Dear John: I love your well-written and informative column.

I also have an Italian background. Both my grandfathers came to the US in the early 1900s. They had less than nothing when they left Italy.

Upon arriving in the US, they asked for and expected nothing from the government. Through hard work, they both did very well.

My mother’s father eventually owned a plumbing business, a beach house in Connecticut and an apartment building in Scarsdale. His family was the first Italian family to live in Scarsdale.

When they moved into their house, all the neighbors put up fences and one actually committed suicide! Talk about prejudice. But they ignored it and eventually assimilated into the community. My other grandfather became successful by owning a restaurant and investing in multifamily houses in Westchester County.

They were “legal” immigrants, very proud to be Americans, and when they died, insisted on having an American flag on their coffins. That is how legal immigration worked, and how the American Dream was achieved — a far cry from the mess that is going on at our southern border now. Regards. JC

Dear J.C.: Jeez! Someone killed himself because your family moved into the neighborhood. I guess you didn’t have many playmates as a kid.

Look, as I’ve said over and over, immigration is not only good, but necessary. If people want to collect Social Security someday, they will need an expanding workforce of people who pay taxes and make Social Security contributions.

Some illegal immigrants might also pay their taxes and contribute to Social Security.

But what we don’t need are people pouring into the country who are all take and no give.

Nice story about your family.