Nothing quite prepares you to witness a stranger wrap a tether around your mother’s ankle. Caught between trying to console mommy’s hysterical state versus physically turning away as if that would somehow erase the scene, one reaction is not more…
While serving as a caseworker in a congressional district office, I had the opportunity to help many constituents in a direct, tangible way by working with executive agency liaisons to resolve their immigration problems. This experience was extremely…
Last semester, I worked as a student attorney in my law school’s political asylum clinic. Self-proclaimed as an “intimate public interest law firm,” the program prides itself on a highly immersive curriculum. From beginning to end, students are…
Everything is everything. Similar to how a spider might weave its web, you must bring together seemingly disparate threads and connect them to create something new, to create something useful. The thread that I have been pulling on, trying to unravel…
The lights flickered twice before abruptly going out, bathing the house in darkness. Moments later, sirens began to wail outside and the glass inside the window frames began to rattle as a deep rumbling approached rapidly overhead. “Get down! Under…
I was warming up when I saw my coach debating fiercely with the referee from the corner of my eye. My coach had a look of defeat and suddenly called me over. He told me the referee would not let me play unless I took off my hijab. The referee gave me…
On October 28, 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were considering a $450,000 settlement amount for each…
Introduction In the United States, discussions concerning immigration often involve a dichotomy between the nation’s essence as either one of laws or one of immigrants. While supporters of the former look to legal documents to resolve who is a lawful…
Migration is a human right. As a descendant of the Purhepecha people, the monarch butterfly reminds me that my migration to Turtle Island is an ancestorial practice that has been happening before the construction of colonial borders. The current state…
I crouched next to my mother as we monitored the television screen. Footage of the explosion that struck Beirut, Lebanon at 6:07 p.m. on August 4, 2020 repeatedly flashed across the monitor. My heart raced, my eyes darted, and my mind wandered, gripped…
