I believe President Donald Trump is of German and Scottish descent, but he does not seem to know our nation's immigration history - or history in general, including how the present U.S. land was acquired.
Trump's proposal to have our neighbors in Mexico pay for a border fence is insulting.We should be good neighbors and compromise by allowing Mexico to build a fence from northern California and around Nevada, southern Colorado, northern Arizona, New Mexico and the all of Texas. A reminder that when Texas broke away from Mexico in the 1840s and the Mexican army came to take it back, Sam Houston drove them back to Mexico City. The peace conference compromise was that the U.S. got half of Mexico for few dollars.
It is mostly our fault that we have such a mess with our southern neighbors. We should have established a guest-worker program like Western Europe did with Eastern Europe to solve its labor shortage. Presidents George W. Bush and Vicente Fox wanted to do it, but Congress stopped them.
I served on the Migrant Labor Subcommittee in 1973-74 and found out how we need workers in agricultural and hospitality industries in America. If we do not have them, our consumers don't have enough fruits, vegetables, hotel and restaurant services, etc.
My German and Polish ancestors and family have been migrating for 500 years and were fortunate to end up in this great country. We were national, linguistic and religious minorities and were discriminated against. We were accepted so well and felt blessed in the U.S. until the 2016 presidential election.
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But we will overcome, since the vast majority of our citizens is great.
Mike Jaros
Duluth
The writer served in the Minnesota Legislature from 1973 to 1981 and from 1985 to 2009.
