Editorial: Fight rhetoric with facts this Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, don’t let a Donald Trump-inspired wall of rhetoric ruin your feasting.

Last week, a Pew Research Center report found that more immigrants were leaving the United States than were entering the country. This is the first time that Mexican immigration has shifted this way since the ’70s when immigration from Mexico began to rise. In part, we can attribute this trend to the increase of border measures under the Obama administration.

Despite this revelation, Republican candidates are still hemming and hawing over our border security, focusing the immigration debate on expanding walls and increasing border enforcement. This debate is likely to spill onto your Thanksgiving dinner table.

But you don’t need to stock up on Advil to get through the holiday — just arm yourself with some good, old-fashioned knowledge.

When your relatives try to tell you that Barack Obama is a lazy, immigrant-loving president who is single-handedly ruining our country, show them this report. Immigration isn’t quite the hop, skip and jump over the border they think it is — legal immigration is a lengthy process already under heavy scrutiny.

When they try to tell you that Mexican immigrants are stealing American jobs, cite the current unemployment rate — a low of 5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ October, 2015 calculation.

They’re not stealing our jobs, and some immigrants are leaving our country for jobs of their own: According to the Pew Research Center report, about 6 percent of Mexican immigrants who left “of their own accord” had found jobs in Mexico.

While you’re spouting facts against your relatives’ racist propaganda, here are a few other tidbits to enlighten them with — though you’re not likely to receive any thanks from them.

Obama is not an immigrant, you can easily find his American birth certificate after a quick Google search. Take pity on grandma and grandpa, you’ll probably have to show them how to use the Internet if they actually still believe this propaganda.

As for their scorn against Syrian refugees, kindly inform them that all of the Paris attackers were, in fact, French citizens.

You’ll probably hear about safe zones as you pass the ham — and have a relative accuse you of being one of those coddled, liberal college students. Students may have a thing or two to protest, but telling them that may not be wise — it’s likely to start a protest at the table. Shall we suggest another large ­bite of stuffing? Don’t forget — no talking with your mouth full. 

Of course, we wouldn’t blame you if you handled this Thanksgiving like all of the others — rolling your eyes and asking your relatives to pass you the pumpkin pie. Sans rhetoric.