Few of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s policies have divided voters like his views on immigration. And as his promises to deport undocumented workers and build a wall with Mexico come under ever greater scrutiny, one US labor union is fighting back.

Starting on Tuesday, AFL-CIO, the largest US federation of labor unions, will start airing ads on social media starring executive vice-president Tefere Gebre, to back up a mail campaign in battleground states about what it means to be an American and an immigrant. It’s unlikely to win over Trump or his supporters, but that’s not who Gebre or AFL-CIO is looking to reach.

Gebre describes himself as a quadruple threat in Trump’s world. “I happen to be a black man, a refugee, an immigrant and a labor leader,” he said. The dynamic of this election gives some people a sense that some things are more “American” than others and Gebre wants to correct that. “My belief is that no one is more American than I am. I thought that people need to hear that,” he said.

After escaping Ethiopia as a child, Gebre came to the US. In his role at the AFL-CIO he has traveled across the country sharing his experience. In addition to discussing racial and economic justice, Gebre helped lead the union’s effort to naturalize immigrants across the nation so, come November, they can go out and vote for the America that welcomes everyone.

In 2013, there were about 8.8 million legal permanent residents who were eligible to apply for US citizenship. According to Pew Research Center, applications for naturalization increased 13% between October 2015 and January 2016 with a quarter of a million immigrants applying to become citizens.

“We are processing hundreds of thousands of people to become citizens and go to the ballot box and, one way or another, tell Donald Trump what they think in response of what he thinks of them,” said Gebre.

The America that he imagined as a child in Africa was one where if you worked hard and applied yourself to what you wanted to be, you could achieve your dream.

“The America that I know is the America that values me for who I am and sees me as a human being instead of a refugee or an immigrant or as ‘other’. That’s what my America looks like,” he said.

Even at the Republican convention, there was talk of immigration, Gebre points out. As he listened to Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, “talk about his immigrant mother and get teary eyed about it” Gebre got thinking about other first generation Americans living in the US and what Republican policies would mean for them and their families.

“They praise the immigrant spirit that built this country and in another breath they talk about building a wall and us being either terrorists or moochers in this country. I think that is very unsettling to just watch,” he said.

Last week, Nigel Farage, the British politician who lead the UK Independence party’s (Ukip) campaign in favor of Britain leaving the European Union, came to the US to stump for Trump. Just like Trump, Ukip scapegoated immigrants and refugees for the country’s problems and to create a division among working class voters, said Gebre.

“They played on people’s emotions, they played on people’s fears,” he said. “Believe me, it’s not just Donald Trump. Globally, there is this nationalism that is running rampant that is dangerous for working people.”

Gebre says he’s not the only person who feels this way. “It’s not just me. It’s millions of people in this country. My belief is that someone like me has to stand up and say this is my country. And I am not even going to get into a discussion that someone who was born here is a better American than I am,” he said. “The more people realize that, the more people feel like they don’t have to be in a shadows and live in a fear of nativism.”

Tefere Gebre and union leaders participate in a Democracy Awakens protest outside the US Capitol. Hundreds of people were arrested while protesting money in politics. Photograph: Keith Mellnick/AFL-CIO

Despite that, there are some things “worry the hell out of us”, said Gebre.

“I have lived through strongman, I have lived through people who say they can fix it,” he said referencing his childhood in Ethiopia. According to him, Trump is stoking fear and offering himself up as “panacea” to the things that he says are “invading” the country.

Yet the one thing that is uniquely American is that everyone is welcome here. Immigrants have built this country and for two centuries have been coming here and calling the US their home.

“It doesn’t matter if you came in bondage as a slave into this country or you came generations ago as Eastern European to build cities like Chicago or New York. Or you were Chinese and built railroads in this country. Or a modern day immigrant who make our beds and clean the offices and build our highways or the refugee engineers remapping the country,” said Gebre. “That’s who we are and that is the sense of this country and that is worth fighting for. That is worth really speaking up for.”

That is why he hopes that people will go and vote this November.

“The battlefield in this country is not picking up arms or anything like that. We have a battlefield that is a polling place. The AFL-CIO and all of us are doing whatever it takes to make sure that the voices of working people and the voices of people that one imagines don’t look like Americans actually go to the polling place say: ‘This is what American looks like and I am fighting my battle at the ballot box.’ That’s what we do as Americans. We come together and at the ballot box on a given Tuesday and we express our concerns. That’s what we are trying to do.”