With more than 1.7 million people of foreign birth living in Illinois, no issue except for immigration reform seems as critical as who gets counted and what the census will tell us about our immigrant communities.

My mother and father left a life behind in China, one I am only beginning to understand.

A strong Brazilian currency, cheap communication and a notoriously loose Italian citizenship law allow . . . [many]to immigrate without much sacrifice.

Given her background it is safe to assume she never pictured her first apartment would be shared with three African-American girls. I likewise never could have guessed I’d be sharing an apartment with someone from as far away as Dubai.

Lola Velasco traveled to her former school in Quito to walk the very halls she once walked through, hoping to find the books she’d left so many years ago – perhaps finding them still open, untouched, awaiting her return.

“ICE took away my family,” Anthony Figueroa explained, using the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency charged with enforcing immigration law. “ICE took away my dad.”

Mansoor immerses himself in literature, a passion that he has not lost in the shuffle of life. His personal library was vast and every Friday he would head to a book market on Al Mutanabi Street.

They came to sing, pray and share stories of losing their deported loved ones. Mostly it was a gathering of spiritual people who feel shunned from the table of American society.

Tony recalled flying to America for the first time and being struck by the American flag he saw at the airport gates.