Stories
South Carolina Community Would Be Ghost Town Without Immigrants, Says Businessman
Saluda businessman Hector Ortiz knows exactly what would happen if the town’s foreign-born population was deported or left out of fear. “Without the immigrants to work at the poultry plants, this would become a ghost town,” he says. Ortiz, who runs an insurance company in the town of 3,500, points to… Read More
Immigrants Ready, Able, and Needed on Wisconsin Dairy Farms
Mar-Bec Dairy has 900 dairy cows and grows feed on 1,800 acres. To keep the operation running, owner Marty Hallock depends on immigrants: 9 of his 17 full-time employees are from Mexico. “These people are committed to dairy farming,” he says, “and absolutely vital to my operation.” Without these steady… Read More
Award-Winning Dairy Farmer Depends on Immigrant Workforce
With 430 milk cows, Mitch Breunig’s family farm, Mystic Valley Dairy, in Sauk City, Wisconsin, is a large operation. The round-the-clock job of caring for the animals is done by the farm’s eight full-time employees, seven of whom are immigrants from Latin America. “They come to Wisconsin for the opportunity… Read More
Head of Hispanic Leadership Council Makes Economic Case for Reform
Greg Torrales first moved to South Carolina in 2007 to work as a translator and help immigrants navigate the healthcare industry. Today he is the director of the South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council (SCHLC), which provides social services for the state’s Hispanic residents. “Before I moved to South Carolina, I… Read More
Once an Undocumented Child, Now He Educates Virginia’s Youth
Sal Romero Jr. came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico when he was 13 years old. Today, he is a citizen and serves on the Virginia Board of Education and as the first-ever Coordinator of Family and Community Engagement for Harrisonburg City Public Schools. It is… Read More
A Stowaway’s Son Uses Business Acumen to Help New Jersey Elders
Dominican immigrant Jose Brito Bueno grew up in poverty but now runs WeCare, a domestic-care company with 213 employees. When he was just 10 years old, his father — leaving their home in Santo Domingo — stowed away in a cargo ship bound for the United States. He hid in… Read More
Immigration Policy Doesn’t Succeed When Politically Driven, Says Tennessee Lawyer
Casey Bryant grew up in Springdale, Arkansas, home to the largest population of Marshallese people in the continental United States. Most Americans probably aren’t familiar with these Pacific Islanders, but 4,300 of them live in Bryant’s landlocked hometown. “The Marshall Islands were subject to thermonuclear experiments in the ‘40s and… Read More
Immigrants Welcomed to Community and Give Back to Community, Says Kentucky Faith Leader
The immigrant community in Henderson is small, but it is growing faster than any other group. The county’s Hispanic and Latino community, for example, increased by 0.5 percentage points between 2010 and 2016, according to the United States Census Bureau. That might not sound like a lot… Read More
Undocumented Peruvian Works, Fuels Economy, and Lives in Fear
When Peruvian native Lisette — she asked not to use her last name — first arrived in North Carolina as an undocumented immigrant in 2001, she and her family had no trouble building a productive life in this country. The state was in the middle of a construction boom, and… Read More
Family’s 136-Year-Old Landscaping Business Depends on Immigrants
Hispanic immigrants make up roughly half of the workforce at Peter Scarff’s family nursery and landscaping business in New Carlisle, Ohio. Without immigrant labor, the agriculture and service industries in the United States would collapse, Scarff says. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s manual work or operating equipment, it is difficult… Read More
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