Story highlights Penny Pritzker: My forebears came from czarist Russia to find success in United States, a prospect that should still be open to immigrants

Pritzker: Trump should not discourage the best and brightest from coming here to enrich America's economy, communities

Penny Pritzker served in President Barack Obama's administration as the 38th United States Secretary of Commerce. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) More than 130 years ago, my great-great-grandparents left then-czarist Russia for the United States with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Escaping political oppression, they emigrated to Chicago with no knowledge of the English language, and at a time when immigrating "legally" meant little more than writing, by hand, the family's name in a notebook at Ellis Island.

After settling in Chicago in 1881, my great-great-grandmother, Sophia, helped create a "Nickel Club" to help newly arrived immigrant families like hers who were trying to make it in America.

Sophia helped organize other women to pool together their pennies and nickels to buy food, clothes or whatever the newcomers needed. Some of those immigrants came to escape war or religious persecution; others hoped for economic opportunity; others still came in later decades to study at some of the best schools in the world.

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The fact is the rhetoric and actions coming from President Donald Trump's administration are making the best and brightest think twice before coming to the United States. This is tragic. Welcoming young foreign-born students to America has long been a key means of exposing them to our people and our values.