My father painted your hotel, and he is an immigrant

Dear President Trump,

I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, but I want you to know that the people in my family are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, and they have all done great things. My father painted your hotel, and he is an immigrant. He left his home in Nicaragua, then moved to Guatemala, and then came to where I live now. Many other people that have worked for you have similar stories. If you stop immigration you’re not going to have as many people to build your hotels. I wouldn’t try to stop immigration if I were president; I’d try to make it easier. If you’re trying to build a wall, Mexico’s not going to pay for it, and because of that taxpayers are going to—that wall is going to cost billions. If undocumented immigrants bother you, make them documented.

Another thing I would do as president is give everybody an education, because not everybody can afford an education. Public school helps the students who can’t afford the tuition of private schools a lot because it’s free and it’s efficient. Everybody needs an education for a job, so I’d try and give everybody a diploma who needs it to get a job.

If I was president I would stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL Pipeline. Not only are these pipelines hurting the Native American way of life for our needs, it is for oil, and I think U.S. citizens should convert to cleaner energy.

Being president is a very hard job, you have to make decisions that affect every American, that includes me and you. When I was younger I had a great president named Barack Obama. He changed a lot of things for the better; he kept us going as a nation when we were struggling, and he was very brave. However If I were to be president I don’t think I could help everybody, but maybe you can. One last piece of advice: be the president people want you to be.

In friendship,

Pierre Alvarez, Grade 6, Sidwell Friends School

(Editor’s note: The online version of this letter is expanded from the print version with the addition of three paragraphs of text, beginning with “Another thing I would do as president is . . .” which was cut due to space constraints.)

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