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Welcoming immigrants, many of whom are simply trying to survive, has always made me a proud American. I celebrate the words on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

I am saddened to see that immigrants are now being deported who have not been charged with any crimes, nor have they received due process. In many instances, it is the backlog in our system that has resulted in documentation permits expiring, which is not the fault of immigrants. The administration makes no mention of the contributions immigrants make to our country. For example, undocumented immigrants from Mexico in 2019 alone earned $92 billion in the U S., contributing $9.8 billion to federal, state, and local taxes, while their employers contributed an additional $11.7 billion to Social Security and $2.8 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund—money the immigrants will never see because they do not have proper documentation. After taxes, Mexican undocumented immigrants spent or saved $82.2 billion, the spent money going towards housing, utilities, gasoline, groceries, consumer goods, and services. They are not here living for free; they are working hard to live the American dream, creating better lives for themselves and for us.

Unless we are Native Americans, our family trees reveal that we were all immigrants at one time or another. Let’s not forget that.

 

Sally MacMillan 

Columbus