Some stories of immigration are about determination. Others are about heartbreak. Magdalena Klipfel’s is both. Denied entry to the U.S. twice due to a medical condition, she endured years of hardship—her mother’s death at sea, exile in Belgium and England, and a desperate fight for another chance. She finally reached her family in North Dakota, but not through any official port of entry. The records say she was “debarred,” yet she made it. How? That’s the mystery still unfolding.
Tom Isern with Praire Public has the introduction.
