Center for Immigration Studies
Immigration Reform is a Fight for Human Rights Says Northern Arizona University Student
To Northern Arizona University student Miché Lozano, 23, both the LGBTQ community and the immigrant community have something in common: a fight for respect and human rights. To Lozano, immigration reform would help protect a vulnerable population, including those immigrants who also identify as LGBTQ. One of Lozano’s… Read More
Benedictine Monk and College Professor Makes the Personal and Religious Case for Immigration Reform
To Christians, providing hospitality and loving one’s neighbor are moral imperatives. For Benedictine monk and college professor Brother Simon-Hòa Phan, such ideals have obvious extensions into U.S. immigration policy. In 1975, Brother Simon, now 52, fled Vietnam with his Catholic parents and six siblings, escaping from the rooftop of the… Read More
Without Immigrant Doctors, This Small Town Would Have Almost No Access to Physicians
It’s a rare day that Dr. Emmanuel Barias isn’t asked medical questions when he’s out and about town. “Dr. Manny!” is a constant refrain, the melody that accompanies his life in his adopted Oklahoma town. While eating at a cafe, a woman tells him she’s lost weight and asks… Read More
Current Visa Programs are Little Help to this Montana Farmer
Don Steinbeisser, Jr. knows the challenges involved in running a business in Sidney, Montana—a small, windswept town on the state’s western border. “I live in a black hole,” says Steinbeisser, who runs a 9,500-acre farm that has been in his family for four generations. “Sidney is one of the farthest… Read More
How One Iraqi Refugee is Giving Back to His Newly Adopted American Home
Amer Alfayadh’s life in Iraq was one of privilege. He was educated at the finest schools in Baghdad and earned a degree in engineering. However, in the midst of conflict and war, finding a job proved to be difficult. “There were not many places that I could work because there… Read More
Immigration Policy Creates Headaches for one of Virginia’s Most Successful Grounds Management Firms
Maria Candler has a college degree in parks, recreation, and tourism—not in business. But at age 22, she took “a temp job” at a small landscaping company near her Virginia home that changed her course. “My job was to answer the phone in the morning, and if need… Read More
Thousands Naturalized on Independence Day
Every Fourth of July, historic sites like The New York Public Library, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, and the USS Midway in San Diego play host to thousands of newly naturalized citizens. A judge presides over the swearing of the Oath of Allegiance. And on our nation’s birthday,… Read More
Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s immigration news (June 27- July 1)
As the Fourth of July weekend begins, we celebrate an inspiring group of famous naturalized citizens who have been honored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as the “Pride of America.” Honorees include Hari Sreenivasan, anchor and senior Correspondent for PBS NewsHour; Wolfgang Puck, chef and restaurateur; Sundar Pichai,… Read More
Reverend Says Immigration Saved Kansas City Neighborhood from “a Slow Death”
Rev. Rick Behrens was born in the Central Avenue neighborhood of Kansas City, a few blocks from Grandview Park Presbyterian, the church where he began seminary training in 1982, and where he now serves as pastor. “It’s the only church I’ve served my whole career — I’m a one place… Read More
When This Hospital Needed More Doctors, An Indian-Born Cardiologist Stepped Up to Help
Dr. Ashu Dhanjal, an invasive cardiologist originally from India, is one of the several foreign-born doctors that in recent years have become an important part of the healthcare infrastructure in mountainous, rural West Virginia. When Dhanjal arrived in 2013, the Logan Regional Medical Center, where she was based, had… Read More
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