A few weeks ago, I stayed with some friends in Indiana who had been immigrants from Indonesia but were now naturalized. One of them pondering on the present status of immigrants in this country, remarked, “I wonder if ICE will be targeting those of us who are already American citizens next.”  

I decided to research ICE on line. The Acting Director is Todd Lyons and the Deputy Director is Madison Sheahan. There are 260,000 employees and they are well funded. A lot of us have heard stories about the treatment of immigrants that are disturbing. I do not intend to share these accounts but instead I want all of us to challenge ICE to serve this nation well. Considering all that we hear told, I was surprised when I read the core values of this agency.

1.  Perform honorably with dignity
2. Serve the nation proudly with courage
3. Exemplify integrity, practicing the highest moral code.

We are mostly a nation of immigrants and their descendants. We came to escape famine and persecution. We came for freedom. We are grateful to be Americans.  

In 1978 there were Vietnamese refugees who had worked with our military services who were welcomed into this nation. The church I pastored had the privilege to sponsor a family of six.  Phon, the father was a chemist, Phung, the mother was a math teacher. The children were Dinh (9, boy), Hong (7, girl), Mai (4, girl) and Duong (a baby boy). We helped them find clothing, housing, a job, and enroll the children in school. The first Sunday they came to church in the donated clothes with Dinh happily wearing a t-shirt that said “I am a girl.” Then we began to teach them English.

Whenever we would visit, they always served us a cup of tea, even when they had so little.  They were so careful with their money that they didn’t even buy used furniture until they had cash. I helped with the extras when I could. One time I took my 4-year-old and my 20-month-old– (Ellie, now the editor of The Citizen) to Walmart with the three older children and was buying winter boots for all 5. I was walking into the parking lot when I realized I had left Ellie sitting on the counter.

Phon took a job putting decals on trucks and was glad to be able to work. When I was with them the thought came to my mind often, “I could be the refugee and they could be the ones helping me.”

This family were treated well in our small town. The children did well in school. Mai who came as a preschooler learned English so well, she was first in her graduating class. All the siblings went to Notre Dame University with scholarships. Dinh changed his name to “Dean” and went on to be an architect. Hong was a college administrator, who later became a REALTOR. Mai and Duong both became doctors. We were all so proud of them.

Today, let’s champion immigrants. We can pray for them. We can make friends with them and help them practice English. Every week I have the honor of teaching a doctor, a nurse or an engineer and others with college degrees how to speak English as a second language (ESL) at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Soon they will be able to find jobs in their fields instead of cleaning and doing dishes in their new country.

Immigrants are a great gift to our nation. We are better because of them. And now an update on the refugee family we sponsored 47 years ago. Hong’s son Cole McDonald was a skier on the US Olympic Team in 2022 in China.