Stories

Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s immigration news (April 4 – 8)
In the Tallahassee Democrat, the President of Independent Colleges & Universities in Florida, Dr. Ed Moore, argues that the passage of the Florida Seal of Biliteracy “reflects legislators’ commitment to make Florida a welcoming state to international business and talent, and shows we are working proactively to… Read More

Immigrant from South India Helps Walmart Thrive
Zakir Syed would never have imagined that by age 37, he would be working at a high-level job at Walmart, one of the largest employers in Arkansas. Growing up in Karnataka, a state in southwestern India, he lived with his family in a small home without running water or a… Read More

World Health Day: How Immigrants are Helping to Keep America Healthy
Today marks World Health Day, and for the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) will use the day to focus on spreading awareness for a disease that affects approximately 350 million people worldwide: diabetes. WHO is using a superhero-esque ‘Stay Super, Beat Diabetes’ theme to educate the public about… Read More

Iowa City Councilwoman Says Immigration Reform Helps Economy and Can Help End Cycle of Abuse
Sara Monroy-Huddleston, a Mexican immigrant and the first Latina woman to run for Iowa’s State House of Representatives, spent years at a local domestic violence agency where she witnessed the systemic obstacles immigrant women faced when trying to escape their abusers. “They face not only domestic violence,” she says. “They… Read More

If Entrepreneur Doesn’t Get a Visa Renewal, Texans Stand to Lose Jobs — and Chocolate
Stefano Zullian never dreamed of being a chocolatier. But the Venezuelan-born mechanical engineer with an MBA from Emory University now runs Araya Artisan Chocolates, a Houston company with roughly $700,000 in annual sales and 11 employees. “It’s way more complex to start a business in Venezuela, and we started thinking… Read More

Citing U.S. Immigration Policy, Award-Winning Entrepreneur Forced to Move 25 Jobs to South America
It’s no surprise that Colombian-born entrepreneur Alex Torrenegra was named one of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Young Global Leaders, MIT’s TR35 Colombia Top Innovator of the Year in 2012, and one of Business Insider’s 2013 “Badass Immigrants in Tech.” Fifteen years ago, after… Read More

Immigration Policy Stifled the Athletic Ambitions of One of Florida’s Most Promising Tennis Players
Adrian Escarate was three years old when he arrived in Miami from Santiago, Chile with his parents and older brother. The family overstayed their tourist visas and never tried to establish permanent residency. This was in the 1990s when life was manageable for undocumented immigrants. Escarate’s parents were able to… Read More

Immigrants Have Made Important Economic and Civic Contributions to Arizona, Says Head of Promise Arizona
Petra Falcon knows about pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. She got her first job when she was just 12 years old, working in an underwear factory, after her father left and her mother suffered a stroke. Today, she is the executive director of Promise Arizona, an immigrant rights organization… Read More

Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s Gateways for Growth Challenge (March 28 – April 1)
This week, the Partnership and Welcoming America announced that twenty communities were selected for the Gateways for Growth Challenge, which invited communities across the United States to apply for research, technical assistance, and matching grants to support the development and implementation of multi-sector strategic plans for… Read More

Dr. Miriam Perez: Cleveland Clinic Depends on Immigrants to be World Leader in Medicine
Twenty-five years ago, Dr. Miriam Perez moved from her native Colombia to the United States to study neurosurgery. Then, 29 weeks after getting pregnant, she went into premature labor. “At that time, survival without real complications was unheard of,” she says. But after two months in intensive care, her son… Read More
Make a contribution
Make a direct impact on the lives of immigrants.
