Stories
This Family Came to Down East Maine as Migrant Workers, but Left their Mark as Entrepreneurs
When Juana Rodriguez Vazquez moved to the United States at age four, her father was already something of a go-getter. For years, he’d been spending time in the United States—traveling from state to state as a migrant laborer, following the blueberries and oranges that were ripening in the fields. By… Read More
Weekend Reading: Highlights from this week’s immigration news (July 4-8)
Just about every day in towns and cities across America, immigrants are becoming naturalized citizens. But what is it like to pledge allegiance to America and become a U.S. citizen on July 4, our nation’s birthday? Vice’s Serena Solomon writes about the unique experience here. This week in… Read More
“When You’re Talking about Workforce Strategies, You Have to Talk About Immigrants”
Denise Reid understands how crucial immigrants are to growing a community’s workforce and economy. As executive director of Mosaic & Workforce at Tulsa Regional Chamber in Oklahoma’s 1st Congressional District Chamber, an organization with over 3,000 members and an MSA of roughly one million, it is her job to develop… Read More
Immigrant Entrepreneur Says Immigration Reform Will Keep U.S. Businesses Competitive
Fernando Gaxiola is a San Diego-based Mexican wine importer and travel entrepreneur working hard to change Americans’ cultural impressions of Mexico. Several times a month, his company Baja Wine + Food offers trips to the Valle de Guadalupe about an hour south of the California border to explore the region’s… Read More
Immigration Lawyer Sees How Immigrants Boost New Orleans’ Economy
As acting director of the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic & Center for Social Justice at Loyola University College of Law in Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District, Ramona Fernandez oversees between 400 and 500 cases at a time. Roughly 40 percent of those are part of the clinic’s immigration law branch,… Read More
Administrator at Public University Sees Firsthand the Limited Options Available to International Students After Graduation
Richard Porter spends his days with some of the brightest, most ambitious minds in the nation. As an administrator over International Student and Scholar Service offices at several large public universities over the past Porter works to help international scholars excel in their studies and, upon graduation, look for work. Read More
“Talent Does Not Have a Zip Code” Says Mobile Advocacy App Founder
When Ximena Hartsock first began looking for a solution to the lack of digital grassroots tools for advocacy in late 2012, she quickly learned she was up against some major obstacles. She was a Latina woman, with no entrepreneurial or tech experience, in a room full of skeptics. Hartsock was… Read More
From Experience, Doctoral Student Knows More Immigrants Would Love the Chance to Study, Work, Pay Taxes
When Mariana Ocampo was growing up in Texas, she and her siblings longed for part-time jobs similar to the ones their teenage friends held. They wanted to work, they wanted to spend their earnings, and they wanted to contribute to their family. But since Ocampo and her siblings… Read More
First-Generation American Chef Says the Restaurant Industry Depends on Immigrants
Chef James Montejano has worked in some of the best restaurants in San Francisco and San Diego and knows that their success depends on talented trained kitchen staff performing daily miracles. Yet as the restaurant business continues to boom, chefs and restaurant owners are scrambling to find and retain the… Read More
A Former Undocumented Immigrant is Behind One of Kansas City’s Most Popular Youth Soccer Facilities
Raul Villegas had been living in America as an undocumented immigrant for more than 20 years when he decided to build an indoor soccer facility in Kansas City, Kansas. That was in 2013, long before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, removed the threat of deportation for… Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
