The arrival of a migrant family in Kalispell this spring drew hateful rhetoric and calls by elected officials to deport them while leaving some residents confused. For Ken Yachechak, it took him back to the feelings of his own childhood. 

“[Immigrants are] willing to risk their lives to find something better,” Yachechak said. “I realized that it was time for me to speak out. If you’re not willing to accept these people for who they are, well, I feel sorry for you.” 

Yachechak spoke to Kalispell City Council in May, drawing on his family’s history as context.  

Around the time of World War I, Yachechak’s father immigrated from Russia to America — undocumented. His mom was born in West Virginia after her family came from Lithuania through Ellis Island. His father did receive documentation later on in his life, although there are no records, just oral history, Yachechak said. 

At the time, there were no social services. His father died when Yachechak was 12 years old after a series of heart attacks, and his mother was left with nothing.  

Further, it was a time of international instability. From World War II to the Cold War, immigrants and residents of America, specifically Slovik ones, were terrified of being labeled as a “communist.” 

“We didn't have anything. Family and friends helped. My dad was an immigrant, his whole family was,” he said. “From an immigrant standpoint, which is why I talked at City Council, I have a warm feeling for what goes on when people come with nothing in their pockets.” 

Yachechak’s life led him to numerous experiences, from working in a district attorney’s office to developing and remodeling a hotel to sailing down the coast of Mexico. He built a life for himself despite his familial circumstances. 

Much of his success can be attributed to growing up around family and other Slovik immigrants. There was a comradery throughout the neighborhood in New Jersey where he grew up — knowing how difficult it can be to make it after immigrating which is better experienced together, he said.  

“It’s not about me, the story is how I got to where I am because my father was an immigrant and my mother was the daughter of an immigrant, and back then, the government didn't help anybody,” Yachechak said. “Immigrants aren't all bad. Immigrants and their kids can do wonderful things.”

For a family, alone, to arrive in Kalispell and be met with hate is something Yachechak hopes to see changed.  

“Not all the people who have come here to the valley are Latin Americans... there's Ukrainians living here, there are Russians living here, Syrians living here, and they all have papers, they're all legitimate, and they’re all contributors to our community,” Yachechek said.  

And immigrants from Latin America, he said, are not the villains. Yachechek has lived off and on in Mexico; he has a green card and a permanent residence there. Someone’s immigration status is not resemblant of their personhood, he said. 

Anti-immigration rhetoric is not new to the valley. In October 2023, a known white supremacist group with chapters across the country distributed a racist anti-immigration flyer throughout the valley.  

“The folks that are being targeted in the community are welcome in this community. I just want to make that clear,” said Kalispell City Councilor Ryan Hunter in October during a Council work session. 

The leaflet included an image of a 19th-century homesteader aiming a rifle and references the “great replacement,” a time-worn conspiracy theory about a plot to replace or overwhelm White voters in the United States with immigrants, and also warned of the risks of allowing “racial invaders” into the state.  

“My father was an undocumented immigrant. That makes me a drug dealer, gun-toting, hostile person — I have to be, because that’s what everybody says we are and it’s not true when you finally meet these people,” Yachechek said. 

More recently, Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke released a statement when the family of immigrants arrived in Northwest Montana on May 2. According to the release, the congressman described the immigrants as Venezuelan, illegal and originally in Texas. 

None of those claims can be confirmed.  

Zinke also said that the nonprofit Valley Neighbors, an organization that offers support to refugees and immigrants, was a “dark-money” group. 

Valley Neighbors denied the allegations and arranging the immigrant family’s travel here. The nonprofit relies on community fundraising and grants to operate, and does receive grant funding from the U.S. State Department via a resettlement agency for administrative costs associated with refugees.  

Yachechek donates to Valley Neighbors. 

“The people in general that are coming here from all sorts of countries are good people, they’re family people, they want a better life, they’re trying to avoid the consequences of living in their various countries,” he said. 

At the end of Yachechek’s mother’s life, she, a woman with immigrant parents who married an undocumented immigrant, wrote about her life in a series of stories. Despite hardships, she was able to build a life for herself and her children in America, Yachechek said. 

“I am now 87 years old and my life has been full and happy,” his mother, Virginia, wrote. 

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.