The Immigrants 

I had planned on a more frivolous entry for today, but Monday I read Barbara Shelley’s commentary on The Missouri Independent website and I think it is far more important than anything I could offer.  She was an respected reporter with the Kansas City Star in my reporting days and remains a respected observer of our times. In this entry, she puts human faces onto the victims of President Trump’s vicious immigration policies that show no concern for who is hurt by them—people or our nation.

Once in America, immigration was a sign of our greatness, of our country’s promise, and our ancestors (yours and mine) came here to seek it. Now those people are villainized with lies from our President.

It is heart-breaking for one who memorized in his school days Thomas Wolfe’s Promise of America to read Barbara’s description of what President Trump has brutally cancelled in our national character. Perhaps you memorized it, too:

” So, then, to every man his chance—to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity—to every man the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him — this, seeker, is the promise of America.”

Here’s her commentary about the crushing of that promise:

Friends and family arrived bearing flowers. Smiling volunteers pointed the way to seats.

Everyone loves a naturalization ceremony. I attended one recently at a branch of the Kansas City Public Library and watched 71 new American citizens swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. Even more immigrants had taken the oath earlier in the day.

“This room is full of the most brilliant minds that the world knows,” Wasim Khan, a cultural leader, told the group. “You guys are the teachers. You know what it takes to be here.”

After the ceremony, as League of Women Voters volunteers swooped in to invite the new citizens to register, I asked a few people how long they have been in America.

Eight years, 12 years, too many years to count.

Naturalized citizenship is a long, expensive process and everyone who achieves it does so through a combination of grit and good fortune.

I’ve attended several of these ceremonies over the years to cheer on people I’ve had the privilege to know.

One was a piano teacher who came here from Kyrgyzstan to study at American universities. Several others arrived as refugees. They overcame language barriers and all the hardships of poverty to arrive at their naturalization ceremonies as educated, hardworking contributors to their communities.

The recent ceremony was no different from others I’ve witnessed, but I couldn’t summon the usual measure of joy.

Rather, I kept wondering what a naturalization ceremony will look like once the xenophobic policies of the Trump administration have been fully brought to bear.

Last year, I signed up to participate on a team that would sponsor a refugee family, in cooperation with a resettlement agency. I told myself that it would be a satisfying act of resistance in case Donald J. Trump won the presidency.

Along with others, I welcomed a family of eight at Kansas City’s airport on a snowy evening 12 days before Trump’s inauguration. They were exhausted and one person was ill but they were here and we were ready to introduce them to America.

We had no idea how difficult that was going to be.

Within a week of taking office, Trump had slammed the door to new refugee admissions and cut off funding for the families who had recently arrived.

The resettlement community had anticipated the first move. It was gobsmacked by the second. With an executive order, Trump wiped out money that was supposed to pay for rent and utilities, medical screenings and other services for hundreds of people who had entered the United States legally in the last 90 days.

Agencies went into emergency fundraising mode, but Trump’s action was crippling. The agency I volunteer for lost nearly $1 million of federal money it had counted on. Part of that amount was already spent in rent deposits and other costs.

It’s nearly impossible to cover a gap like that through donations. Within weeks two agencies in Kansas City laid off close to half their staffs. A smaller nonprofit laid off its entire refugee services staff. A mid-Missouri agency shut down its resettlement program.

My role in the resistance now includes scanning job ads for something that might work for adults who speak only a little English and will have to ride to work on the bus. I’ve become familiar with the difficulties of booking an appointment at the local Social Security office — and good luck once Elon Musk gets through with that program.

The family that my team works with was routed from their ancestral home and spent years in limbo in a neighboring country. The adults are fully aware that the leader of the United States does not want them here.

Their status is legal, but they are afraid. They grieve family members left behind in a refugee camp, clinging to hopes of a reunion that may not happen in this lifetime.

In my head, I construct sentences that begin with “at least.”

At least they aren’t here on humanitarian parole status — a category of immigrants more endangered than refugees.

At least they have a place to stay, a small rental house in a hollowed-out part of Kansas City. A recent New York Times story reported on newly arrived refugees in St. Louis languishing in motels on highway interchanges because the resettlement agency there was unable to pay apartment leases.

At least members of my family have friends. Immigrants from their home country have sought them out and embraced them.

The situation could always be worse. But it is bad enough.

Refugee resettlement is a way of participating in the global good. Therefore, it is not a priority in Trump’s “America First” agenda.

The immigrants whom I witnessed as they became naturalized citizens last month represented 36 nations, including some of the most troubled, like Haiti, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They had cleared a high bar to get to the ceremony. All of them passed a civics test that most Americans would find daunting. They were deemed to be of “good moral character,” a standard that we don’t necessarily demand from our nation’s leaders.

Congratulations to the new Americans. May we always find a path for them.

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Or, may we rediscover the greatness that provided a path for them and have the courage to admit the disgrace we have allowed our President to bring to the Promise of America.

Sports:  Two New Seasons; Robin Finds a New Roost; and Another Porter Comes Home

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(BASEBALL)—-The Cardinals and the Royals games count for something now.  The Cardinals, a team with low expectations by their fans, swept the season-opening series.  The Royals, whose fans expect a World Series contender this year, stumbled  and lost two out of three to start their official year.

(ST. LOUIS)—The Cardinals polished off the Twins Sunday 9-1 With Victor Scott clubbing a three-run home run, Padro Pages doing the same thing and Nolan Gorman ripped one that traveled 409 feet to give the Cardinals their first season-opening sweep since they swept the Phillies on the road to start the 2006 season.

Few fans expected the team to go 3-0 to start the season for only the 17th time in 134 seasons.

St. Louis ripped Twins pitchers for thirty hits, nineteen runs and five home runs in the three games, and they did it with no offensive help from their leading hitting in Florida, Wilson Contreras, who was 0-9 with five strikeouts in the first two games.

Too bad that a lot of people missed all of that.

(CROWDS)—The St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals saw thousands of fans disguised as empty seats in their opening three games at home last weekend. The Cardinals averaged 35,010 fans per game, tenth best in baseball with only 26.923 watching them complete their sweep of the Twins.

The Royals were even worse—averaging 25,608, ranking 13th in both leagues.

(KANSAS CITY)—The Royals dropped two of their first three at Kauffman Stadium, although first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino pronounced it a “good weekend other than losing two.”

The team they have to beat to get to the top of the division in October, the Cleveland Guardians, beat Kansas City in extra innings Friday. KC was down by six runs and couldn’t catch up. They came from behind on Saturday and won but dropped the finale Sunday.

The offense is shaky at the start of the season. The Royals got only ten runs in the series and had only five hits in Sunday’s loss. The bottom half of the lineup was pretty miserable going 10-59 with eleven strikeouts in the three games. Starting pitching was not sharp with Cole Ragans giving up three runs in a little more than five innings, Seth lugo allowing three runs and walking three batters in his five innings Saturday, and Michael Wache leaving after just four innings after throwing 87 pitches and walking four.

(FOOTBALL)—If the United Football League didn’t have the St. Louis Battlehawks’ fans, it almost could hold all of its friends in a high school field’s bleachers.  The ‘Hawks started the season last weekend with a win over the Houston Roughnecks, 31-6, in front of a typical Roughnecks crowd of 7,321 (last year the team averaged 7,056).

St. Louis quarterback Manny Wilkins hit 17 of his 22 passes for 189 yards and ran for 43 yards and two  TDs. Jarveon Howard gained 115 yards on 13 carries against a Houston team that was 1-9 last year and showed little indication it would be better in 2025.

Thus opened the second season of the UFL, a league with critics who wonder how long it can hold out with that kind of fan support.

(CHIEFS)—The Athletic is running a free agent tracker to help us keep track of who is staying and who is going or is already gone, and who is coming on board.

Here’s what it’s showing so far:

They have re-signed Punter Matt Araiza for one year; Linebacker Nick Bolton for thee years and $45 million. Punter Matt Araiza, WR Marquise Brown,  running back Kareem Hunt, defensive Charles Omenihu, DT Mike Pennel, receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, long snapper James Winchester, and Guard Mark Caliendo have re-signed for one year each.

Winchester, the team’s oldest player at 35, will get $1.65 million for his eleventh year.  He’s played in all 189 games during that time.

They’ve signed free agent cornerback Kristian Fulton for two years and $20 million, plus quarterback Gardner Minshew (one year), RB Elijah Mitchell ( one year, $3.5 million), OT Jaylor Moore (two years, $30 million), and DL Jerry Tillery (one year).

They’ve lost WR Mecole Hardmann to the Packers, DT Derrick Nnadi to the Jets, WR DeAndre Hopkins to the Ravens; Safety Justin Reid to the Saints; DT Tershawn Wharton to the Panthers; and WR Justin Watson to Houston.

They traded their all-pro guard Joe Thuney, who shifted to tackle this year to try to get more protection for Patrick Mahomes, to the Bears in a move to free up about $16 million in cash. Thuney has the distinction of playing in three straight Super Bowls—twice. He was with the Patriots before moving to the Chiefs. The Chiefs get a fourth-round draft pick next year.

(TIGER BASKETBALL)—Maybe this one will work out—Jevon Porter is headed to Missouri. The brother of two other Porter brothers whose MU careers were brief—spent his first two seasons at Pepperdine and played for Loyola Marymount this past season. He’s 6-11, 235, averaged 12.5 points and 7.2 rebounds at LMU. He’ll be the fifth member of the Porter family to wear a Tiger uniform. Sisters Bri and Cierra, and brothers Michael and Jontay got there before him. The careers of Michael and Jontay were limited by injuries. Michael was in only three games for the Tigers and averaged ten points per game. Jontay played in 33 games but only seven as a starter and also averaged about ten points per game. Jontay was banned from the NBA for life for gambling. A Judge last July refused to let him play pro basketball in Greece. He was convicted of wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced May 20th. He faces 41-51 months in prison.

(ROBIN)—Former Mizzou women’s coach Robin Pingeton has landed on her feet—in Madison Wisconsin. She stepped down after fifteen years at Missouri, the last few being mediocre or losing years.  But for her career she is 585-375 with twenty postseason appearances.

She’ll take over a program that was 13-17 last season, fourth in the Big 10 conference. The Badgers have not had a winning season since 20009-10.

Pingeton takes over a Badgers program that went 13-17 overall and finished 14th in the Big Ten with a 4-14 record. Wisconsin hasn’t had a winning season since 2009-10. Its last winning season in Big Ten play was 2010-11.

(HOCKEY)—We haven’t paid much attention to the St. Louis Blues but their nine-game winning streak makes that impossible.  The Blues try to make it ten in a row tonight in Detroit. The game also could see the NHL debut of the team’s top prospect, Jimmy Smuggerud. He was the Blues’ first round pick in the 2022 draft and has signed a three-year entry level contact with the team.

The Blues, tied for fourth in their division, go into the game at 40-28-7. Detroit is 34-33-6.

Time to get the motor running:

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin has tied Missouri’s Rusty Wallace for 55th on the all-time NASCAR Cup wins list, dominating the race at Martinsville last weekend. It’s his second win on the “paperclip,” the first in ten years.

He led the last 275 laps of the 400-lap race and beat teammate Christopher Bell by almost five seconds. Bubba  Wallace came home third for the second race in a row.

(NASCAR POLITICAL NOTE)—The company that makes diecast replicas of NASCAR automobiles has implemented a surcharge on its products, which are made in China for Lionel, the people best known for electric trains. Lionel has been in the NASCAR diecast business for several years and has been the NASCAR-licensed producer of diecasts since 2010.

Prices to wholesalers will increase 10%. It’s the first “hit” among NASCAR fans since President Trump imposed a 20% tariff on Chinese-made goods.

(INDYCAR)—IndyCar returns to competition in a couple of weeks at Long Beach.   Drivers have done their first test runs on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Scott Dixon ripped off the fastest lap. Eight drivers took part. The race comes up May 10, part of the run-up to the 108th Indianapolis 500.

(F1)—Formula 1 will be in Japan next weekend.