Don’t fear immigration in U.S.

I'm a sophomore at Iowa City West High School. I came to the United States in 1998 from Germany and have lived here ever since. My family would probably still be in Bosnia if immigration wasn't such an accepted issue in the 1990s. But with more than 1 million illegal immigrants coming to America every year, the word “immigrant” has been made to look sinister and dirty.

Immigration is something that built America. More than a million people risking their freedom to come into our country could not possibly be looked at as a bad thing, but a sign that we are prosperous and always come out on top.

There is a plaque on the Statue of Liberty that quotes an immigrant women named Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore; Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” This quote can't do anything but strike emotion into someone like me, who experienced change for the better by coming to this beautiful country.

Emin Dizdar

Coralville