The biggest difference between North Carolina and El Salvador? “It’s safer here. You can walk around at night,” Vanessa says. The 19-year-old has been in the U.S. for only a few months, but the words fly out almost immediately. “It was such a drastic change… I felt safe right away here.”
The biggest difference between North Carolina and El Salvador? “It’s safer here. You can walk around at night,” Vanessa says. The 19-year-old has been in the U.S. for only a few months, but the words fly out almost immediately. “It was such a drastic change… I felt safe right away here.”
My Zayda, Manfred, became a refugee at age six when the Nazis forced him, his family, and thousands of other Polish Jews out of Germany in the fall of 1938. For the last 77 years of his life, Zayda has made it his mission to fight against hatred and teach all of us the danger of being a bystander.
"The Jewish people descended from Hebrew slaves who took refuge in the wilderness. We fled Europe during World War II. We know the heart of the refugee yearning to be free. And so our hearts are heavy that more than 120 people have been taken into custody in the last several weeks since the Department of Homeland Security announced its plan to deport families who had sought asylum from Central American countries, including Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala," write Mark Hetfield and Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner in The Jewish Week.
Columbus, Ohio prides itself on being one of the most welcoming cities in America, but it seems there is still a disconnect between refugees and the people in their communities. So we decided that the native Columbus community needed to meet our new refugee neighbors. Face to face. Person to person. It was time for our clients to have their voices heard and for Columbus to hear them.
In November, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015, otherwise known as the American SAFE Act. This week, the Senate will consider this legislation.
On November 3rd, 2015, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to adopt a measure, Draft Law 2166, to provide much needed protections to the 1.5 million souls displaced within Ukraine by the conflict there. However, the president's signature is still needed. The president unexpectedly vetoed the measure in December, but advocates in Ukraine kept up the fight and the measure has finally been signed into law.
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