VOICES OF IRCA [Misc videos]

IRCA beneficiaries each have a unique story to tell about their journeys before, during and after IRCA. Read about and listen to their individual life histories.

Stedroy Cleghorne

Stedroy is a professor of design at the Fashion Institute of Design in New York City, but his journey began far from the Big Apple. He was born in Saint Kitts, a small island in the Caribbean. His mother brought him to America when he was 5 years old. “I didn’t have a choice where I was going to go, but my mother, she was determined to bring her children to America because… she really fell in love with America and she saw that it would be a great life for a family...” 

Sted, his older brother and mother first moved to Harlem and then later to Brooklyn, settling in East Flatbush in 1968.

Early on, Sted remembers trying to hide his accent so kids at school wouldn’t make fun of him, he even tried to correct his grandmother’s way of speaking.

“She would say listen boy…I’m older than you, I’ve been saying these [things] for so many years you know, blah, blah, blah. But looking back in retrospect that’s fine, I’m really glad she hang on to it.”

From a young age, he was observant and interested in the world around him. Those observations made their way into his art, drawing, illustrating, and eventually, creating graphic novels. Sted created stories and characters that highlighted the complex nature of social issues and the struggles of young Black men in East Flatbush. “You could have a guy who was flawed but he has a social conscious… as opposed to having black and white, you know, cut and dry.”

When Sted was preparing his college application to the School of Visual Art (SCVA), he learned he was undocumented.

“I have my diploma and that’s when everything hit the fan because I realized now this immigration stuff is going to stay with you.  You have to get this done one way or the other. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t easy at all but if it wasn’t for the amnesty I wouldn’t know how it would happen, I really don’t know.”

Since getting his citizenship, Sted has felt a weight lifted off his shoulders. “…as an undocumented person you would feel you have this weight you have to carry and there’s also this secret that you really can’t tell anyone so you really can’t enjoy life to the fullest and being documented you feel like okay I’m free…”

Azadeh Khalili

Azadeh Khalili is an human and women’s rights advocate and consultant who has worked in leadership positions in the non-profit and government sectors.

Azadeh grew up in Iran in the 1970s. As a teenager, she became involved in political activism, advocating for progressive change in Iran during the protests and organizing leading up to the Iranian revolution. When Azadeh’s family learned of her political activities, they became concerned for her safety and sent her to stay with family in New York City in 1978. She enrolled in English classes that summer, expecting to return home. “I thought it was just for the summer. I really protested, I didn’t want to come to the US, it was not my decision and I was promised that it was just for the summer and things would calm down and I would go back home in September.”

“Coming to the US was incredibly scary. I couldn’t speak English so I couldn’t understand the conversations around me, remembers Azadeh.

The situation in Iran became more volatile and Iran became embroiled in a full scale revolution. Her student visa was revoked when she tried to apply to another education program. She received a letter of deportation. It was far too dangerous for her to return to Iran and no other country would accept Iranian students. She hired a lawyer who promised to get her a green card, which she never received. Still struggling with English, she could not understand her lawyer, her deportation hearings or the legal documents she received.

Although she had to live as an undocumented person, she started to build a life for herself, becoming fluent in English, attending high school, and planning for college. She surrounded herself with friends and found support from a teacher who saw that she was gifted in math. She attended an undergraduate program at the New School, where she thrived.

As graduation approached, she had to come to terms with not being able to pursue a professional career because of her status. She recalls, “you’re getting ready to graduate and everybody is talking about what they’re going to do, what jobs they’re going to apply for and for me that was not an option. I had been working in a restaurant and I was going to continue to work in a restaurant. And I had done a lot of volunteer work but I really couldn’t get a job.” Subsisting on a unsteady low-income salary was anxiety provoking.

Azadeh’s life changed when she learned of the amnesty program through IRCA. She received her green card, permament residency and then became a citizen. She entered into a career of advocacy and service, working at the Fortune Society on HIV and AIDS education, eventually starting her own public health nonprofit organization, and serving in leadership roles in New York City government. Azadeh is now a consultant working on a variety of justice-focused issues such as human, women’s and immigrant rights and climate change.