My wife and I are the grandchildren of immigrants. Our grandparents came to America during the great migration of the 20th century.

They were strangers in a foreign land. I still remember an occasional Polish newspaper lying on the kitchen table. But they made a difference. They became dairy farmers, tavern owners, carpenters and factory workers, and they sent their sons to war.

Today’s immigration debate should not lose the perspective of history. As a nation, we are unique because we are a land of immigrants.

Today’s new Americans will make the same kind of contributions that our grandparents made. Immigration in America needs reform, but building walls and closing borders and denying food is the wrong kind of reform.

Peter Konieczko

Scarborough