Stories
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
A Georgia Farmer’s Not So Peachy Ordeal with the Immigration System
Lawton Pearson is a fifth-generation Georgia peach farmer. Even though he left rural Fort Valley, GA to attend college and law school, he couldn’t give up the farming way of life and soon returned. He’s attracted to the high-risk, high-reward stakes of owning his own business. Plus, he loves the… Read More
When a Typo Can Derail a Green Card Application, Reform is Long Overdue
When Darrell Fun was serving in the Air Force JAG Corps in Korea, his fellow airmen would come to the lawyer for advice about marrying people they’d met while serving overseas. At the time, Fun says, “high-school-educated kids could do the paperwork themselves for their own marriage.” But times have… Read More
This Immigration Attorney Says Law-Abiding Undocumented Immigrants Should Have the Chance to Fulfill Their Dreams
When Morella Aguado came to the United States in 1983 from Nicaragua, it was by necessity. She was five months old, and her family was fleeing the Sandanista regime because her uncle was a political prisoner. Life was hard in her new country. Though she received a green card, her… Read More
Why One Professor Is Teaching Her Students About the Need for Immigration Reform
Anna Ochoa O’Leary, assistant professor of Mexican-American Studies at the University of Arizona, teaches her students about how migration is changing American communities. Her syllabi always include a disclaimer that the class will discuss hot-button topics like race and undocumented immigrants. “I’m not blind to the fact that immigration is… Read More
Third-Generation Georgia Farmer Says The Health of the Agriculture Industry Depends on Immigration Reform
Gerald Long is a third-generation Georgia farmer who has come up with a unique solution to the challenge of finding enough workers to harvest his vegetable crops: About 30 years ago, he started inviting the public to pick his red Irish potatoes, squash and snap beans at his farm. For… Read More
Immigration Policy Standing in Way of Important Construction Work at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
In early 2016, Chasco Constructors was bidding on a construction job at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. It was a big job for the Round Rock, Texas company, and a big opportunity—one that would require about 60 workers with clear background checks and good immigration status. “We just knew that was… Read More
A ‘Most Influential’ Atlantan Says She is a Testament to What Immigrants Can Achieve When They Feel Wanted
Shortly after Lucia Jennings arrived in Valdosta, Georgia, from Rio de Janeiro to attend nursing school in 1975, someone from the local chamber of commerce knocked on her apartment door with a care package of maps, directories and a guide to the area’s best doctors. “I will never forget that,”… Read More
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