Immigrants Make Our Country Better
Dear Leading Ladies,
We are horrified and more than a little disgusted at the recent murders by ICE agents of Johan Sebastian Guerrero. The 26-year-old Colombian national entered the United States illegally in 2023 but was granted a valid work permit in 2025. On the day he was shot in his car, he was misidentified by ICE agents as the target of an investigation. After he was shot, agents dragged his motionless body out of the car and shackled his wrists as he lay dying on the pavement.
We are also horrified and more than a little disgusted by the murder in Houston of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national without legal status in the United States. Reportedly, ICE agents stopped the van driven by Araujo and others and opened fire, killing Araujo and wounding others. After the killing, an ICE spokesman said they were conducting a “targeted enforcement operation” but later, a DHS spokesman said Lorenzo was not the intended target of the operation.
We are further horrified and more than a little disgusted by the president’s response. “We cannot give up on one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!,” he wrote on Truth Social, countermanding his earlier mandate to ease off on traffic stops by ICE. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.” Clearly, our fearless leader felt he needed to please his racist xenophobes with a bold statement.
And, although we might have been tempted to be pleased by Homeland Security Director Markwayne Mullin’s initial decision to temporarily halt most ICE traffic stops, we are not. Many experts have suggested that Mullin’s edict was a ploy to draw the media’s attention away from ICE’s nefarious deed for a while, allowing them to quietly start in again when we’re not paying as much attention.
So, what are we to do now?
As you know, Leading Ladies believes in showing up. Showing up for rallies and marches. Showing up for people who don’t look like us so they know we stand with them in solidarity, that their causes are our causes. Showing up to encourage the participation of others.
All that said, we believe we need more than our presence holding signs. We need more than our donations to candidates who need funds to win seats in Congress and in state and local elections in order to enact policies that will benefit all the people.
We need facts at our fingertips to bolster our arguments and win over those who disagree with us. One of Leading Ladies' foundational beliefs is that if we educate ourselves and others about issues, we will all more fully understand the importance of our votes and vote for candidates who represent our values.
Clearly, one issue fraught with myth and negative stereotypes is immigration and the role of immigrants in American society. Many of us may respond to discriminatory remarks with disgust and cries of racism, but how many of us can offer salient points that might sway minds to the conversation?
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As Jack Smith, the special counsel who prosecuted Trump and then lost his job, said several times during the July 4th weekend when he appeared on several news programs, the public needs to spread the truth and facts to sway others.
Luckily, there is new data about immigrants in “Overcoming Misinformation About Migration and Migrants: A Data Driven Report on the Positive Impact of Migration on Economy and Development,” produced for the Club de Madrid, an international group of former heads of states. They teamed with Tufts University School of Law and Diplomacy and some of the results were reported in Tufts University magazine in spring 2026.
Here are some major findings:
The report concludes that, although the matter is complicated, an influx of migrants is more of a benefit than a threat to the receiving countries. “Migrants are too often perceived as a burden when in fact they are drivers of economic growth and cultural vitality.” (Carlos Alverado-Quesada and Katrina Burgess)
Opponents of immigration frequently accuse immigrants of taking jobs away from native-born citizens. This is not true in rich nations like the US, where we have an aging population and birth rates are not reaching replacement levels.
In other words, the number of native-born citizens of working age is declining. So, immigrants are not taking away jobs. They are filling jobs that need to be done.
Immigrant workers do not drain social services in rich countries like the US. They pay through taxes for programs such as Social Security, helping support our aging population.
Furthermore, the report found that “an increase in migration in richer countries caused the overall economy, employment, and labor productivity all to rise,” the article in Tufts magazine explained.
While these benefits are not true in poor countries such as Colombia and Lebanon, net economic effects of immigrants on wealthier countries like the US have been found to contribute to gross domestic product growth, overall jobs growth, new increases in tax revenue, and increasing entrepreneurial activity.
Granted, there can be high costs associated with new arrivals, such as accommodations and services to integrate the migrants into society and the economy. However, the report suggests ways to “create better pathways for immigrants,” such as “initiatives to facilitate labor admission, including seasonal labor permits.”
The report recognizes that immigrants make easy political targets, but Burgess concludes that “the true antidote lies in robust immigrant inclusion. This path is not an easy one, but it exists.”
Let’s do our part by spreading the truth.
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org