Stories
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
Travel Site Founder: America Must Remain Place People ‘Aspire to Come to’
For Ahmed Bhuiyan, starting YourTripGuru, an online travel-planning site, was just the latest of his adventures since moving to the Bronx from Bangladesh at the age of 8. The startup also makes him part of a proud tradition of U.S. immigrants. In the United States, immigrants are… Read More
Syrian-born Cardiologist Practices Where American Doctors Are Most Needed
Altoona, Pennsylvania, has a lot to recommend it: a small-town feel, a beautiful rural landscape and friendly people. But there is one thing that Altoona is missing: doctors. “There is a very high demand for doctors here,” says Dr. Ziad Khoury, a Syrian-born cardiologist who has lived in the area… Read More
Venezuelan Drives Business Growth in Rural Indiana
Had it not been for a dramatic kidnapping, Daniela Vidal might never have left Venezuela. A trained chemical engineer, she had a good job in product development for Procter & Gamble. But when her fiancé was taken by guerrillas during a fishing trip on the Colombian border and held in… Read More
DACA Pre-Med Student ‘One of the People Who Makes America Great’
Maria’s mother never finished high school in Mexico. Instead, after having Maria at age 16, she and Maria’s father crossed the border into the United States. “They decided the best thing would be to come here and look for a better life,” says Maria, who has lived in Fort Wayne,… Read More
Think Policy Not Politics for Smart Immigration Reform, Says Professor
University of Houston political science professor Jeronimo Cortina is very optimistic about the future of race relations in this country — an outlook he says was inspired by his students. “Everyone sees themselves as equals,” says Cortina, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 2001. “They are used… Read More
From Boxcar to Law School, Refugee Pays His Second Chance Forward
After Luis Canales, a Honduran refugee, won his political asylum case in 2010, the court asked him what he intended to do with his life. He said he wanted to become a lawyer. Today, as a third-year law student at Villanova University -Charles Widger School of Law, he’s well… Read More
Activist Supports ‘Dreamers‘ — ‘Dreamers’ Support Economy
Sonny Garcia’s single mother was born in South Texas, but she spent years working as a migrant laborer to support her family. “There are a lot of undocumented people in that space,” Garcia says, whose own father was undocumented. “I grew up learning about what that meant, hearing stories about… Read More
New Jersey Town Re-elects — and Re-elects and Re-elects — its Muslim Immigrant Mayor
When Mohamed Khairullah arrived in America at age 16, he had to carry around an Arabic-English dictionary to figure out what his teachers and classmates were saying. Today Khairullah is the mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, a township with 5,600 residents and a $4.5 million budget. “My work ethic… Read More
Ohio Town Welcomes Immigrants — for its Economic Wellbeing
Bruce Jeffers, a Bowling Green City Council member, knows that the factories and farms in his community — and in several surrounding counties — are facing a labor shortage. But one demographic is helping to revive places struggling with a declining and aging population: “Immigrants bring value to our communities,”… Read More
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