To the editor:

A little over a century ago my family came to Southern Minnesota looking for a better life than they were offered in Germany. They spent years working hard in the fields in their farm near Lewiston.

A generation later my great-grandfather was the first member of my family to go to college. He went to Concordia St. Paul as a farm boy who barely knew English. He excelled and went on to serve as a Lutheran pastor.

Today I’m seeing many others come to southern Minnesota for the same reasons. They are growing, reshaping, and serving their communities as my family did.

Yet today, I see a broken immigration system hurting them and all of us in the process. Prejudices reminiscent of what made some of my family change their names and stop speaking their native language during the world wars are reappearing. As a young adult, I see this issue tearing our nation apart.

This situation demands our elected officials have the understanding and judgement to lead on this issue. From years of serving as a soldier and public school teacher, Dan Feehan has experience working with diverse groups of people and solving complex problems.

His message of building bridges across different cultures and ways of thinking is essential to finding solutions on this issue.

We need leaders like Feehan in Congress to create an immigration system that allows people today, following in the footsteps of families like mine to seek a better life and do their part to make Southern Minnesota grow and thrive.

Chris Russert

Mankato