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This letter was written in response to the Center’s Oct. 16, 2018 collaborative report with HuffPost titled: As Trump disparages immigrants, Midwest dairy farmers build bridges to Mexico

This is such a great story. I trust its veracity. We’ve been supporters for years of the Santa Teresa Project (a sister city project with a town —now multiple towns—in Nicaragua) run out of Richland Center area by generous and courageous Wisconsin folk. They can substantiate everything your article claims. I have two adopted Guatemalan grandchildren and Mexican friends, so I deeply resent the slurs against the people south of the border. Sure there are thugs and criminals, but we have more than our share of those too, even, or especially, at the highest levels of government.

I live at the edge of the village of Plain, in Sauk County, and was formerly a “daughter of the soil” in rural Spring Green for a considerable period of time. My husband and I tend a large organic garden and a small orchard. Being outside a lot, I have become friendly with a lovely Mexican gentleman who takes care of many of the larger estates in our neighborhood. I’ve listened to his tales of woe for three years now as he tries to gain citizenship after working his tail off in Wisconsin for more than a dozen years on a visa, marrying and producing two children here, is active in his church, organizes soccer teams in the Richland Center area, is trustworthy in the extreme, I’m told, and liked by everyone who has had contact with him. In other words, a model citizen. There is no possible excuse for excluding him and his family from becoming official members of our society rather than enfolding him into our commonwealth. He already gives a lot more than he takes, as if that counts for anything. Many influential people in this community have tried to speed up the process toward citizenship, to no avail. I grieve for his family and the anxiety they live with.

Katie Green
Plain, Wisconsin

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