Independent student pushes through paperwork

Happie Datt doesn’t believe in looking back.  “I’m looking forward all the time. I don’t believe in what ifs,” she says repeatedly, a mantra that has guided her ever since crossing the tarmac in...

A broken family

The answering machine says, “Thank you for calling Brian, Janina, and Tony Wasilewski.” But for nearly two years, Tony has lived alone in his house in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, separated by more than 4,000 miles from his wife and son.   On June 8, 2007,...

Holding on to God in ICE custody

By Jonah Newman Simeon Simeonov held his Bible close to him as he huddled under his umbrella, among more than 50 immigrant rights activists and religious leaders, outside the Broadview Detention Center, a...

An Iraqi's odyssey into the French asylum system

BY ELISA MIGNOT, SCIENCES PO, SPECIAL TO THE MEDILL NEWS SERVICE  "We were living in a truck when the Americans attacked," said the man in a low and shaky voice. "We hid behind the driver's seat." He was perched on a chair in the refugee service of Amnesty...

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