Partisan rancour, smoke and mirrors and damning evidence about the misconduct of the US president – all these were expected from this week’s impeachment inquiry hearings and were provided in spades.
But a narrative that caught many by surprise was the role played by immigrants, the power of their origin stories and their unshaken faith in the ideal of America, even in the “build the wall” era of Donald Trump. At seven hearings over five days, spread over the course of two weeks, this was not only a congressional investigation; it was a nation holding a mirror up to itself.
“I’ve always thought that it is immigrants who believe in and love America the most,” said Julissa Arce, an immigration rights advocate who came to the US from Mexico when she was 11. “We’re willing to risk our lives and leave everything behind to come to this country and give everything. The bravest people who came up to testify at the hearings were the ones who said you have to fight to keep our democracy alive.”
Three of the 12 witnesses who testified before the House intelligence committee highlighted their immigrant backgrounds in compelling opening statements. They told how their families’ experiences led them to public service and a patriotic sense of duty to defend America’s national security.
Lt Col Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert, described how his family fled to the US from the Soviet Union when he was three years old. As children, Vindman and his twin brother were briefly interviewed in a 1985 Ken Burns documentary about immigration.
Vindman, an army officer who was awarded the Purple Heart, said he and his brothers felt compelled to serve in the military to repay the country that had offered them refuge from authoritarian oppression.
“In Russia, my act of expressing concern to the chain of command in an official and private channel would have severe personal and professional repercussions, and offering public testimony involving the president would surely cost me my life,” he told the committee.
Vindman also expressed gratitude for his “father’s brave act of hope 40 years ago and for the privilege of being an American citizen and public servant, where I can live free, free of fear for mine and my family’s safety”.
Poignantly and powerfully, he added: “Dad, I am sitting here today in the US Capitol, talking to our elected professionals. Talking to our elected professionals is proof that you made the right decision 40 years ago. Do not worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.”
The line was so striking that later Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democratic congressman from New York, asked Vindman to reread that message and explain why he felt able to tell his father not to worry. The witness replied: “Congressman, because this is America. This is the country I have served and defended, that all of my brothers have served. And here, right matters.”
Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, moved to America from Canada when she was three. Her mother had grown up in Nazi Germany. Her father had fled the Soviet Union.
“Their personal histories, my personal history gave me both deep gratitude towards the United States and great empathy for others like the Ukrainian people who want to be free,” she told the committee. “My service is an expression of gratitude for all that this country has given to me and to my family.”
The star witness Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, described how his parents had fled Europe during the Holocaust, first moving to Uruguay and then settling in Seattle. “Like so many immigrants, my family was eager for freedom and hungry for opportunity,” he said.
Another perspective was offered by the British-born Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert at the White House. “I am an American by choice, having become a citizen in 2002. I was born in the north-east of England, in the same region that George Washington’s ancestors came from.”
The coalminer’s daughter continued: “I can say with confidence that this country has offered me opportunities I never would have had in England. I grew up poor, with a very distinctive working-class accent. In England in the 1980s and 1990s, this would have impeded my professional advancement.”
But the accent “never set me back in America”, Hill added.
Under questioning, Hill described immigration as “the essence of America”, noting that, with some exceptions, “everyone immigrated to the United States at some time in their family history. And this is what, for me, really does make America great.”
Following Hill’s statement, Adam Schiff, chairman of the committee, was moved to comment: “The few immigrant stories that we have heard just in the course of these hearings are among the most powerful I think I’ve ever heard.
“Col Vindman and others are the best of this country and you came here by choice. And we are so blessed that you did, so welcome.”
The witnesses followed in a long tradition in American public service that includes Henry Kissinger, a former secretary of state born in Germany, and the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, an ex-national security adviser born in Poland. The former president Barack Obama’s father was an immigrant from Kenya.
Yet as Republicans pivoted from once defence of Trump to another, they could not resist cynically focusing on the diverse backgrounds of those speaking. They pointed out that Vindman, who appeared in his uniform, had been repeatedly offered the position of defence minister by the Ukrainian government.
He said he reported the offers to his superiors. “I’m an American. I came here when I was a toddler. I immediately dismissed these offers – did not entertain them.”
Maloney offered support: “I guess Mr Castor [the Republican lawyer] is implying maybe you have got some dual loyalty, which is, of course, an old smear we have heard many times in our history.”
Jim Himes of Connecticut added that the line of questioning “may have come cloaked in a Brooks Brothers suit and in parliamentary language but that was designed exclusively to give the rightwing media an opening to question your loyalties. It’s the kind of thing you say when you’re defending the indefensible.”
On cue, rightwing media seized their chance. Emerald Robinson, chief White House correspondent for the One America News Network, who is regularly called upon by Trump at press conferences, tweeted: “Fiona Hill with that Prince Andrew accent, and ‘Defense Minister’ Vindman from Ukraine … I’m wondering, are any Americans going to testify against Trump?”
Jake Tapper, a CNN political host, responded: “What an ugly and, frankly, un-American thing to say.”
Robinson subsequently deleted the post. Vindman’s lawyer is also seeking a retraction from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News over a segment last month that suggested, without evidence, that he might be guilty of espionage.
Alina Polyakova, founding director of the Project on Global Democracy and Emerging Technology at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, said she was appalled by the innuendo over dual loyalties. “I find it incredibly disturbing, especially coming from a Jewish background, to hear these tropes come back into our public discourse in a way I never hoped to see.”
But Polyakova, 37, who was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union and moved to the US when she was 10, found the immigrant stories of public service at the impeachment inquiry uplifting. “It speaks to the many contributions that immigrations have made to the United States at all levels.
“There’s a narrative at the moment that suggests immigrants don’t have skills and want to take advantage of the system. These three individuals spoke to the opposite of that. There’s a very long history of immigrants who have shaped the policy of the United States and its vision of itself.”
