Sometimes, when I visit the after school students at RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support program, one will come up to me and ask me a question. This young girl caught my eye, and  gave me a heart-melting smile from across the room.

I asked her name, but she spoke so quietly and shyly I didn’t want to push it. She wanted to know if I would take her photo, she very much wanted to have her photo taken. She came to the United States from Africa. She asked Ali to ask me if the United States would permit her to live here, she doesn’t ever want to go back to the refugee camp, she did not like it there.

I don’t ever lie to these kids or anyone else, I said I didn’t know what would happen, I didn’t understand the people in Washington, our capital, but i wanted her to know that there are many generous and welcoming people in America, and I was sure she would have a much better life here.

She smiled, and seemed relieved. I showed her photos of the donkeys in my I phone, and her eyes almost popped out of her head. I wasn’t sure who she thought I was, perhaps someone official. People sometimes think that when they see my big camera.

I loved taking her portrait, she has such an open and trusting face. I hope she never loses that look, that face, that trust. I can tell you she does not belong to one of those murderous immigrant gangs our leaders are always warning us about when they talk about immigrants.

She wants to come to the farm to meet the donkeys, they had donkeys  back home, and she misses seeing them..

She is no threat to us.