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Brazos Interfaith Immigration Network was established in the fall of 2010 by a small circle of committed residents who saw the lack of resources available to immigrants in the Brazos Valley, and decided to take matters into their own hands. With the mission to serve local immigrants by creating a community hub that would help them with a variety of issues, the founders established the non-profit organization now known as Brazos Interfaith Immigration Network. To better unders

Meet Isabel Noriega. She has five children, one son and four daughters, all adults now. She and her family are from the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, where she worked for 20 years as a bookkeeper. Isabel is very devoted to her children and outside of work, spent her days taking her kids to swimming, basketball, and athletics classes. Isabel herself attended beauty classes and became a nail tech and hairstylist, often giving her family members free haircuts. On weekends, she en

Meet Anarela Mitchell. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Anarela has been traveling back and forth for the last 30 years, but has been living in the United States for the past five years. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Anarela and her family decided to move permanently to the U.S. to provide a better life for her children and herself. Anarela has had the opportunity to get her legal permanent residency since initially arriving in the United States. She claims that overall

Mariana Fierro Olivares was born and spent much of her early life in Mexico City. She enjoyed living there, and recalls walking on the main avenue in the city, going to museums, movies, or shopping, as among the pleasures of life in the capital. However, concerned about the safety of life in Mexico, her family began to consider moving to the United States. When Mariana was a child, her family came to the States for the first time. At six years old, she started school in a bil

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

Nereida Lopez attended college in Mexico, but was unable to find work in her field. Like many people who have come to the U.S. in search of greater opportunities, Nereida quickly realized that in order to realize her dreams she needed better skills in English. “The only way I could show what I know,” she said, “is to speak English. Regardless of your education or where you live, to get ahead in the U.S. you have to speak English.” To learn more about how Nereida discovered B

Many of BIIN’s community partners over the years have been faith-based organizations. BIIN itself was created by people who had witnessed the frequency with which low-income immigrant neighbors appealed to local churches for help in resolving various problems. Even if some of these churches were not places where immigrants gathered for worship, the thought was that given the emphasis on “welcoming the stranger” in Judeo-Christian theology, local faith communities might be