My family is almost all made up of immigrants. My mom is an immigrant, and my dad’s grandma is too. Everyone in my family came here to find a better life. Some people are against immigration and think that immigrants are drug dealers or terrorists, but this is not true. Every family has an ancestor who was once an immigrant, so everyone should respect immigration and realize that immigrants help build community in a positive way.

It started when my great-great-great-great-grandma came from Spain to Colombia. She married a Native American, and they created a home in Colombia. Generations later, my grandma was born and had my mom, who immigrated from Colombia to the United States. My mom went to college in Bogota and got her degree in engineering. After college, my mom was going to move to Germany in order to be an engineer, but my grandma said that Germany was too far from home. So my mom moved to the U.S. instead, in order to be an electrical engineer and get a better job. Her arrival the U.S. was a step toward building our family.

My dad’s great-grandma came from Italy to Ellis Island and then moved to Oregon. For college, my dad moved to New York. He met my mom in New York, but then left for Paris. He came back from Paris to be with my mom in New York. Eventually, I was born in New York with dual citizenship in Colombia and the United States.

My mom and dad are only two of millions of immigrants in the world. Many immigrants come from Mexico to the U.S through the border into El Paso. Some immigrants go through illegally and others legally. The legal immigrants get through the border with a passport.

Illegal immigrants who escape from Mexico to find a better life in the U.S. shouldn’t be kicked out of the country just for crossing the border. The majority of illegal immigrants are not harmful to society; rather, they get jobs and work hard. Some illegal immigrants commit crimes, but so do some citizens of the U.S.

A lot of people are against immigrants coming from Mexico and the Middle East, like Donald Drumpf. Drumpf insults Mexicans and Muslims. However, most Mexicans and Muslims really help the U.S.; some help by working at restaurants, others are painters, doctors, construction workers, etc. Furthermore, a big percentage of the U.S. population is Mexican and Muslim.

All in all, we should think about immigration optimistically, because everyone’s family is made of at least some immigrants. Without immigration, most of our families wouldn’t exist. At their core, everyone is an immigrant –– including myself.