There are a few things I would like people to know about our Haitian and Central and South American neighbors who are staying in the emergency shelter in Greenfield. I write this when there is a particularly horrendous, completely false story permeating our national news, about things immigrants are said to have done. I’m not repeating it here. It deserves no more ink or air time.

All of the immigrants in our shelter have been processed at the border, none of them snuck into the country undetected. They have filed for asylum or “temporary protected status,” based on horrific conditions in their home countries. The government has records on all of them. Due to the backlog of these cases in our federal immigration courts, their cases may take years to decide. There are no guarantees they will be allowed to stay. They have been given food and housing, but there is a time limit on this.

When you hear the vile accusations thrown at them by one of our presidential candidates, ask yourself: Are these the kinds of things immigrants would do, who are waiting to gain legal status? Who have left extended family and everything they have known to be here? Would they be breaking our laws, left and right? Violent crime?

When I met my Haitian friends last summer, the first thing they asked was whether I could help them find jobs. Most of those in the shelter are now working. Many are sending some of their low wages to relatives in their home countries. They are working as cleaners at food processing centers in the area, as janitors at UMass, and other entry-level jobs. They are working graveyard shifts and coming “home” to sleep in their one room during the daytime with their active young children nearby, at the crowded, busy shelter. They are looking hard to find apartments, as difficult as that is at this point.

I’m not asking you to feel sorry for them, and they certainly would not want that. They feel incredibly lucky to have made it this far. What they want is to learn the language, learn local customs, and to find a way to have success, to be accepted into American life, and to make a better life for their children.

They are fine people. These lies being spread about them are shameful and are very dangerous. These lies are being spread by a man who wants us to be afraid, to divide and conquer, to set us against each other, all for political power.

Don’t believe them. Get to know our immigrant neighbors. Let’s build a society where we solve problems without fear and lies.

Susanae Glovacki lives in Greenfield.