RIP Madeleine Albright

On March 23, Madeline Albright passed away. Albright served as U.S. Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001, the first woman to hold that position.

Albright was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). She and her family moved to the United States in 1948, and she became a U.S. citizen in 1957.

Albright was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

You can read her thoughts on “The American Immigrant” in David Rubenstein’s 2021 book The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream.

In talking about her own migration to the United States, Albright characterized herself as a “beneficiary of the American people’s generosity.” A “legal migrant” herself, Albright had thoughtful words about unauthorized migration: “There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants may violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that’s all they do then they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected.”

Rest in peace, Madam Secretary.

-KitJ