Carrie and I are in New York City this week, staying across from Central Park, right in the middle of museums, Broadway and sidewalk spectacle. Down the street we can see Trump Tower. The streets are packed — carriages, trike tours, food carts and performers everywhere.
Every language imaginable fills the air.
And here’s what stands out: I haven’t met a native-born English speaker in any service job. Everyone I’ve spoken with is an immigrant.
All working. All striving. All chasing the American dream.
New York is a high-voltage version of that old promise:
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
We took a trike tour through Central Park. Our guide, who called himself Gary, narrated which movies were filmed where — more than 800 films have used the park.
I asked him where home was.
“Turkey,” he said. He’s been here 11 years and is a U.S. citizen. He’s been giving tours for eight. He also works a second job, has a wife, a family and a cheerful outlook on his life that made our day.
That’s Manhattan. A mash-up of people from every continent.
Office workers, actors, waiters, and billionaires in high-rises. Everyone bumping into everyone else.
And somehow, it all works.
The city hums with energy, personality, and flavor — literally and figuratively.
This trip feels personal. My family came through New York four generations ago. Like many Americans, my roots trace to these streets. Even two of Donald Trump’s wives came through this place.
You see every shade of skin, hear every accent. People building lives, chasing hopes, facing challenges, and pushing forward.
That’s the American story.
We are, all of us — except for Native Americans — immigrants. Go back 100 years and you’ll find Scandinavians in the Great Lakes, Germans in the East and in Texas, Western Europeans in the early colonies.
Then came Italians, Greeks, Lebanese, Eastern Europeans.
Asians helped power California’s rise.
Each group changed the country, bringing energy, culture and resilience.
Absolutely, we must enforce immigration laws. Borders matter. Immigration should be legal and orderly. Climbing fences or digging tunnels is no way to start a life as a law-abiding citizen.
But America has always been great because it has been diverse in cultures and life experience.
Just look at tech. CEOs, engineers, designers — many are Indian, Chinese, Korean.
Housing? Nearly every home is built by Latino skilled tradespeople.
Hospitality, cuisine and art are powered by immigrant talent.
If we lose international workers, professionals and students, we lose our edge.
Fast.
Maybe some resent the competition immigrants bring. But we live in a hyper-competitive world, and we need every advantage we can get. Making America great again should mean celebrating the contributions of all Americans.
And we’re not just competing with each other anymore. We are competing with artificial intelligence and automation. In that future, diversity may be our strongest advantage.
We are like cables — thousands of steel threads wound together to make something strong. Stronger than the sum of its parts.
As the play “Hamilton” says:
“Immigrants, we get the job done.”
Control the borders. For sure. Remove illegal alien criminals. Absolutely, and with due process. But don’t vilify the people who are, in many ways, building the future of this country.
New York City proves this every day. We are a nation of immigrants. We are strongest when we welcome that truth — and build our future empowered by it.
Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
