For Sama is an award-winning documentary by 26-year old Waad al-Kateab, who filmed her life in Aleppo through 5 years of the Syrian civil uprising.
It’s a story of love, political resistance, and a ruthless war. The film was written as a love letter from al-Kateab, to her daughter, Sama, born during the war, which shares the agony between choosing to flee to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which al-Kateab and her husband had already sacrificed so much.
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The phone rang. I knew it was my son. I felt both optimism and fear. As he began to talk, his voice quivered. He gave me the news.
He passed the California State Bar Examination.
We laughed. Then we cried.
I was at a loss for words. What’s a dad to say to a son who becomes a peer?
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During summer breaks from Harvard Law School, most of my classmates worked at well-paying jobs in the corporate and government sectors, polishing credentials and opening doors to important political and economic relationships.
I took long rides, crisscrossing the United States, traveling in and out most of the country’s 50 states, sleeping in countless KOA campgrounds, and visiting sites I had only read about – aware that I would never again have the freedom to take 10 – 12 weeks off from external responsibilities.
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It’s a double whammy.
Over the past decade, costs for immigration programs have increased. At the same time eligibility restrictions on green card and work authorization have tightened.
For some immigrant and mixed-status families, the financial burden is insurmountable. This, of course, makes the legal obstacles more difficult to overcome.
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I often wonder what happened to clients who did not hire me.
A few weeks ago, for example, a young woman came into my office seeking information about what to do for an upcoming green card interview with USCIS.
She had only been married a short while when her husband filed an immigrant petition for her. She had legally entered on a visitor visa. She let it lapse.
They had filed on their own. The couple ignored considering why hiring an immigration lawyer might be necessary.
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I am strongly pro-immigrant. I want immigrants, especially from poorer countries, to have the same opportunities as those of us from richer nations.
But I’m torn on the issue of professional visas.
My discomfort arises from the dog-eat-dog attitude displayed by some immigration lawyers.
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The Second Cooler is a documentary about illegal migration shot primarily in Alabama, Arizona, and in northern and central Mexico.
The documentary’s producer, Ellin Jimmerson, seeks to bring migration issues into clearer focus for the American public.
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Perhaps if immigrant advocates switch tracks, we may still be able to achieve immigration reform in this millennium.
Instead of pushing for a holistic approach to immigration reform, we might ask ourselves, in a sliding scale of political possibilities, “For whom could immigration reform be passed?”
Sure, this is the back way into the house of immigration reform.
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Over the past 36+ months, I have watched the Trump Administration tighten restrictions against legal immigration over and over ago.
It’s gotten to the point that I now wonder, like the Limbo, how low can he go?
Actually, things could be worse.
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Immigration fraud is a silent epidemic. The effect goes far beyond the money stolen from immigrants under the false pretense of helping them.
Immigration fraud destroys the dreams of hard-working immigrants and their families.
The exact number of victims are unknown.
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