I grew up in Lyndora, the granddaughter of Eastern European immigrants. My “Baba” was only 12 when she came by ship with her older sister in 1910, to Baltimore, Md. They first secured a paid ticket, registered on a passenger list, and went through official government inspection ports before being released to settle in Lyndora to work and forge out a new and better life. The legal requirements were much simpler then, yet there was a respect and honor for the law and legal path to America.

To be fair, we cannot compare these immigrants to those who now knowingly bypass U.S. legal border checkpoints or lack authorized visas and purposely stay in the country for years “undocumented.” An “undocumented worker” is the same as an “illegal immigrant.”

Stories about deportation often carry an omission bias by leaving out this key “illegal” detail, but instead lean heavily on the sympathy aspect. The consequences are difficult but if a person willfully breaks immigration laws, and remains “undocumented” for years, the truth is they have been and are here illegally. Illegal isn’t a demeaning label, it’s the truth, and an illegal status carries legal consequences.

I’m deeply grateful and proud of my immigrant heritage and the hard struggles my grandparents went through to build a new life here. Immigrants are welcome to this great country and will save themselves many heartaches by first respecting and honoring our immigration laws as the foundation for a new and better life here in the USA.

Mamie Grystar Ogle,

Butler