It’s been a minute but we’re back. In the last 3 years things have certainly shifted. New presidents, new policies but seems like the same old rules. Besides a slight shift in the paperwork for green card holders trying to adjust their status, seems like there have not been big changes to immigration policy in the US. The change in the White House has harkened a shift to accepted sentiment towards immigrants in some spaces and at least lifted the constant threat and fear that some folks felt they were living under. Many however are left in much of the same limbo they were in under the last administration.

This month The Immigrant Experience turns two years old. This means we can not only walk, run and jump with both feet, we can now begin telling the stories of other people’s Immigrant Experience.

On October 15th, 2019 a new Public Charge rule will come into effect. In an effort to curb immigration, legal and otherwise, this administration is putting a new rule into effect regarding the persons considered to be a Public Charge.

Why don’t you go back to where you come from? What are you doing here? If you love it so much, why would you ever leave? The answers to these questions are as plentiful as the number of immigrants living in countries outside the ones of their origin. In the upcoming posts of The Immigrant Experience we will share stories of individuals who are for reasons of their own attempting to build a life for themselves within foreign borders.

Been in the Lab with a Pen and Pad. Trust and believe I know it’s been some time since my last post, but please try to understand; it’s definitely not because I don’t care or that I think the problem has taken care of itself.

Traveling the world and settling into a new home can require a great deal of mental acuity. An opportunity to make art and release and relieve from the stress of the ordeal of relocating a life and home can become a life altering experience for some. Through art many immigrants are creating a window for the world to make connections with. Throughout the United States several art institutions are making an effort to shed some much needed light on the plight of immigrants. Through their art they can help to break down the walls of misconception that many seem to be stuck behind.

Last year I committed myself to creating a blog. I made a contract with myself that only I would see. It stated that on November 19th, 2017 I would post my first blog post. It went on to say that I would post one blog post a week for a year until November of 2018, no matter what. I planned to publish once a week on Sunday.

Fall is here and that means the school year is well under way for the nations students. While parents and students are usually excited to get back to regular routines, this was not the case in many immigrant homes.

Marriage for love is a modern concept popularized by a rising middle class who often have little to give by way of dowries. While this may sound like a very unromantic notion, the reality that many of us know too well is that marriage often comes down to legal remedy for social problems.

The world seems to be a rapidly changing one for those attempting to migrate through the borders to lands they feel are safer and more prosperous than the ones they come from.

Fleeing a communist takeover from her native Czechoslovakia in 1948 may have been the best thing that ever happened to then future Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Her confirmation to this position made her not only the first female Secretary of State but the highest ranking woman in the government.

Attitudes of Americans appear to be changing towards immigration. “For the first time on record, the number of Americans who believe legal immigration should be increased (32 percent) has surpassed the number who believe it should be decreased (24 percent).

When he wrote his letters from the jail in Birmingham more than 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. expressed his reasons for protest, his disappointment with white moderates and his vision for a brighter tomorrow. In the wake of the past two months, whether immigration policies or Supreme Court justices; hope for the future appears to be a waning commodity in the foreign national community.

Many of us had the pleasure of celebrating a graduate this week.  Hard work, focus and faith have come to fruition in the form of a culminating event.  For many the road to arrive at this point of celebration has been a long and arduous one.  As they make their way through the pomp and circumstance several graduates are making a mark for not only themselves but for their families. 

On Tuesday May 15th Muslims across the world will begin fasting for the holy month of Ramadan. Fasting is the fourth pillar of Islam “which happens in the month of Ramadan. Ramadan is based on a lunar calendar, which annually is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar.

No matter how bad things seem these days, most people living in the United States cannot fathom the concept of being forced to flee persecution, war or violence. The well-founded fear in these individuals who face persecution for their race, religion or political affiliation often means they may never be able to return to their homeland safely.

Tapachula is located at the most southern part of the Mexican border.  The caravan will have to travel nearly 4,000 miles to get to the US border although it is “predicted that at most 10 percent to 15 percent of the participants would seek asylum at the American border.” [2](Semple, 2018)  These statistics suggest that roughly one hundred people will attempt to cross the southern border of the United States are causing upset in the executive branch of the US government with “Trump tweet[ing] Tuesday morning the caravan, estimated to be carrying more than 1,000 Central Americans, “had better be stopped” before reaching the U.S. border with Mexico.” [3](Lam, 2018)