Letter: Immigrants help keep America great

There’s an overlooked chapter in Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. In addition to leading the Union through the Civil War, he was a history-making leader on another front.

Lincoln, the first Republican president, consistently staved off the forces of fear and bigotry and recognized how vital immigrants were to our country’s present and future. He saw immigrants as farmers, merchants and builders who would contribute to our economic future.

Long before Donald Trump said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Senate candidate Lincoln described immigrants as “the blood of the blood of America’s founders” in 1858.

Suddenly, faced with the prospect of a Civil War, President Lincoln recruited and formed immigrant regiments and 25 percent of his Northern Army spoke with a foreign accent.

In 1923, my 5-year-old father arrived on American soil with my grandparents. Dad didn’t receive his Naturalization Certificate until after serving in the Pacific during World War II. My father didn’t need that certificate to be a proud American.

Donald Trump will not make America great. But the melting pot of people coming to America seeking a better future will keep America great. They always have. Ask Lincoln.