Dept. of the Interior), then for NASA—for his entire career.

— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) May 12, 2018

Let me be clear: he worked for NASA, doing research for the space program, for the US government. Immigrant from a rural background. From an area where “4th, 5th, 6th grade education” was often the norm.

— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) May 12, 2018

The fuck outta here with your racist “These are not people that would easily assimilate into the United States into our modern society.”

— Celeste Ng (@pronounced_ing) May 12, 2018

Kelly also said in the NPR interview that it wasn’t “cruel and heartless” to separate a mother from her children if they enter the country illegally.

“The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever,” Kelly said.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) ripped first lady Melania Trump’s social wellness campaign, saying that her husband’s immigration policies don’t align with her new agenda.

“#DearJohnKelly: Separating children from their parents doesn’t seem like a Be Best policy,” Lieu tweeted Saturday. “Also, it violates international human rights law.”

#DearJohnKelly: Separating children from their parents doesn’t seem like a Be Best policy.

Also, it violates international human rights law. https://t.co/L1NkAkU9Xl

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 12, 2018

Soon hundreds of other social media users were adding their own stories and condemning Kelly for his hard-liner stance on immigration.

This thread is fucking awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Signed, double Ivy League child of two immigrants from a shithole country#DearJohnKelly https://t.co/hL9weF85RK

— Robinne Lee (@robinnelee) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly, here is my son graduating from college with his dad who came here from Mexico alone at 10 yrs old. Our two daughters graduated college before our son. My husband is a successful business owner and productive resident. Repeat what you said to his face. pic.twitter.com/D9PHL3MdBA

— Melissa Kay (@junkbabe68) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly,

Just a subtle reminder that your maternal grandfather never spoke English and made his living peddling a fruit cart in East Boston.

If this xenophobic administration was around back then, you wouldn’t be here.

— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly my great-grandfather came over from rural Ireland. His son raised 12 kids in the Depression. His grandson went to college on the GI bill after fighting in World War II and became a doctor. That was my Dad. None of them would be here if we went by your “standards.” pic.twitter.com/jzSZRxcLZR

— Karen DaltonBeninato (@kbeninato) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly My father was trained as a lawyer in Syria, came to the US and started out as a cook at Jack In The Box, raised three kids who all got graduate degrees, including one (me) who has dedicated her career to ensuring we live up to our immigration ideals. 1/3

— Amanda Baran (@abaran76) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly my mom came to the US as a child to escape the Vietnam War. Her high school guidance counselor didn’t even think she would go to college; she just got her doctorate last year after a long, successful career in public health. pic.twitter.com/5soCOVKFHh

— rebecca (@rtdls) May 12, 2018

Someone in every American family was an immigrant at some point, they just had the good fortune not to run into someone like you. #DearJohnKelly

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly I am the daughter of refugees, daughter of a teacher and a banker. I came from India to America as an immigrant over two decades ago as a student–got my PhD in molecular biology and postdoc from Hopkins. I am a writer and I work in cancer diagnostics. Just saying.

— Madhushree Ghosh (@WriteMadhushree) May 12, 2018

#DearJohnKelly My parents came to the US from Uruguay speaking little English. Now they own their own mosaic company and have some of the wealthiest people in Miami Beach as clients. They speak English with an accent, but they have a wider vocabulary and better grammar than Trump

— Valentina Cano (@valca85) May 12, 2018