The Baltimore Banner published an excellent article about the importance of making our unaccompanied minor migrant children feel welcome in the U.S.

The people who have come to this continent from abroad, often illegitimately, made this continent what it is. The original European invaders who took the land from the original inhabitants had no more legal right to come here than the undocumented folks who come here today.

This continent is the way it is because of immigrants, from those original European invaders to the waves of immigrants during the past two centuries.

The U.S. doesn’t have a sufficient birth rate to sustain our economy. We 21st-century folks need immigrants just as much as the people who lived here in previous centuries needed their immigrants.

The way we treat our immigrant children will determine the kinds of adults that they turn out to be. If we mistreat them and deny them the educational, medical and other services they need, they won’t integrate into our social systems.

These children need to be in stable homes with their families intact. It’s vital that those families are allowed that stability and the opportunity to earn stable incomes. The children will then have a good chance of growing up to be contributing members of society. That’s what we should provide these children here in Maryland.

Dr. Henry Farkas, Pikesville

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