NOVEMBER 3 • 2022 | 9

BETRAYED BY YE from page 6

on their own feet.” Yet, 
as my own family history 
suggests, possessing wealth 
is hardly the metric of what 
immigrant families need 
to make it in America and 
to become meaningful 
contributors to American 
society.
Trump’s proposal to 
expand the “public charge” 
became a federal rule in 
August 2019, authorizing 
immigration officials 
to withhold green cards 
from legal applicants who 
utilized any number of 
government aid programs 
to which they (or their 
U.S.-citizen children) were 
legally entitled — including 
food assistance, health care 
and housing vouchers or 
who were simply working-
class. 
It represented an explicit 
attempt to reinstate the very 
policies used to keep Jewish 
refugees of the 1920s and 
1930s out of America and 
to apply it to those seeking 
freedom and refuge in the 
modern day.

A LITTLE BIT 
OF GOOD NEWS
For now, the good news 
is that, in September 
of this year, the Biden 
Administration published 
a new rule on the “public 
charge” that restores the 
historical approach taken 
by the U.S. and confirms 
that immigration officials 
will not penalize individuals 
for choosing to access the 
health benefits and other 
supplemental government 
assistance legally available 
to their families, especially 
U.S.-born children.

But the debate about 
American immigration 
policy is every bit as 
contentious today as it was 
during President Trump’s 
term of office. 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 
recently seized headlines 
by flying migrants to 
Martha’s Vineyard without 
any advance notice to local 
officials; he was eager to 
“protect Florida” from 
migrants arriving without 
approved immigration visas. 
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has 
joined DeSantis in funding 
the transport of migrants 
to northern cities, sending 
a bus to drop migrants off 
outside of Vice President 
Kamala Harris’ residence in 
Washington, D.C.
The U.S., like any other 
nation, needs immigration 
laws, border security and 
immigration enforcement. 
As a democracy, it is 
healthy to debate these 
issues — although the 
politicization of so much 
of the immigration issue 
has stymied common sense 
immigration reform that 
is embraced by a clear 
majority of Americans. 
But in listening to the 
debates of immigration in 
the 2020s, American Jews 
should pay close attention 
to American history from 
a century ago. Ken Burns’ 
documentary The U.S. and 
the Holocaust provides 
a foundational guide 
from which to begin that 
journey. 

Steve Tobocman is a former Michigan 

state representative and the executive 

director of Global Detroit, a nonprofit 

focused on immigrant-inclusive 

economic development strategies.

Carlson should infuriate 
everyone. The most 
alarming revelation of the 
unaired footage is that 
Carlson did not push back 
at all on Kanye and, instead, 
allowed him to continuously 
and collectively regurgitate 
his hate by airing his other 
tropes. 
In a damning evasion 
of accountability, 
Kanye refused to apologize. 
He then participated in 
several interviews for outlets 
such as Drink Champs and 
Chris Cuomo’s show on 
NewsNation, where his 
antisemitism further 
intensified. Why are these 
outlets providing him a 
platform for hate-fueled 
escalation? 

I’M NOT A TEEN 
ANYMORE
Fourteen years later, I’m 
now 27 years old, working 
in bipartisan Israel advo-
cacy, devoting my career 
to researching extremism, 
combatting antisemitism, 
diplomacy and the provision 
of opportunities for broader 
communities to connect 
with Israeli innovation. This 
chapter proceeded after an 
exhausting number of years 
in partisan politics, which 
alone nearly took a toll on 
my own mental health. 
 Speaking of partisanship, 
Candace Owen’s protec-
tion of Kanye is the coup-
de-grâce for her already 
desecrated reputation. 
Her hostile social media 
attacks targeting pro-Israel 
pundits followed by her 
TPUSA-sponsored appear-
ance last week at Michigan 
State University serves as 

her middle finger to every 
Jewish student on campus. 
Regardless of one’s 
politics, we should all feel 
livid that former President 
Trump had the heedless 
audacity to defend Kanye 
in order to preserve his 
political loyalty. This 
was within 48 hours of 
Trump telling American 
Jews to “get their act 
together … before it’s 
too late” as an aggressive 
show of animosity for not 
receiving the Jewish vote 
in 2020. These dangerous 
moves are a strong reminder 
that antisemitism was the 
largest factor in my past that 
cemented my sanitization 
from the MAGA wing. 
I spoke to several 
interfaith partners, 
candidates and elected 
officials in Michigan from 
both sides of the political 
aisle who’ve both personally 
and publicly expressed 
their vehement disgust 
with Kanye’s pejorative 
rhetoric against the Jewish 
community. We should also 
accept that the past few 
years have bitterly revealed, 
to everyone’s dismay, that 
both sides also house a 
small fraction of extremists 
who seek to divide our 
faith by making Israel and 
antisemitism a partisan 
issue. I am grateful that the 
community has a strong 
bipartisan support system 
taking the core initiative 
to address and fight 
antisemitism, regardless of 
its source. 

Adar Rubin is the former Israel 

Associate at the Jewish Community 

Relations Council/AJC.

