Center for Immigration Studies

Center for Immigration Studies

Dreaming of Becoming a Lawyer — But How When You’re Not a Citizen in Your Own Country?

Dreaming of Becoming a Lawyer — But How When You’re Not a Citizen in Your Own Country?

Frida Islas Valdez, a sophomore at Wake Forest University, is keeping busy: She’s a leader in a social justice teaching program, a senator in the student government, and a peer leader trained to mentor students who’ve violated the school’s code of conduct. She plans to major in both… Read More

Chiquita Boss Goes ‘Undercover‘: Says Ag Industry ‘Would Go Into Chaos’ Without Foreign-Born Workers

Chiquita Boss Goes ‘Undercover‘: Says Ag Industry ‘Would Go Into Chaos’ Without Foreign-Born Workers

Fernando Aguirre grew up “on the lower side of middle class” in Mexico City, and when he first traveled to America on a study trip — funded with money he made selling Datsuns at his uncle’s car dealership — the only things he knew how to say in… Read More

This Immigrant is Bringing Billions in Investments and Tens of Thousands of Jobs to Michigan

This Immigrant is Bringing Billions in Investments and Tens of Thousands of Jobs to Michigan

There aren’t many people who can claim to have created as many jobs as Birgit Klohs, the German-born CEO of Grand Rapids economic development organization The Right Place. Since Klohs took the reins 29 years ago, The Right Place has brought $4.7 billion in new investment and created 40,000 new… Read More

Iraqi-American Doctor Who Blew Whistle on Flint Water Crisis Asks, What if I Hadn’t Been Here?

Iraqi-American Doctor Who Blew Whistle on Flint Water Crisis Asks, What if I Hadn’t Been Here?

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha rose to national fame after blowing the whistle on high blood-lead levels in the children of Flint, Michigan, where she’s a pediatrician and public health advocate. Now she’s supervising a team of 20 researchers and other staff as director of the city’s Pediatric Public Health Initiative, which… Read More

Immigration Policy Holding Back the Most Dynamic Industry in the Country, Says Top Venture Capitalist

Immigration Policy Holding Back the Most Dynamic Industry in the Country, Says Top Venture Capitalist

Venky Ganesan, an Indian immigrant and prominent venture capitalist, believes that open borders have made America great. As a managing partner at Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest VC funds, Ganesan has seen just how important immigrants have been to the American economy. “Between one-third and one-half of the companies… Read More

The Bible Does Not Waver, says Reverend: We Must Welcome the Stranger

The Bible Does Not Waver, says Reverend: We Must Welcome the Stranger

When Rev. Jennifer Crumpton began attending Union Theological Seminary, in New York City, she also began working as a community minister at the nearby Judson Memorial Church, which partnered with an interfaith coalition offering sanctuary to people at risk of being deported. Coalition members “cared about the families, the personal… Read More

Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chairman Explains Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Help New Jersey Make $10 Billion Each Year

Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chairman Explains Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Help New Jersey Make $10 Billion Each Year

Last year, Carlos Medina, the president of Robinson Aerial Surveys and the chairman of the 2,500-member Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, was part of a trade delegation to Cuba. While there, he took the opportunity to stroll along the Havana waterfront, and see the house, a stone’s… Read More

Latina Entrepreneur Says Immigrants Play an Important Role Filling STEM Positions

Latina Entrepreneur Says Immigrants Play an Important Role Filling STEM Positions

Laura Sanchez, one of a tiny number of Latinas who own IT companies in the Chicago area, is proud to be a link between Chicago’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and Hispanic communities. Sanchez was born in Mexico got her degree from Tec de Monterrey, a school she… Read More

To Avoid Labor Shortage, Economic Expert Recommends Immigration Reform

To Avoid Labor Shortage, Economic Expert Recommends Immigration Reform

As president and CEO of economic research and analysis firm The Perryman Group, Dr. Ray Perryman has spent the past 40 years researching what makes the American economy tick. And one thing our economy depends upon is immigration. “The numbers are overwhelming,” Perryman says of the nation’s need for immigrants,… Read More

CEO of Mavin Global says Immigration System Makes U.S. Firms Less Competitive

CEO of Mavin Global says Immigration System Makes U.S. Firms Less Competitive

Sai Naik’s father came to America from Mumbai in the 1960s with little more than the few cents in his pocket and an abiding love of Elvis Presley. Over the decades that followed, he earned a PhD in materials engineering, held a series of well-paid jobs, and went on to… Read More

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