How can you fault _____ for doing what he did for his children?

I would do anything for my children. Any parent worth a damn would say the same thing. Lucky for me, I probably won’t have to do squat.

Oh sure, I have to work and provide, but really: It’s not that difficult to do what’s needed to be done. The script is written: My kids will grow up, they’ll be afforded opportunity either because they go for it themselves or because I’m working hard enough to make sure opportunity comes to them. It’s America, after all.

But what if that wasn’t the case? What if they had next to no chance to get an opportunity because opportunities were scant? And what if no matter how hard I worked, I’d never have enough to give them the chance at a better life?

Welp, as I said up top, I would do anything. Of course I would. Or would I?

Would I be like _____? I’m not telling you his name, not telling you his nationality, not telling you where he works. Sorry. But would I do what he did, what he is doing?

He came here eight years ago on a tourist visa, and he never left. He works a menial job making menial money by American standards. But it’s gobs more than he could’ve made back home.

He left his wife behind to come to America. He left his two daughters. All so he could make more money and do what needed to be done for his family.

The language barrier between me and _____ is real. I’ve tried to extract all the details. It’s not easy. But it basically amounts to this: In his country he was uneducated. Not by choice, by circumstance. He worked in construction, mostly. Jobs dried up. There was virtually no social safety net. His family was struggling. His oldest child was about 14 years old.

He did what he had to do. He did it illegally, but what were the odds of him getting it done legally? Not good bordering on impossible.

So he’s been here for eight years. He loves local produce markets, where he buys his vegetables to cook his homestyle meals. I don’t think he has a car. Most of his money flows out of the country, back to his family.

He hasn’t seen his family in eight years. Repeat: He hasn’t seen his family in eight years. He hasn’t kissed his wife, hugged his daughters, in eight years.

Until a few weeks ago.

His oldest daughter is here on a student visa. She’s studying engineering, if I understood _____ correctly. The money he’s made here went a long way back home. It’s allowed his daughter to continue her education. Allowed her to get to America, where she hopes to one day work and live as a legal citizen.

______ visited her at her school last month. When he told me the story, the smile on his face … just … come on. Indescribable.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine leaving your family behind to work a crap job in a foreign country because it’s the least worst option on the table? Can you imagine not being with your family for eight years running because you know this is the only way you can help your children?

Man, I can’t imagine it. It would shatter me.

But you do what you have to do for your kids.

Of course, if it were up to certain members of our government, people like _____ would be booted out of this country quicker than you can say “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.”

And while I get it — we can’t just open up the borders, that’s insane — we have to come up with a better idea than “kick ‘em all out.”

There is zero question in my mind that America would be a better country with ______ here as a legal citizen. He works hard, he provides for his family, he does what he has to do to make sure his children have a better life.

These are the people we should be recruiting, not the people we should be railing against.

It doesn’t get more human than trying to help your children.