Stories
Immigrants are the ‘Motor That Keeps This Community Going,’ Says Dodge City Finance Official
Ernestor is an undocumented immigrant — but also the Interim Human Resource Director and Assistant to the City Manager of Dodge City, where he helps oversee a $51.7 million budget, support local businesses, and coordinate with state and federal officials to advocate for city residents. “It’s very sad that someone… Read More
Conservative Texan Opens His Ranch to Kids Who Crossed the Border Alone
Walker family on the ranch. Ed Walker is a longtime political conservative and the owner-operator of Sabine Creek Ranch, a youth retreat center in Royse City, Texas. The ranch has hosted hundreds of children for church and school camps since 2003. But in 2015, it welcomed a new group: It… Read More
Immigrants Revitalize an Historically Dangerous Neighborhood in Pennsylvania’s Capital
For two decades, Maria Alejandra Hernandez and her family have attended St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, because it provides the only weekly mass in Spanish. The towering brick cathedral is situated in the historically dangerous Allison Hill, but as immigrants have steadily flocked to… Read More
Immigrants and Labor Unions are ‘Natural Allies,’ According to Cornell Union Leadership Institute Co-Director
Patricia Campos-Medina spoke barely a word of English when she arrived from El Salvador at the age of 14—but within four years, she had won a full scholarship to Cornell, where, after stints as the assistant national political director for the Service Employees International Union, director for the New Jersey State… Read More
Nashville Councilman Recounts His Immigrant Past and Shows Just How Much Determination Can Make a Difference
It was a fire in his house that finally convinced Fabian Bedne, now a Nashville councilman and part-owner of an architectural firm that generates up to a quarter of a million dollars in annual business, to become a U.S. citizen. Afterward, he says, “everyone in the community was so… Read More
Immigrants Rebuild a City Then Bear Stigma of Being ‘Undocumented‘ — Louisianan Asks: Is This Right?
This Louisiana Immigration Attorney Has Seen First-Hand the Contributions Immigrants Make to Local Communities In Need After flooding ravaged New Orleans in the summer of 2016, Miriam Crespo’s phone started ringing more than usual, just as it had after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. “It was such… Read More
Cherry Farm’s Ad for American Workers Fails to Get a Single Reply
In the 19th century, Steve Bardenhagen’s great-great-grandfather emigrated from Germany, fought in the Civil War, and was rewarded with the land in northern Michigan that his descendants still farm today. Bardenhagen Berries is now a thriving 180-acre cherry and strawberry farm, with revenues of around $400,000 a year—but Bardenhagen, who… Read More
Migrant Workers Keep New Jersey’s Blueberry Farms Local
New Jersey’s blueberry crop is worth $79.5 million a year, making it far and away the state’s most lucrative crop — and it is immigrants who help farmers to bring in the harvest, says Dory Dickson, director of the nonprofit group Migrant Worker Outreach. Although some farmers use mechanical harvesting… Read More
People Underestimate How Much Immigrants Contribute, Says Advocate
For Sarai Portillo, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), immigration reform is not only pertinent to our nation’s economic prosperity, it’s also a matter of public safety. When the state’s undocumented population feels high anxiety and stress, and lives in a constant state of fear of… Read More
‘Everyone Immigrated from Somewhere,‘ Says Pennsylvania Entrepreneur, ‘That’s the Beauty of America’
Jorge Estevez says rural Pennsylvanians are eager for quality homestyle international cuisine, so last year the Cuban-American general manager of Ichiban Hibachi and Ichiban Oriental unveiled Everybody’s Buffet, serving Asian and American cuisine in the small town of Stroudsburg, in the Pennsylvania Poconos. The three restaurants are worth about $6… Read More
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