Immigration Ain't Easy

Send us Fan Mail Ian Philabaum is the Director of Legal Organizing for Innovation Law Lab and has spent nearly the past decade in assisting immigrants through his work at ILL. He has been at the forefront in the push against the proliferation of ICE detention throughout our country. He has assisted children and families in detention. He has worked to fight against the human rights violations that...

Send us Fan Mail Representing immigrants in their deportation proceedings can be a challenge, but it can be even more formidable when your client is Mahmoud Khalil. Mr. Khalil, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., was arrested by the Trump administration after being a prominent member of the Israel/Gaza war protests at Columbia University.  He was detained in Louisiana for three months before...

Send us Fan Mail Running brings great health benefits for many, but for Dr. Michael Lokale it brought him opportunity and a chance at the American dream. Dr. Lokale was born and raised in a remote tribal village, Kitale, Kenya to corn farmers. He witnessed many people die of preventable diseases. The lack of medical care motivated him to become a doctor and his intention was to go back to Kenya an...

Send us Fan Mail Kavan Hazeli is an associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, with a joint appointment in the Biomedical Engineering Department and the College of Optical Sciences. An immigrant from Iran, Hazeli received the 2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2020.  He joins me to talk about his immigrant story and path to running...

Send us Fan Mail At a time where immigration steals the headlines almost every day, Professor Leah Ndimurwimo focuses her research on migration and refugee studies. She is a recognized expert on international human rights and, in particular, South African and international law. Professor Ndimurwimo works at Nelson Mandela University, but is currently a Fulbright research scholar at the University...

Send us Fan Mail Parastoo Zahedi knows what it is like to immigrate to the United States. Her own experiences in coming here from Iran has been a key reason why she became an immigration attorney: she wanted to help other attain the American dream and she has done so in many different ways. Since graduating from Georgetown Law School in 1988, Parastoo has become a recognized expert in immigration...

Send us Fan Mail Anatoly "Tola" Molotkov is a writer, composer, filmmaker and visual artist, and a co-founder of the Inflectionist poetry movement. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and immigrated to the U.S. in 1990 while writing predominantly in Russian at that time. He gradually learned to read and write in English while reading books like J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in...

Send us Fan Mail Babak Akhlaghi has waited well over a decade to finally see his brother, Kaveh, arrive in the United States. The wait has been excruciating, unnecessary and a prime example of how the U.S. immigration system fails the best and brightest. Kaveh Akhlaghi is a renowned architect based in Iran who has seen his ability to get a work visa inexplicably delayed year-after-year and resulte...

Send us Fan Mail Rodrigo López grew up in Mexico during an era when Fernandomania spread across the country. López was one of a generation of Mexican children who emulated the late Fernando Valenzuela, an all-time great pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Inspired by Valenzuela's success and fame, Rodrigo became a pitcher and eventually made his way to the United States where he worked hard...

Send us Fan Mail Originally hailing from Senegal, Aly Wane came to the United States with a diplomatic visa at the tender age of 9-years-old. His mother hoped that the United States would provide him with an excellent education and future opportunities. Eventually on a student visa, Aly received two educations:  1) An education through academia and  2) An education on how difficult, rigid and crue...

Send us Fan Mail David Asser is a jack of all trades. A man of many talents and skills. He has been a comedian, an actor, a television and film producer/director/writer, an attorney, and even the Press Secretary and Spokesperson of the Justice Department of The Netherlands in The Hague and as an International Policy Advisor for the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service. What David has more...

Send us Fan Mail Akash Desai immigrated to the United States, but that process was not overly difficult in comparison to his struggles to retain high-skilled foreign workers in this country. Akash is the Co-CEO of CyFlare, a fast-growing cybersecurity solutions company based in West Seneca, New York. In this episode, Akash speaks about the trials and tribulations of being an executive in the high...

Send us Fan Mail Professor Ilya Somin from George Mason University emigrated as a refugee from the former Soviet Union to the United States with his parents in 1979. The family was assisted in this move by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and were resettled in Westport, Connecticut. The Somin family eventually settled in Lexington, Massachusetts. After some difficulty with assimilation to the Unit...

Send us Fan Mail Sahra Hirsi was exiled from her native Somalia in the early 1990's. She lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for around 15 years before finally resettling in the United States. She arrived in Tucson, Arizona with a new lease on life and was provided support from wonderful advocates such as Barbara Eiswerth and the Ishkashitaa Refugee Network.  Sahra took full advantage of her opp...

Send us Fan Mail Safwat Saleem joins me in this episode to talk about his journey from Pakistan to the United States and how immigrant themes are prevalent in his artwork. Safwat  is a multidisciplinary artist with a key focus on cultural loss resulting from assimilation. As described on his website, "Safwat’s body of work weaves together themes of preservation, desire to belong, resistance a...

Send us Fan Mail Ira Kurzban's last name has become synonymous with the field of immigration law. He published the first edition of the Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook in 1990 and it quickly became one of the most respected treatises on U.S. immigration law. Nineteen editions later, the book is universally used by private immigration lawyers, government lawyers, judges, policy maker...

Send us Fan Mail THIS IS PART 2 OF A 2-PART AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL EPISODE In this final part of our discussion, we delve more into the loving bond between Alejandra and Jesus and how her deportation case made it even stronger.  Life is complicated. One thing that we know is nobody's perfect (besides Donald Trump). Alejandra Pablos learned the hard way after being detained for two years at the...

Send us Fan Mail Life is complicated. One thing that we know is nobody's perfect (besides Donald Trump). Alejandra Pablos learned the hard way after being detained for two years at the Eloy Detention Center and she's hoping for a second chance.  While Ale was born on side of the border and her brother, Jesus Magaña was born on the other side. Jesus, a U.S. citizen. Ale, who lived in the...

Send us Fan Mail Mark Shmueli lets his compassion propel his desire to help other humans. He has been in the trenches assisting immigrants for over twenty years and been outspoken regarding xenophobic policies that directly hurt the U.S. immigrant population and others trying to reach our shores. Mark has been the representative of the Maryland State Bar Association on the Governor’s Commission to...

Send us Fan Mail Anyone who wants the facts on immigration controls, policing and border enforcement must follow/subscribe to Dr. Austin Kocher on social media and through his writings on Substack. He is a must follow! His research and data has been widely cited to and noted in both academic and media publications. Dr. Kocher is a geographer and Assistant Research Professor in the Office of Resear...

Send us Fan Mail He may have recently retired but you haven't heard the last of Douglas "Doug" Rivlin when it comes to progressive U.S. immigration policies and advocacy. For over thirty years, Doug has been an important voice for the immigrant community. After getting his start in the immigrant rights domain, along with Frank Sharry, as the Director of Communications for the Nation...

Send us Fan Mail Colorado state representative Naquetta Ricks' immigrant story has been a primary influence in her decision to enter the political arena. Rep. Ricks is the first African immigrant to be elected to the Colorado General Assembly, and the first Liberian American to be elected to any state legislature. At 13 years old she was forced to flee civil war in Liberia, and her family set...

Send us Fan Mail Myles Traphagen is the ultimate champion for migrant rights: for insects, animals and humans. He is a recognized advocate for the conservation and protection of our ecology in the face of human-created devastation. Myles is consistently cited to and quoted by numerous media organizations when it comes to the negative impact of the border wall on the natural environment on the U.S....

Send us Fan Mail Ehadj (El) Ndoye embodies the phrase "giving back". He immigrated from Senegal as a student and found a permanent home and community in Tucson, Arizona. However, El never forgot his roots and in 2010 he founded "The Forgotten Children", a non-profit geared towards helping the street children ( talibè) in Senegal by achieving goals of self-sufficiency. What bega...

Send us Fan Mail The 1st Annual Immigration Condemnation Awards. In this episode I review some of the most ridiculous stories about our government in 2024 from immigration lawyers. At the conclusion, I name a winner of the most absurd story. Let's air our grievances on this December 23rd and never forget that Festivus is for the rest of us!!