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Foreign-Born Residents Contributed $3.3 Billion to Kent County GDP in 2016
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Immigrants in Kent County contributed $3.3 billion to the county’s GDP in 2016 and paid $214 million in federal taxes and $102 million in state and local taxes, according to a new report by New American Economy (NAE), in partnership with Samaritas, the City of Grand Rapids, the Grand Rapids Chamber, […]
Read MoreNew Americans in Kent County
A new report from NAE shows that immigrants in Kent County contributed $3.3 billion to the county’s GDP in 2016 and paid $214 million in federal taxes and $102 million in state and local taxes. The report, New Americans in Kent County, was prepared in partnership with Samaritas, the City of Grand Rapids, the Grand […]
Read MoreEntrepreneur from Argentina Helps Keep Jobs in Michigan
Natalia Kovicak was 22 when she met her future husband on a beach in Mexico. She had a bachelor’s degree in human resources and public relations from the University of Palermo and a good job with the Coca-Cola company in Buenos Aires. She had also launched her own event-planning business. “I was not looking to […]
Read MoreGrocery Business Started by Indian Immigrants Thrives in Grand Rapids
When Sonal and Ramesh Patel built a house in Cascade, in southeast Grand Rapids, in 2011, they quickly noticed something missing: an Asian grocer on that side of town. The couple, from a small town in Gujarat, in western India, had been in West Michigan since 2004, when Ramesh was hired by a rural clinic […]
Read MoreFor $182 Million a Year, the Military Is Being Used at the Border to Shovel Manure and Conduct Other Menial Labor
The Pentagon recently announced that up to 4,000 National Guard troops will remain deployed on the U.S.-Mexico border through September 2019, following a 12-month extension authorized by Defense Secretary James Mattis. But the nature of the military service members’ work at the border—which is mostly menial labor—will still cost millions. The original deployment order, set […]
Read MoreTrump Administration Proposes Regulations in ‘Flores’ to Detain Migrant Children Longer in Unsafe Conditions
The Trump administration is proposing new regulations to indefinitely detain immigrant children at the border and keep them in unsafe conditions, creating a false choice between separating families or detaining children indefinitely. This misguided effort would continue the administration’s pattern of inflicting needless suffering on asylum-seeking children. The Flores Settlement Agreement (“Flores”) is a decades-old […]
Read MoreImmigrant to Denver Founds Dragon Boat Festival that Attracts 120,000 Attendees Annually
When Taiwanese Chinese immigrant Ding-Wen Hsu followed her engineer husband from Iowa to Denver after he received a job offer as a hydrologist, she admired the abundant Colorado sunshine and the beautiful Rocky Mountain landscape. But it was the welcoming attitude of Denverites that inspired her to stay for 40 years. “I’ve never felt like […]
Read MoreCourt Allows Lawsuit Challenging CBP’s Practice of Turning Away Asylum Seekers to Proceed
In a blow to the Trump administration, a federal court in California recently allowed a class action lawsuit to move forward challenging U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) practice of turning away asylum seekers at the border. The lawsuit, Al Otro Lado v. Nielsen, was brought in 2017 by six individual asylum seekers and the […]
Read MoreLouisville-Based College President Applauds City’s Commitment to Diversity, International Students
Only 750 of the 12,000 students at Louisville’s Jefferson Community and Technical College are foreign-born, but college president Dr. Ty Handy calls them an inspiration. “Our international student population is absolutely an example to our other students,” he says. “Their retention rates, GPA exceed our institutional averages. They know what the American Dream is and […]
Read MoreJohn McCain’s Legacy on Immigration
The United States Senate and Republican Party lost one of their biggest champions for bipartisan immigration reform and most vocal critics of President Trump’s immigration policies when Senator John S. McCain III (R-AZ) passed away at the age of 81 last week. While McCain will largely be remembered for his 32-year career in the Senate […]
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