Immigrant Voices

Although the latest federal ruling on DACA does not affect enrolled recipients, many of them are still frustrated by the program’s instability. “Every time this program is challenged, we feel that they are playing with us,” said Juan Antonio Garcia. “I would like for this administration to give us a residency and a path to…

Henny Ohr has dedicated her life to empowering communities and showing what determination and caring for others can accomplish. She is the director and co-founder of Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center (EMBARC) in Des Moines. EMBARC is a nonprofit dedicated to helping Iowa’s refugee population through advocacy, education, and community development. Her…

“We are having another May 1st rally this year,” Jose Alvarado told me a few months ago, about the event in support of immigration reform. During my conversation with Jose, I had a flashback from fifteen years ago, when I participated in “A Day Without Immigrants” rally. In 2006 people gathered around the country, including…

The moment was finally here! I was eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and I was ecstatic. The opportunity to feel some safety against the virus and gain some sort of normalcy was within reach. It has been more than a year since the pandemic started and we all have witnessed the loss of life,…

America’s immigration surges are also an Iowa problem, say immigration experts, despite Gov. Kim Reynolds’s recent admittal that she declined federal requests to accept migrant children in Iowa, noting their settlement in the U.S. is President Joe Biden’s “problem.” The Republican governor told WHO radio on Thursday that Iowa was asked to house some of…

This year has been a year of learning, of reflection, of putting things in perspective for many of us. Most of us learned about the importance of slowing down and to be grateful for what we have. We also learned to recognize other people’s important work and sacrifice so we can stay safe and fed.…

A year ago, as the pandemic started, we all watched how another story began to unfold; the former president kept referring to the coronavirus as the “kung flu” and the “China virus.” Ever since then, the racist acts and harassment against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community surged, and the xenophobic rhetoric used by…

The months of February and March this year mark a grim reminder of how the coronavirus pandemic began to change our lives forever one year ago. We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, yet the scars of loss, depression, anxiety and pain remain. A comment that resonated with me…

It is going to be 25 years since I married my Iowan husband. We had a beautiful ceremony on an island off the coast of Mexico. Unfortunately, my husband’s family was not able to attend our wedding, but I always pictured that if they joined mine, it would resemble a scene from the movie My…

“If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.” Those were the words of Carter G. Woodson, a prominent African American historian, author and journalist. Black History Month or African American History Month is…