I’ve spent my career working overseas, in part trying to make our country a safer place by trying to fix problems outside our borders — but also to share the luck that all U.S. citizens inherited just by being born. Over the course of those years, I’ve met many inspiring people working as hard as they can with what life and luck and their efforts have given them so that their children can have a better life.

In every country I’ve worked, people see the United States as a beacon of hope — a dream. In Latin America, where I’ve worked the last 20 years, families pool their money, often going into deep debt, to be able to send family members north to escape violence and poverty and (please God) to send money back home so others in the family won’t have to make the dangerous journey north. Only the strongest and the most-determined make it to our country.

Based on 2024 census estimates, 7% of Clallam County’s population is Latino/Hispanic — approximately 5,500 people. (This number almost certainly excludes many undocumented immigrants.)

From conversations with our Latino neighbors, I’ve learned that they’re mostly young, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, and all feel welcome in Sequim. Their kids go to school here. They’re grateful for the opportunities our town provides them in construction, restaurants, hospitality, elder care, farm work, house cleaning, and yard maintenance. The majority are church-goers. None have ever felt racism here.

Members of one extended family I spoke with migrated from the Mexican state of Jalisco — a state controlled by a drug cartel that makes its blood-soaked money moving cocaine to U.S. consumers. The father came north first on a work visa, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. He then sent for his wife and children who are now also citizens.

I asked a member of the family, a local entrepreneur, “What do you think Latino immigrants bring to our country and to Sequim?”

After some thought, he responded, “We bring energy. All of us want to have a small business. I think we’re more likely to start a business than those who were born here. We’re all grateful for this chance to get ahead for the good of our families.”

I asked him, “What do you say to those people who think you’re taking jobs from Americans?”

He paused and responded, “My business has created 10 jobs.” (None of the names he mentioned as he thought about it were Latino names.)

He continued, “And I think my family, including those living in Port Angeles, has created at least a hundred jobs.”

Most economists and researchers agree that immigration has a positive net effect on the U.S. economy. The immigrant population tends to be younger, helping to offset the aging of the U.S. population. All immigrants working in our county (documented and undocumented) are paying federal, state, and county taxes. Government programs, like the economically-troubled Social Security and Medicare programs, depend on this entrepreneurial energy to stay afloat.

Sadly, our Latino neighbors are feeling increasingly afraid because of the relentless drumbeat of “Immigrants are a threat to our safety and must be removed!!” Our country has always had an anti-immigrant streak focused on some ethnicity or another, but I can’t remember any time in my life when it has felt so strong and so hateful — based on the false premise that immigrants bring widespread criminality.

The Sequim police reported that their record management system doesn’t break down crimes by ethnicity, but an AI search showed that Latinos are represented in the Clallam County jail system at a much lower rate than their percentage of the population (2% incarcerated versus 7% of the county population).

A Mexican-American entrepreneur who moved to Sequim in 1997 responded unhesitatingly, “We are not criminals.” And the names of violent criminals reported in our local newspapers are rarely, if ever, Hispanic names.

We all want what’s best for our families — and we all pretty much share the same aspirations for the collective well being of our community. We’re in this together. I hope if our salt of the earth, solid-citizen, immigrant neighbors are ever threatened by unidentified, mask-wearing men in military gear that our community will support them appropriately.

They’re our neighbors.

They are us.

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Miguel Reabold is a former USAID worker who lives in Sequim.