Stories

Patricia Serrano’s Son Just Graduated from Williams College, But She Couldn’t Attend the Ceremony
As an undocumented immigrant who came to southern California from Mexico 22 years ago, Patricia Serrano has achieved part of the American dream: She raised a son who recently graduated from prestigious Williams College in western Massachusetts. However, she could not fly cross-country to see him receive his diploma, because… Read More

With Investors Wary of Non-Citizen Founders, Two Immigrants Launch Multimillion Dollar Startup With Credit Cards
Marcela Henao’s company, LeapFactor, helps corporations increase efficiency and revenue and boasts clients such as L’Oreal, Bayer, JPMorgan Chase, and Avon. The Colombian immigrant, who manages a team of tech professionals across Latin America from her company’s base in Miami, has been successful from the start. By 2014, just four… Read More

International Students Are U.S. Business’ Best Hope For Growth
This week, as anti-immigrant rhetoric continues to permeate the national debate, hundreds of thousands of international students will say goodbye to the United States to return, degrees in hand, to their home countries. Far from being a drain on the American economy or threat to U.S. jobs, these talented graduates—disproportionately… Read More

Immigrant Families Keep a Small Town’s Church — and its Manufacturing Base — Alive
For 20 years, leaders of the predominantly white Trinity United Methodist Church in Dalton, Georgia, had had little luck attracting congregants from the town’s growing immigrant community. Today, that’s changing. A few Hispanic families have now helped the church earn a significant level of trust among the Latino community, says… Read More

Assistant Public Defender for Prince George’s County Knows First-hand the Difficulties Many Immigrants Face
After growing up in the United States as the daughter of two undocumented immigrants, Llamilet Gutierrez decided to dedicate her career to protecting the rights of immigrants by becoming an assistant public defender for Maryland’s Prince George’s County. Yet current deportation fears have made life harder than ever… Read More

Knoxville NGO Director Sees First-Hand How Immigrants are Benefiting Her Community
Whenever Tiffani Mensch goes to her favorite falafel shop in downtown Knoxville, there is always a line. The popular shop opened recently after its owner, a Syrian refugee named Yassin, moved to the area to escape the war. To Mensch, Yassin represents “how immigrants can revitalize communities with their diverse… Read More

Mexican Tax Lawyer Says a Path to Legal Status Would Allow Her to Pay More Into the U.S. Economy
After Maribel Solache’s neighbor was kidnapped in Mexico City more than a decade ago, Solache and her husband took their young children to the United States on a tourist visa. Too fearful to return, the family remained in the northern San Diego suburb of San Marcos. Yet they live in… Read More

Oceanside Chamber of Commerce Official Says Immigration Reform Will Help the Local Economy
As the first ever Latino outreach coordinator for the Chamber of Commerce in Oceanside, California, Laura Ojeda is a testament to the Hispanic community’s rising economic power. The chamber created the position to provide a bridge to the Hispanic community, which makes up nearly 36 percent of the… Read More

Despite the Challenges Posed by the Immigration System, Georgia Tech Professor Helps Dozens of Start-ups Take Flight
Back in his native country of India, Dr. Raghupathy Sivakumar says he always dreamed of working for Microsoft or Oracle. “But here,” he says of the United States, “I fell in love with academia.” Dr. Sivakumar, who goes by Siva, did his undergraduate studies in computer science in Chennai,… Read More

This Family Came to Down East Maine as Migrant Workers, but Left their Mark as Entrepreneurs
When Juana Rodriguez Vazquez moved to the United States at age four, her father was already something of a go-getter. For years, he’d been spending time in the United States—traveling from state to state as a migrant laborer, following the blueberries and oranges that were ripening in the fields. By… Read More
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