ROCHESTER, Minn. - Community members spent their Saturday morning with cups of coffee, listening to Suada Cehic's story of her family's journey from Bosnia to Croatia to the United States. 

For her, the memories are scarring. 

"I was just waiting for someone to come shoot me," Cehic said. 

But she is a representation of so mny immigrants -- enduring the unthinkable for the possibility of something better. 

"Immigration is a lot of times portrayed in a negative light," Cehic said. "People need to put a face to it and know that we're real people." 

She knows what it's like to make the scary journey into the unknown and she insists - for the immigrnt - the sacrifices are all worth it. 

"If people are willing to die in the process of coming to the United States, they are not coming to cause trouble," Cehic said. "They are coming to give their families a better life." 

Claudia Owens spent three summers on the U.S.-Mexico border. 

"We shouldn't be kind of like on our high horse that we're gonna protect our country to keep people out," Owens said. 

Since 1975, the United States has accepted more than 3.3 million refugees to live here according to the State Department. President Trump has plans to use $3.6Bs from military construction money to pay for the wall.