This Sunday, the International Rescue Committee and Tucson Jewish Community Center are hosting an event entitled, “Walk a Mile in a Refugee’s Shoes”. This simulation is aimed at providing the Tucson community with insight into the hardships, frustrations, and pain that refugees endure. Participants will assume the role of a refugee to gain an understanding of the different challenges refugees encounter to access basic needs prior to arriving in the United States.

On the 15-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion, there is no better time to address the issue of protecting our Iraqi wartime allies. "[This] should matter to everyone who cares about America’s moral integrity," writes Walt Cooper, a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army Reserve, former Green Beret, and Chair of the International Refugee Assistance Project. 

Refugee skeptic, Andrew Veprek, was appointed as a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Vepreck has argued in favor of dramatically lowering the nation’s annual cap on refugee admissions. A former U.S. official shared that Veprek’s views about refugees and migrants were impassioned to the point of seeming “vindictive.”

This week, Human Rights First, ACLU, and The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies sued the Trump Administration over prolonged detention. The suit argues that the Trump Administration has violated U.S. law by refusing to provide parole for eligible asylum seekers in five ICE districts across the country. Hardy Vieux of Human Rights First shared, "It's not about being formalistic, it’s about engendering fairness. It's about weaving a narrative so that the American public and others look at America and say, ‘These people adhere to a system that is undergirded by the rule of law.’” There is no justice in allowing asylum seekers to languish indefinitely in detention.

U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey recently spoke with NPR about his new book Radical Inclusion, in which he argues that the demands of leadership have changed since September 11. Dempsey shared, "If you're a leader, you must commit yourself to learning. You can't simply be satisfied with reinforcing what you already know. You have to stretch yourself..."

One of the last of the Tuskegee Airmen and NYPD veteran, Floyd Carter Sr., passed away this month at age 95. Floyd Carter was a decorated veteran of 3 wars, and a city detective for 27 years. "We mourn the loss of a true American hero. Our community & nation has lost a giant," said NYPD's 47th Precinct.

As we celebrate Women's History Month, we remember Sharon Ann Lane: the first woman killed in action in Vietnam. She joined the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve in 1968 to serve as a nurse. Lane continuously denied transfers because she was so dedicated to caring for critically injured U.S. service members. On June 8, 1969, a rocket hit Evac Hospital where Lane was working. Lane was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for her bravery and the sacrifice she made for this country