Sharon Bala’s The Boat People tells a nuanced tale of migration. Inspired by real events , the novel follows Mahindan, a Tamil asylum-seeker who flees persecution amidst civil war Sri Lanka, only to find himself facing deportation by the Canadian government for suspected ties to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). A multi-narrative work, … Read More
The title Bring Now the Angels is as much a God-like order as a human plea. Dilruba Ahmed’s new book-slash-summoning-slash-prayer reckons with expanse as painstakingly as it does limitation. Throughout, it takes on health, mortality, and immigration with disquieting force. The first section of Bring Now the Angels considers the circumstances surrounding the passing of … Read More
In the summer of 1992, my family moved from New Jersey to South Texas. This is our story. In the early 1980s, my parents emigrated from India to America to practice medicine. For them, the move was simply part of chasing the well-branded American Dream. But that chase would never have been possible without the … Read More
On April 26th, The Department of Homeland Security ended the TPS program for Nepal, giving the roughly 9,000 current TPS holders until June 24, 2019 to adjust their status or “self-deport.” This month, Kajal reported on Nepali-American activists’ fight to preserve TPS for their country, and the consequences that could come from revoking this already … Read More
On a dewy January afternoon, I take the 7 train, “the most diverse commute in the country,” to a temple in Jackson Heights, Queens, a center of South Asian diasporic life in New York. After pausing to clap my hands in time to the Sikh prayer service happening on the first floor, I eventually find … Read More
A brisk wind whipped around NYPD barricades in front of Trump Tower on a mid-November evening. Outside of the building, a group of immigrants’ rights activists from across New York City set up shop to rally for the passage of a clean DREAM Act and more comprehensive immigration reform. Speakers representing organizations that work with … Read More
Black political resistance, in many ways, paved the road for South Asian resistance. Here’s a reading list that highlights that history. These pieces explore the family stories of working-class South Asian immigrants in Harlem and New Orleans, solidarity between Black liberation activists and Indian freedom fighters, and contemporary takes on South Asian Americans and the … Read More
On March 27th, the nonprofit Brooklyn Defender Services in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched an online “We Have Rights” campaign, dedicated to spreading knowledge to multilingual immigrant communities about the steps individuals can take to protect themselves and their loved ones from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a press release, ACLU … Read More
UPDATE 2/8/2018: Syed Ahmed Jamal has been granted a temporary stay by Judge Glen Baker to allow his brother time to correct Jamal’s immigration status. Syed Ahmed Jamal of Lawrence, Kansas, was arrested by ICE on January 24th from his front yard while he was trying to drop his daughter off at school. Jamal, 55, had … Read More
On January 5th, a federal judge in New Jersey ordered the revocation of US citizenship of a naturalized citizen named Baljinder Singh. According to the Department of Justice, Singh had misled immigration authorities by filing applications to adjust his immigration status under two different names—Baljinder Singh and Davinder Singh, in the process concealing that there … Read More
