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Welcoming Interactive 2025: Lessons from Detroit and the Power of Local Leadership
In May, I attended Welcoming America’s Welcoming Interactive conference in Detroit, where over 900 leaders gathered to explore what it takes to build communities where everyone feels they belong. Set in a city shaped by industrial booms, disinvestment, and powerful local activism, the conference was an opportunity to share insights and reflect on how truly […]
Read MoreTrump’s ‘Grant and Deport’ Policy Could Lead to More Cases Like Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Jessica, a client of one of the Immigration Justice Campaign’s volunteer attorneys, was fully prepared to prove to an immigration judge that she’d be persecuted if she returned to Ecuador. After all, she’d fled to the U.S. after testifying in open court against a criminal group — who had murdered both her husband and the […]
Read MoreAsylum Seekers Challenge Trump’s Asylum Shutdown Policy
People fleeing persecution and torture in their home countries have joined immigrant rights organizations to challenge the Trump administration’s unlawful shutdown of asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Read MoreKenyan Immigrant Helps Other Newcomers Settle into Baltimore County
As a student activist in Kenya in the 1980s, Thomas Mwaura spoke out against the authoritarian government—only to be accused of sedition, wrongfully arrested, expelled from his university, and left unable to find work. With the help of the American Embassy, he was able to get a student visa and came to America in 1991 […]
Read MoreNepali Immigrant Established a Café in Baltimore County
Narayan Khakurel grew up in a farming community in rural Nepal, where his family raised cattle and crops like tobacco and sugarcane. He never felt particularly deprived but, looking back, he recalls walking to school barefoot and not being able to afford a book bag. Today, though, Khakurel is a college graduate and the owner […]
Read MoreEgyptian Immigrant is an Advocate in Baltimore County
When Noureen Badwi was two, her family immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt under her mother’s scholar visa. Her mother, who was the valedictorian of a 12,000 person class at Cairo University and later became a professor in the U.S., worked tirelessly so that Badwi and her twin brother could have greater opportunities. Badwi, still […]
Read MoreMexican Immigrant Family Shares Success Across Allen County
Flora Barrón had a comfortable childhood in Northern Mexico, attended college, and worked as an administrative assistant before marrying a successful rural veterinarian. But when an economic downturn pushed local farmers into bankruptcy, her husband’s business struggled. “That’s when we came to America,” she explains. “Our plan was to come here and work for two […]
Read MoreBurmese Immigant Helps Make Allen County Welcoming for All
So Min Oo remembers the day in January 1977 when the Burmese government bombed his family’s village. “It stays in my nightmares — the gunfire, the people screaming,” he recalls. He was 11. His parents and three siblings spent the next several months fleeing on foot to Thailand, where they built the refugee camp that […]
Read MoreMexican Immigrant Ignites Entrepreneurial Spirit in Allen County
In 1991, when Aaron Robles was just a few months old, his parents crossed the border from Juárez, Mexico, and headed north. They landed in Fort Wayne and found work in construction and manufacturing. Robles didn’t learn English until he entered kindergarten, but with the school system’s ESL instruction, he was soon translating for his […]
Read MoreArgentinian Immigrant Helps Make Kent County Welcoming for All
When Natalia Kovicak moved from Argentina to Spring Lake, Michigan, at age 25, she quickly realized the challenges of starting a new career as an immigrant. It didn’t matter that she had a resume that included a good job with Coca-Cola in Buenos Aires and her own event-planning company. Kovicak lacked a network. Without strong […]
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