Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Among the prominent issues in the 2024 election, the discussions surrounding immigration were some of the most destructive. On this topic, President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance struck a dark and negative tone. Vance has blamed illegal immigration for the high cost of housing and rural hospital closures. Trump has gone further, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
We think that this zero-sum, oppositional mindset toward immigration fails our country in two ways: it is both a moral shortcoming and a self-inflicted wound against all Americans.
Both of us recently graduated from Macalester College. Though not technically immigrants ourselves, we arrived in Minnesota four years ago as a product of fortunate circumstances.
Zak: I was born in the United States only because my grandparents moved from Georgetown, Guyana, to New York City more than 50 years ago. As young newlyweds, my grandparents brought their two children to America soon after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed. By opening access to the U.S. for a wider range of immigrants, this policy enabled newcomers from many countries to seek better lives here.
Over the ensuing decades, my grandparents and their children worked hard to establish lives here. Thanks to their endeavors, I could come to St. Paul in pursuit of a college degree.
By the simple virtue of my birth in the U.S., I’m immensely lucky. Being raised here made it easier for me to navigate the college application system. As a student in Minnesota, I could work jobs and internships that my international peers weren’t eligible for. These privileges helped open doors for me to engage with my local community in ways meaningful for myself and (I hope) for others, working with multiple Twin Cities-based organizations on research and advocacy around local housing policy.