Immigration

December 11, 2012

My name is Lundy Khoy and I came with my parents, Sinath Khoy and Rasy Monh, to the United States on November 12, 1981. I was one year old. My entire family migrated to the United States after escaping the awful Pol Pot genocide in which over 2 million Cambodians were murdered. They found shelter...

MomsRising Together

Lundy Khoy

Immigration

December 10, 2012

Tearing families apart isn't in anyone's interest. We all know that. But according to a recent report by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), more than 46,000 parents of U.S. citizen children were removed from the U.S. between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2011. During the same period, ICE sought...

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Raul Grijalva

Immigration

December 10, 2012

In an 1869 speech in Boston, abolitionist Frederick Douglass challenged most social observers and politicians by advocating the acceptance of Chinese and Japanese immigrants into the United States. He said: There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional...

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Benjamin Jealous

Immigration

December 10, 2012

I'm reading Junot Diaz's new book and my head is swimming with images of Ana Iris, a Dominican mother of three who hasn't seen her children in seven years. In order to feed them, she's come to New York and works two jobs, one laundering bloody hospital sheets and the other filleting fish. Even...

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Ellen Bravo

Immigration

December 10, 2012

Maria Bolaños, a Salvadoran woman in Hyattsville, Maryland, called the police out of fear that her partner was going to hurt her. But instead of being protected by the police, she got turned over to immigration. She said, “I feel like I made a mistake calling the police when I was afraid, and worry...

MomsRising Together

Linda Meric

Immigration

December 10, 2012

Since the election the headlines have been all about immigration reform and the urgency for Congress to finally get serious about it. As someone who works on immigration policy, I’ve been excited about the momentum that is building. But more importantly, as an advocate for children and as a...

MomsRising Together

Wendy Cervantes

Immigration

December 10, 2012

I have lived in the United States for 30 years, but I have never forgotten my humble beginnings as an undocumented immigrant. My family and I lived our first years in the US with the fear of being sent back to El Salvador. “La Migra” was a consistent threat in our lives. My personal experience as...

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Rhina Ramos

Immigration

December 10, 2012

What would you do if you found out your daughter had a life-threatening illness -- and you had no way to pay for the treatment?   Would you pack up everything, cross a border, and move to a new country, if it meant the chance to work and earn enough to save her life?   I’m a mother and I would. In...

MomsRising Together

Shamasunder Reshma

Immigration

December 10, 2012

I wrote this piece for the Harvard Kennedy School newspaper , where I am a mid-career MPA student. Last year I took a break from community organizing after a heartbreaking loss of the DREAM Act in 2010. As I take this year to read and reflect, I can feel myself pulled back into the fight,...

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Marissa Graciosa

Immigration

December 10, 2012

As a lifelong human rights activist, I’ve never been afraid of controversy. But saying that immigrant women are good for our economy—good for our country —isn’t controversial. It’s common sense. Immigrant women are job creators. They are innovators and entrepreneurs who strengthen our national...

MomsRising Together