True Life: I'm Coming To America

True Life - MTV Shows

On this episode of True Life we follow the lives of two young people as they adjust to life in America.

If you have trouble viewing the episode you can also watch it here.

December Deadlines for Central American TPS Renewal

Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans now in the United States on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) visas must renew these visas by December deadlines or lose legal status. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced this month that it will extend TPS to July 5, 2010 for Nicaraguans and Hondurans and to September 9, 2010 for Salvadorans. Click here for the full article.

Even if you think it's already taken care of, please follow the link above and make sure you are completely compliant because many changes have occurred recently.

Trapped in Osire Refugee Camp

Refugees in Osire Camp in Namibia peacefully demonstrated for their basic rights in June. Countless children stood with their parents holding signs that read, "We are not animals in the zoo. We are people."

Originally a detention center during South African apartheid, the Osire refugee camp now contains thousands of refugees from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo seeking a safe haven from persecution. With the recent restrictions on refugees, it once again resembles a prison.

Click here for the Campagin to end refugee warehousing.

Genital Mutilation Victim Denied Asylum Has a Small Win

If you find the image too graphic, imagine how the girl feels.

In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled "because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country."
Calling the rationale "flawed," Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider. The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe.


It's no surprise Alima Traore was denied. At least not to anyone familiar with how the immigration system works. I'm often frustrated at how easy people think it is to obtain Asylum in the United States. On this blog someone once told me Ayaan Hirsi Ali should have legally applied for asylum because she was being forced into a marriage. When I told them that was not enough to obtain asylum, they didn't believe me.

This woman had her genitals mutilated and was being forced into marriage with her first cousin. I'm not surprised she was denied. Her story is tame compared to many refugees and asylum seekers. But luckily for her, some very compassionate people urged Attorney General Mukasey to step in and buckling under political pressure he did.

Next time you see a refugee or asylee remember that they were the ones who were approved......

Lopez Lomong

The post underneath this one talked about how all 3 U.S. Olympians running the metric mile are immigrants. All three have very compelling stories and make this immigration blogger very proud of them and this country. This is Lopez Lomong's story.

"At age 6, he was abducted from a Sudanese church by a militia faction that wanted to turn young boys into child soldiers. He eventually escaped the militia camp through a hole in a fence with three older boys who carried them on their backs as they walked for three days until they reached Kenya, where police arrested them and sent them to a refugee camp. He spent 10 years in the camp, living on one meal a day." click here for his whole bio

He probably doesn't take anything for granted or wastes an opportunity like so many of us do everyday.

He hasn't forgotten where he came from and if you look on his site, he doesn't link to running sites but rather to www.teamdarfur.org and www.savedarfur.org.

So let's all watch the mile at Beijing and hope some nativists are watching as well and they learn what this country truly stands for and maybe next time they'll think before calling refugees and immigrants the scum of the U.S.

Check out our Olympics tag

Third World Invasion of Our Olympic Team

Just in case you have any doubts, I'm being sarcastic. The anti-immigration crowd loves to complain about non-European immigration to the U.S. and what you're about to read must kill them.

The three people representing the U.S. for the 1500 meter run all have one thing in common. As the nativists put it, they're all part of the "importation of the third world". Those third worlders are doing pretty well for themselves and dare I say even better than some native born Americans. GASP, how dare they!

— Bernard Lagat came to America to attend college at Washington State from Kenya.

— Leo Manzano was driven across the Mexican border by friends already living in the U.S. and posing as his parents when he was 4.

— Lopez Lomong was one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan," the name given to young refugees of the grisly civil war in Sudan who made it to the U.S.

A Kenyan, a former DREAMer, and a refugee are the top milers in the country - can't get more American than that. I love it!

Oh yeah and that former DREAMer Manzano, hasn't forgotten where he came from, I found this.

What are your hobbies outside the sport of running?
"Yeah, I've been in a couple of organizations on campus. Last semester I was in this Longhorn program. I advocated for the Dream Act. It's for immigrants that are raised in the U.S, went through the public school systems, who have completed their degrees and have a good moral character. Really it's a pathway for these kids to gain their citizenship, to having their education, and having good moral standards. At the same time there is another way which you can gain your citizenship, it was a bill that never became a law. It was actually denied. I really try to advocate for that and it was going on last semester. I was with that organization and trying to advocate for the Dream Act."

Good luck to you all and we'll see you in Beijing!

Check out my Olympics tag