Who are the immigrants?
This happened several years ago, and was reported by media back then, but the story came back to my mind recently
It was about a grade-school-aged girl in Central America, who lived with her mother (a single parent) and her siblings
One day her mother simply disappeared. Neighbors helped for a while
But that girl knew her father lived in the US
She decided to come here to find him
And unbelievably that girl made it here: nobody was quite sure how, but she really did
She got caught on our side of the border
Maybe officials didn't quite knew what to do with that child
But they finally located a family member in the US, then tracked down her father and reunited them
She wasn't home free yet: there was a deportation case against her
But it ultimately went her way
Somehow all the recent unpleasantness reminded me of this story
So I told it to a much older friend, whose father had worried his whole life that he would be deported if anyone ever discovered he had entered this country illegally in the 20s. He was a loyal and patriotic American, and his wife, another immigrant woman, later proudly became naturalized
My friend listened to my story
Well -- she said -- that's the kind of person we want here!