Stories

Stories

Chicago Tribune Commentary: I helped refugees in Iraq. Now I’m a refugee working in the U.S.

Chicago Tribune Commentary: I helped refugees in Iraq. Now I’m a refugee working in the U.S.

As an aid worker in Iraq, I worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations to help Syrian refugees fleeing the Islamic State. Now, I’m an immigrant myself, building a new life in Chicago and contributing to my new home as an administrator at a… Read More

Greensboro News & Record: Save TPS, and keep North Carolina families together

Greensboro News & Record: Save TPS, and keep North Carolina families together

As the summer begins, most freshmen at Wake Technical Community College are happily looking forward to home-cooked meals and time with their families. For me, though, the vacation will be anything but carefree. My parents are immigrants, and while they’ve played by the rules since coming here more than… Read More

Des Moines Register: Iowa’s leaders are putting jobs before politics

Des Moines Register: Iowa’s leaders are putting jobs before politics

A fresh class full of bright young engineers, agronomists, plant scientists and other budding technologists just graduated from Iowa State University of Science and Technology. These are the young men and women who will fuel our innovation economy and keep farms and other businesses booming in central Iowa, and… Read More

The Advocate Guest column: Lawmakers should support American Dreamers

The Advocate Guest column: Lawmakers should support American Dreamers

As a researcher and educator who studies migration, I’ve interviewed many young adults who were brought to the United States as undocumented children. I can tell you that these hardworking and resilient young people, often known as Dreamers, deeply love this country and are eager to realize their God-given… Read More

Tampa Bay Times Column: U.S. House should pass Dream and Promise Act

Tampa Bay Times Column: U.S. House should pass Dream and Promise Act

Eight years ago, I was living every college graduate’s nightmare: After spending so much time and money studying health science at Hillsborough Community College, I was stuck making minimum wage as a manager at a local shoe store. As an undocumented immigrant without a work permit, I didn’t have… Read More

60 Chambers of Commerce Call on Congress to Protect DACA and TPS

60 Chambers of Commerce Call on Congress to Protect DACA and TPS

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, and Leader Schumer: As business leaders representing our nation’s most important industries and regional economies, we are committed to promoting economic growth and job creation for all Americans. From manufacturing to agriculture, and from Main Street to Fortune 500 companies, the United States… Read More

Press-Republican In My Opinion: Let international students stay

Press-Republican In My Opinion: Let international students stay

On Saturday, as I watched my friends and classmates walk across the stage to accept their hard-earned diplomas at SUNY Plattsburgh’s commencement ceremony, I couldn’t help but imagine myself dressed in the same cap and gown next year. That’s when I’m expected to graduate with my master’s degree… Read More

New Report Shows Immigrants in Roanoke Contributed Over $75 Million in Taxes in 2017

New Report Shows Immigrants in Roanoke Contributed Over $75 Million in Taxes in 2017

Roanoke, VA – Immigrant households earned nearly $304 million and contributed over $75 million in taxes in 2017, according to new research by New American Economy (NAE) in partnership with the City of Roanoke and Local Colors, a non-profit that celebrates the city’s… Read More

Roanoke Workforce Benefits from a Local Immigrant’s Translation Business

Roanoke Workforce Benefits from a Local Immigrant’s Translation Business

Elda Stanco-Downey’s family comes from a long line of immigrants: her great-grandparents immigrated to the United States; her grandfather immigrated to Italy; and her father immigrated to Venezuela, where she grew up speaking three languages. She completed the circle, moving to the United States to earn bachelor’s, master’s,… Read More

Richmond Times-Dispatch Opinion: Luis Angel Aguilar column: Fighting to stay out of the shadows

Richmond Times-Dispatch Opinion: Luis Angel Aguilar column: Fighting to stay out of the shadows

Since I was 15 years old, I’ve always felt anxious about looking for a job. I worried an employer might discover I was an undocumented immigrant. For nearly a decade, I managed to slide under the radar and take whatever jobs I could get in construction, restaurants and hotel… Read More

All gifts are matched dollar for dollar

No one should face the immigration system alone

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