Patrice Onwuka immigrated, legally, to the United States as a child. Her family left Montserrat in the Caribbean for Boston, with nothing more but a few coins and a couple of threadbare suitcases, as have many legal immigrants before them. Like many other immigrants before her, Patrice Onwuka recognized America's many opportunities and adopted the American way of life with enthusiasm; she is now the vice president for Economic Policy at Independent Women.
Patrice Onwuka is also warning Americans about the many dangers of socialism, calling it a "pipe dream."
On Aug. 26, Onwuka wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post criticizing the socialist movement for challenging "the very ethos of what drew [her family] here." Her family immigrated legally from Montserrat in the Caribbean more than 40 years ago, arriving in Boston with just suitcases and living in a drug-ridden neighborhood before building wealth through ownership of a multifamily "fixer-upper" home.
Online commenters dismissed her defense of capitalism as "billionaire propaganda ... so tone-deaf"; "Everything you described happened under today's capitalist system"; "Capitalism already destroyed the American dream"; and "You're talking about 30 years ago ... it's not like this anymore, who are you kidding?"
That's some high-octane dumb, right there in those comments. It's also precisely the kind of horse squeeze that the American Left puts out in great big old carload lots. But Patrice Onwuka is ready with a counterassault.
"Those people who called my work 'billionaire propaganda,' well, I'm not a billionaire, so that's not what I'm talking about. And if they actually read beyond just the headline, which I doubt most did, then they would actually realize I started with my family's story of coming to this country with just a few suitcases of clothes and living in the ghetto in the 1980s," she told Fox News Digital.
"Nothing was handed to us, and that's what my parents taught us, like so many people's families, instilled values about personal responsibility, about putting money aside, saving for what you want to build towards, self-denial, really working towards a goal and achieving it, and recognizing that opportunity does get dressed up as hard work," Onwuka said. "But, when you're willing to put the time and effort in, there is so much that you can do and so much you can achieve, frankly, that you can't achieve in other countries."
This right here, folks, is a breath of fresh air.
Over the centuries since this country was founded, millions have come here as the Onwuka family did: With little more than the clothes on their back and a big dose of ambition. America was and is the best place in the world to realize one's ambitions. These are the kind of immigrants we should welcome: People who come here to work, to grow, to build businesses, to contribute to the American economy, to become Americans. People have come here over the decades from Ireland to Siberia, from Greece, from China, from Japan, seeking opportunity, seeking to work, seeking to become a part of America, not to take advantage of America. And, no matter how the economically-illiterate American left protests, the United States is still uniquely suited for people of ambition to come here, to realize their dreams.
The only dreams coming from socialism, on the other hand, are nightmares. Socialism has failed every time it's been tried. As Patrice Onwuka points out, it's a pipe dream, not the American dream. She warns us:
"Don't be fooled. They are going to sell you a pipe dream and play off emotions of how people are feeling about their financial positions," Onwuka said. "I get it, folks, when you hear the Census data come out that we had record-low poverty in 2025, record-high median incomes, which is really great news, but then you look at your own family budgets and feel like you don't have that extra cushion because of high gas prices and inflation not coming down to where it was prior to the pandemic — don't latch on to a new shiny object saying, 'Oh, I can make things better and everything will be equal.'"
We can't be fooled. We won't be fooled. Patrice Onwuka isn't selling a message of hyperbole; she's bringing a message of facts. And we must remember Patrice Onwuka's message on election day. Vote! Vote! Vote!
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and bold policies, America’s economy is back on track.
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