Monthly Archives: April 2007

“Today is the beginning of the rest of your life.” These are Pastor Randy Morrison’s opening words during a Sunday morning service at Speak the Word Church International in Golden Valley, MN.

It was a night to remember. Saturday the 10th of March 2007 Bayelsa State (also known as the Glory of Lands), Nigeria hosted the main players in the film industry from the continent.

Thousands of Ghanaians and well-wishers stood in silence at the capital of Accra on that faithful hot day of March 6th, 1957, as the thunderous speakers of the independence square blurted out the famous words of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, “Ghana, your beloved country is free forever,” he shouted. The jubilant crowd roared in response. Nkrumah, the founding president of what is now the republic of Ghana, was the hero of the day. Many listened and hung on to his words as if their lives depended on it, as though they had been waiting for that moment all their lives, and in so many ways they had.

There is a popular belief that when non-citizens and undocumented workers are detained for violating immigration laws, they remain in jail until an immigration judge allows them to stay or orders their removal from the U.S. But there are alternatives to detention, which can make life better – or worse – for individuals whom the U.S. government seeks to remove from the country.