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Before immigrating to the United States, Alma Hernandez lived in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She remembers it as a place of limited opportunities. Not only was the city an unsafe place to live, but she was also unable to find a job to support her family. In 1991, Alma’s father was able to bring her family to the United States, and she has remained in this country since then. Today, Alma lives in San Antonio with her husband and their four children. Her husband works as an automo

Originally from Venezuela, Yris Rodriguez came to the United States 6 years ago, more specifically, in September 2015.  During those years, Venezuela had been going through political changes that caused social and economic struggles for its citizens. Yris’s daughter had been living in the U.S. for a while and after finding out she was pregnant, asked her mother to come help her. Without hesitation, Yris left her homeland, family, lifelong friends and material belongings in or

On November 16, 2021 Maria Ruiz successfully completed the most daunting and difficult part of the American citizenship process: the USCIS naturalization test. Fresh from passing her naturalization test, Maria was eager to describe the process of her interview, when she met via Zoom to talk with Isabella Embile, one of BIIN’s fall 2021 interns with the citizenship classes. First, Maria had to drive to the USCIS Field Office in San Antonio to take her exam. With the spread of