State and Local Initiatives
They say all politics is local, right? While most of the debate about immigration focuses on congressional action (or inaction), local communities across the country are the ones who feel the value of immigration most tangibly. Now active in more than 50 communities – more than 80 percent of which are in conservative states – the NAE State & Local team works with policymakers, business, and civic leaders to promote policies and programs that help create jobs and drive economic growth. You can explore more of our work on the state and local level here.
Americans Forget They Descend From Immigrants, Says Minnesotan
Aaron J. Brown, a community college instructor and proud native of Hibbing, Minnesota, says some on the Mesabi Iron Range seem to have forgotten that they are the descendants of immigrants. A century ago, Hibbing was as diverse as New York City is today. “Many great-great-grandparents of Hibbing residents came… Read More
Pastor Sees Immigrants Through Lens of Bible — and the Economy
Dr. Carl Ruby, a conservative Christian pastor at Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio, believes that immigration reform is a civil rights issue. It was a lesson he learned decades ago, when he first read Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” “I saw that it was an issue… Read More
Santa Fe Mayor Finds Economic Strength in Diversity
Santa Fe’s mayor, Javier Gonzales, has made inclusivity a hallmark of his tenure. This extends to the immigrants who live in the city of 70,000 that he has governed since 2014. “Today, more than 14 percent of our population in Santa Fe is what we call new immigrants, which are… Read More
War Refugee Trains Americans to Fill Buffalo’s Skills Gaps
Bassam Deeb arrived in the United States as a teenage refugee. It was 1976, and his family had fled Lebanon, a country mired in a civil war that would last until 1990 and cost the country an estimated 120,000 lives. Deeb, 15 at the time, spoke no English and… Read More
Argentinian Immigrant Helps Immigrants Contribute in Omaha
As executive director of Justice For Our Neighbors-Nebraska (JFON-NE), Emiliano Lerda helps families build productive lives in Nebraska and southwest Iowa, a move that in turn helps to bolster the regional economy. Take the young immigrant mother of two who fled domestic violence. When the legal team met her, the… Read More
Garage Owner Shows How Hard Immigrants Work
Oswaldo “Boler” Castellanos, a Guatemalan immigrant, is pleased with the opportunities that have come his way. But he knows that many others who want an opportunity to create a new life are denied that chance. “I want to show that we are coming here to work hard,” he says. Castellanos… Read More
Peruvian Brings Yoga to Growing Tampa Neighborhood
Lorena Saavedra Smith came to New York City with $300 in her pocket after earning her bachelor’s degree in Peru. While working as a nanny, she took English classes at a community college. Two years later, she got a job as a bilingual marketing representative for a real estate company. Read More
Immigrants Help Revive a Nebraska Meatpacking Town
Dulce Castañeda has always lived in Nebraska, and, over time, she’s witnessed a sea change in the small town of Crete, population 7,000. “There were maybe five or six Latino families when my parents arrived in the late 1990s,” says Castañeda, whose family were among those few Mexicans. “Since then,… Read More
In 2014, foreign-born residents contributed $4.1 billion to the GDP of Macomb County, MI, New Study Shows
Macomb County, MI – Today, OneMacomb and New American Economy released a report documenting the economic impact of immigrants in Macomb County. Accounting for 10.4 percent of the overall population, the foreign-born of Macomb County make an outsize contribution to the local economy through their high rates of entrepreneurship,… Read More
Smuggled Across the Border, Mexican Entrepreneur a Testament to Hard Work
When Jorge Peralta was 9 years old, his mother flew him and his brother from Peru to Mexico, bundled them into the back of someone’s car in Tijuana, and told them to pretend to be asleep. Peralta remembers a border officer shining a flashlight in his face before waving the… Read More
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