I’m an optimist. I almost have to be. Immigration is an act of optimism. You leave behind your family, your language, your memories, and build a life where none existed before. No one makes that journey believing tomorrow will be worse than yesterday. I came to America in 1978, a young man from Tabriz, Iran, who took it for granted that the future was something you walked toward. I still take it for granted. But I also see a country that has changed. The America I arrived in felt more open.