Refugees

A few weeks ago I traveled all the way to JFK just to get a glimpse of Saida and Hassan’s first few minutes in America.

This summer, while attending a conference in Jerusalem, I couldn’t help but notice a fellow participant repeatedly leave the room to take urgent calls on her cell phone. In speaking with her over lunch that day, I learned that she worked for the Hotline for Migrant Workers, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the rights of undocumented migrant workers and refugees in Israel.

Flight 200 arrived at 12 p.m. last Tuesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. After our first two hours of anxiously waiting with welcome signs in Arabic that drew suspicious glances from around the terminal, we went into the office and asked if it was possible that any passengers from the flight remained in immigration.