Stories
DACA Recipient Wants to Give Her All to Only Country She Knows
In 2012, when Liz Cortez finally got her work permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows undocumented immigrants brought to the country as young children to legally live and work in the United States, she treated the paper like a massive engagement ring. “I was obsessed… Read More
Immigrants are ‘Our Colleagues, Our Employees’ Says Advocate
Maria Teresa Borden, a journalist-turned-communications professional, was born in the United States, but she has an intimate understanding of the reasons people leave their native countries to start new lives. Her parents were refugees who fled Cuba after the revolution. And in Texas, where she lived from the age of… Read More
After Fleeing Pinochet, Family Endures the Long Wait of U.S. Policy
Though born in Connecticut, successful entrepreneur and videographer Max Moraga has experienced xenophobia and the consequences of U.S. immigration policy firsthand. As a child, the first-generation Chilean-American was targeted for his Hispanic heritage. He was walking past the supermarket in his largely white, rural Connecticut town one day, when a… Read More
The Son of an Undocumented Immigrant Is Keeping Your Data Safe
Millions of people and thousands of corporations who use cloud storage and software powered by Dell don’t know it, but the son of an undocumented immigrant is keeping their data safe. His name is Carlos Phoenix, and he’s the global cyber strategist for a Dell subsidiary called VMware. “Our software powers a… Read More
Immigrants Want the Opportunity to Work for Their Families, Texas Judge Says
Armando Rodriguez, a Mexican-American from Houston’s rough-and-tumble Fifth Ward, has had a career marked by many firsts. He was the first person in his family to become a lawyer — though all of his siblings graduated from college. And after being elected in 1974 as a justice of the peace… Read More
Greenville, South Carolina, Chamber Lobbies Congress to Let Dreamers Stay
Carlos Phillips, CEO of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, says most of his chamber’s 2,200 businesses support federal action to protect Dreamers, the young people eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). These undocumented immigrants — brought to the country as children, raised and educated here — are an… Read More
Iraq War Vet: Immigrants Critical to Fargo’s Growth
Around the 2016 presidential election, when some politicians in North Dakota introduced anti-immigration bills, the Fargo City Council and local business community pushed back. The reason: The city’s economic health depends on new Americans. “We have between 5,000 and 8,000 open jobs in Fargo-Moorhead, and we can’t honestly afford to… Read More
Ecuadoran Businessman Helps New Americans Prosper in Northern California
As executive director of Canal Alliance, a nonprofit in San Rafael, California, Omar Carrera leads work that helps some 5,000 new Americans a year successfully integrate into their new country. “We can save lives because we can break the cycle of poverty, one family at a time,” says Carrera. who… Read More
Immigrant Soldiers ‘Motivated by American ideals,’ Says U.S. Vet
Serving in a U.S. Army intelligence unit in 1990s South Korea, Stephanie Izaguirre learned what it meant to be an outsider. “It is a beautiful culture, but I had to give up everything I knew to experience this whole other part of life,” she says. “That opened my eyes about… Read More
Mexican Wife’s Rocky Road to Citizenship an ‘Eye-Opener’
“You should see my wife on the Fourth of July, decked out in red, white, and blue,” says Scott Rickles, a Georgia native and the co-owner of a successful language school in Carroll County. “She’s extremely patriotic and loves this country to her core.” His wife, Rocio, was an Assemblies… Read More
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