On the recordJuly 29, 2021
I am a proud child of immigrants. Both of my parents immigrated from Palestine. My dad's journey actually was from Palestine as a young boy, and he grew up, his teenage years, in Nicaragua. From Nicaragua, at 19 years old, he came to the United States. My father, with a fourth grade education, couldn't ever experience human dignity anywhere except until he came here and worked for Ford Motor Company and became part of the United Auto Workers, the UAW. That is when he felt, for the first time, human dignity in the workplace. My father, in the 1970s, used to be in Detroit, on the corners. If you came up to him before he got to Ford, he would pull up his arm and say, ``Which watch you want?'' Because he hustled. That is how he provided for his family. My mother only went up to eighth grade because she was trying to provide for her family, which is a farming family in Palestine. When she came to this country, pregnant with me, never could they have imagined their daughter ever becoming a United States Congress Member and coming here with that lived experience and understanding the importance of bringing truly loving and caring farm immigrant neighbors. The human impact on doing nothing in regard to immigration is real. I grew up in Southwest Detroit--20 different ethnicities. I want you all to know what that feels like, right? I mean, this is a majority Black city with a little bit of beautiful Brown spice here and there.…
