Immigrants

PRENOTE: My post about our Precinct Caucus February 3, here

This is being written on Saturday of Super Bowl weekend, almost a sacred day for many in the U.S.  I need to admit that I don’t know which teams are playing in the Super Bowl this year, or where it is being played, but by the time of kickoff I’ll probably watch for awhile, try to catch Bad Bunny (first time I’ve heard/seen him) at half-time, no interest in the commercials….

It does seem to be a good time to muse about Immigrants, since its constantly on the front page here in the Twin Cities of ICE, including half of the front page of this morning’s paper: “ONE MONTH IN MINNESOTA” continued pp A4-9 and  about the month of January; “Resisting or obstructing?  Line is blurry“;  “5-year-old’s deportation on fast track“.  Pages A 3,8, 12&13 (opinion) are almost 100% on the topic of the horror of ICE in the Twin Cities.

Feb. 5, a lady came in the coffee shop with a novel and effective approach to keeping the Twin Cities protest alive (yes there is a head on the other side of the hood!):

Feb. 5, 2026 Woodbury MN

This morning came this from Carol (I trust her sourcing, but don’t have it yet): “The mass deportation is projected to cost the federal government between $315 billion and nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. Under 2025 legislative proposals, the annual cost to deport one million people annually is estimated to be roughly $88 billion per year. Experts estimate an average cost of roughly $70,000 per person to arrest, detain, process, and remove undocumented immigrants. In 2023, immigrants in the United States—including both documented and undocumented individuals—paid a total of nearly $652 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. Social Security/Medicare: They have contributed over a quarter of a trillion dollars to these programs.”

Here’s a related article on the topic from the National Immigration Law Center

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This morning immigrants are closer to my mind than usual because of a recent and unexpected dusting off of my own family history – specifically the German side (50% of me).  It came via an e-mail from Texas from the great-great granddaughter of the man who was my great grandfathers brother.  I have only very recently become acquainted with her.  Her John, my Wilhelm, their brother Herman, and their father and stepmother, Bernard and Maria Anna, came to America in 1872 and 1873.  At time of migration the brothers were all in their 20s, born between 1846 and 1852.  Their Dad was born in 1816; their birth Mom had died in 1857.

These were not tourists on luxury liners.  Their migration stories would match any other voluntary migration stories from any time from any place.  They came from modest circumstances.  America represented opportunity and big risks.  They settled in a place where people were basically like them, in  language, culture and religion.  No different than other voluntary migrants at any time in history, including today.  People with their own stories.

My newly discovered relative and I have worked on our respective family stories for many years. and early indications are that it is a fortuitous find for both of us.  (Her Dad, from Illinois, who I’ve met only one time in person,  started on his family quest about the same time as I did – in 1981.  And he introduced the two of us.  This is how this business often works.  Sometimes it takes many years, but you need to prepare for this possibility.)

(My other ‘side’ – I’m 50% French-Canadian – has similar stories to my German kin, albeit longer in North America – the first arriving in 1618 to what is now Quebec, the last to Quebec from France in 1757.  Thence to what is the United States beginning in the 1840s and 50s.)

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I, indeed most all of us in this country, are descendants of immigrants from somewhere.  The only difference is the circumstance of their arrival on our shores.  Of course, before all of them were the indigenous people called “Indians”, one of whom was the mother of my first ancestor born in North America.

We need to pay very, very close attention to the catastrophe now under way in this country.  Our legacy as a country was built by  immigrants from everywhere.  There are endless stories.  Take time to learn your own.

from Brian in Massachusetts Jan 26, 2026:

Brian in MA Jan 26 2026

POSTNOTE: One of the many immigrant groups kicked around by DJT and company was the Haitian Community of Springfield OH.  Recently, Tim Snyder, a native of Springfield, wrote two posts about the Springfield situation.  They are accessible here and well worth your time.

Personally, I had the privilege, twice, of visiting Haiti on study trips in 2003 (right before the coup) and 2006, meeting with and seeing people and places of Haiti and Haitians.  Brian, pictured above, is a long time advocate for justice in Haiti.

My personal Haiti website, which has been on-line for years, is still available to browse if you wish.  I’d personally recommend my Open Letter to U.S policy leaders in April 2006.  It was my small effort to get some sense of policy problems relating to the relationship between U.S. and Haiti going back for their entire history as independent countries.

ALSO, recently I received two excellent writings on present day sources of information.  The first, “Twitter is not real life”, can be accessed here.  The second is “How to tell you’re being manipulated by a story”