We came to the U.S. as refugees under the Lautenberg Amendment. There were three of us: myself, my wife and my then-4 year old daughter. We arrived in New York on November 30, 1989 by plane, most likely a Boeing. We boarded in Rome, but because food workers there were on strike, the plane stopped…

Oana visiting the Grand Canyon in July, 2002 shortly after arriving in the U.S.   In 2002, I left everything behind in Romania – friends, family, and a promising law career – to follow my heart and be with my then newly-wed husband. I never had a dream to live in America but thirteen years…

George poses in front of his uncle’s car shortly after arriving in the United States. I came to the United States at age 16, as a refugee from Communist Romania. It was on September 30, 1964, when I arrived with my parents aboard a big passenger ship named SS Independence. As we neared New York…

Winter 2001, shortly after arriving in the U.S.   I came to the US on February 24th, 2000. I was 19. I flew from Albania to Italy, then New York, then Detroit. It was the saddest trip I have taken so far in my life, and I cried through most of it. I was bundled…

My grandfather, Louis Glasser, came to this country in 1906 through Ellis Island when he was six years old. One of his sisters traveling with him had very dark-colored, almost black, eyes. At that time, the authorities were afraid of people with glaucoma coming into the country. She did not have glaucoma or any eye…