The one thing all Iraqis can agree on, no matter their religion or ethnicity, is that the last few decades have been hell.
My parents left Baghdad to attend graduate school in the United Kingdom.
I was one year old when we left. Because of the political turmoil in Iraq throughout my lifetime, I've never been back.
What should've been a four year-long absence stretched to over four decades.
I've never seen the houses my parents grew up in or the schools they attended. I missed uncles', aunts' and cousins' graduations and weddings. I couldn't attend any of my grandparents' funerals.
And I was always an outsider in every country I lived in.
I grew up with an uncomfortable awareness of the foreignness of the language I spoke, the faith I subscribed to, and the values I was taught at home.
But my parents insisted on embracing the humanity we shared with the inhabitants of our temporary stations.
We worked hard. We devoted ourselves to enriching our host countries. We dedicated our skills and expertise to serving peoples among whom our presence was transient.
As the possibility of returning to Iraq continued to dwindle, we decided to make the United States our permanent home.
We started the process when I was 14.
I became a U.S. citizen at 22, when I was a first-year law student. It was the first time in my life, since leaving Iraq at infancy, that I was a citizen of the country I lived in.
My family's journey was driven by a yearning to move from transience to permanence.
From turbulence to stability.
From foreignness to belonging.
We share this instinct with the foreign-born microbiologist who wants to pursue a career at an ivy league.
And the overseas entrepreneur who wishes to expand into the U.S. market.
And the war refugee who longs for a safe haven.
And that's exactly what immigration lawyers deliver.
We create opportunity out of despair.
And prosperity out of poverty.
And unity out of fragmentation.
That's why dedicating oneself to this cause is truly a privilege. I'm fortunate that I get to call immigration my personal story, my career and my calling.