From Dan Kohl:

“Yesterday, the country learned that Donald Trump expressed vile and un American sentiments in a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

We should not mince words. The belief that the United States of America should not accept immigrants from non-white countries while accepting more immigrants from white, European countries is racist.

From the beginning of the American experiment we’ve been a nation of immigrants, drawn by this country’s freedoms and democratic ideals. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin decried the German immigrants who refused to learn English. Subsequent generations of arrivals from around the world faced bigotry and ignorance about their culture, their national identity, and their willingness to join the American experiment. Yet they persevered.

My grandfather, Max Kohl came to this country in 1924 at the age of 23. He lacked a formal education and didn’t speak more than a few words of English. He started a small grocery market, and over the course of a lifetime of hard work, he and my grandmother Mary lived out the American dream here in Wisconsin.

I approach the issue of immigration cognizant of the fact that under the Administration’s proposed immigration changes, my grandfather and his family would likely not have made it into this country. As a nation of immigrants, we need an immigration policy that’s compassionate, fair and consistent with who we are as Americans.

That is why I am calling for Glenn Grothman to join me and make clear that he will oppose the un-American, racist beliefs of Donald Trump from being implemented as the immigration policy of this great nation. Our children are watching and history will judge how our purported leaders responded.”

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