You see the states on TV. Nice cars, beautiful buildings. Life like it's easy, it's heaven. But when you come here, you don't see heaven. At all.

I'm a graduate, I have a degree in business education. I have experience, so when I come to the states I'm going to get a job right away and my life is going to be a lot easier in this country. But that wasn't the case. So I just applied in a grocery store- supermarket, meat department. I was so disappointed. And when you come here and you speak with an accent, that is like a no-no. It's like you think with an accent/ You have to learn how to speak American English. if you say a 'bohx' [box] they don't understand you have to say a 'bahx' So in order to get a job, you have to say 'a bahx'.

My name is Muslim. I'm from a country, Sudan, listed as one of the countries that sponsor international terrorism. So any time I travel and come back I'm in line with 5-10 Americans, they just pass. We have the same passport. My passport says that I'm American. They take it- They check it inside- and they go. What do you do for a living, where do you work?

So I was in Canada. I was driving- I drove into the states. I had to stay like 8 hours. 8 hours! And they have- I have to be fingerprinted. And they locked me- they have different cells. You go from one to another. They investigate by A, and he decide you need to go to cell number 2 or 3. I have to wait 5 hours for the FBI. The FBI conduct a review with you?. where are you from, what do you do for a living. And why did you go to Dubai? I said as a tourist. Why not Brazil? I said why not Dubai. Which mosque did you go to? I gave them the name of a nightclub. I didn't go to- I didn't go to a mosque in Dubai. So, and finally, they say- oh, he sounds OK. This guy is not a terrorist. And FBI is looking for people to work for them. We need people who are Muslim, who go to mosques. We can use them as informants. You can work for the FBI. And we can hire you- and we can pay you more money if you want to work for us. And I said, no, I have a job, I don't need it.

It/s a country of opportunity. If you work very hard, you will make it. You may not make it but the chances are, a lot to make it. And definitely it's better than- it is not better than what I left, at that time. But right now it's better. I went back to the country after 10 or 11 years, and currently, I think the States is better than my home country right now, and living in the States empowered me. People here have the constitutional rights to challenge the system. It's not like Sudan. Over there, nobody have rights. That's why, if I had to choose, I would choose to stay in the states and fight. It's not that heaven, but it's a heaven in the way that you can make it. You can fight for your rights. That's the difference between here and there.