Every summer our community celebrations prove that we’re a nation composed mostly of immigrants.

We have the Danish Aebleskiver Days in Tyler, Belgian American Days in Ghent, and Polska Kielbasa Days in Ivanhoe.

Events with an ethnic element conclude in September with Boxelder Bug Days in Minneota. The opera hall above the library opens its doors to the public as part of the celebration. It’s filled with displays that highlight the city’s Icelandic heritage.

The town celebrations that aren’t ethnic still reflect local history. People look back at how pioneers founded their communities, how they set in motion a process that led to what we have now.

As we celebrate that, we should also think about new immigrants. We should consider the people who are recent arrivals, who’ve mostly come from Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Many 21st century historians view Europe’s past in a negative context. They focus on colonialism, on the venture capitalism that forced change upon people of other races who lived on other continents.

The reality is that most people who immigrated from Europe in the late 19th century were not oppressors. They came to America with nothing, with just the clothes they wore and the few possessions that could fit into steamer trunks.

Immigrants came looking for opportunities they couldn’t find in the old country, where comfortable subsistence farming and cottage industries had been replaced by a factory based economy.

They faced prejudice. It had differences from today’s immigration because we were all Europeans. It created some common ground, eventually serving as a reason for successfully blending into society.

Still prejudice was prejudice. It took time to eradicate. It took two generations before no reasonable parents would mind if their son or daughter married someone who’s Irish, Italian, Polish, or a member of another Caucasian minority.

New immigrants face prejudice in 2025 from a small but significant percentage of our population. President Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and his support of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids has fueled that prejudice.

It applies to all immigrants, both legal and illegal. I would bet that most people with prejudice have never met a new immigrant.

The ICE raid protests, including one in Marshall, had an impact earlier this year. ICE scaled back on its raids. I’m glad they did that.

What concerned me about the raids was the potential for who could get rounded up next. There’s potential that it could someday apply to minority citizens, intellectuals or anyone suspected to being anti-American.

In a free society no one should be arrested just for being a suspect. There has to be evidence, enough to charge the person with a crime and probably make it stand up in court. Arrest on suspicion is a violation of civil liberties.

Most immigrants are not here to commit crimes. They’re not here to collect welfare. The ones I’ve met are here to work.

They want a better life. They want to make a good living, buy houses, pay taxes and send their kids to our schools.

If someone entered illegally and gets employed, he or she should be given credit for obtaining and keeping a job with a respectable employer. It should involve a work permit and a pathway to citizenship, not a deportation.

Immigrants take jobs that most American citizens don’t seem to want. A good example is the process of gutting animals in a meat packing plant.

When they do that, they help to alleviate a labor shortage. Immigration has been a very good thing for national and local economies in the past. It can still be a good thing in the 21st century.

— Jim Muchlinski is longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent