By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

Photography: MARLENE QUARONI | FC

MIAMI | An award-winning documentary filmmaker. A Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. A doctor and professor of ophthalmology, dermatology, otolaryngology and neurosurgery. And an attorney who works for the “law firm of G-O-D.”

Those were the “New Americans” recognized at this year’s fundraising luncheon for Catholic Legal Services, held April 8 at Jungle Island.

“The awardees, with the exception of one, all came to the U.S. as children,” said Randolph McGrorty, executive director of CLS. “Our work, of course, is to help people navigate the immigration system and become U.S. citizens. So these are people who have done it and have done it successfully.”

The one non-immigrant honoree was Alexandra “Ali” Codina, whose father came to the U.S. as part of Operation Pedro Pan, the mass children’s exodus from Cuba in the early 1960s.  

“Ali is a very special case because her father came through Pedro Pan and it’s a great symbol of how the effects of immigration reverberate in time, so now that child — his children — are here contributing,” McGrorty said.

Codina is an independent documentary filmmaker whose first film, “Monica and David,” received the Best Documentary Feature award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010, as well as an Emmy Awards nomination for Outstanding Informational Programming-Long Form. She is currently working on a film about the journey of unaccompanied minors who are fleeing Central America.

“My father arrived as an unaccompanied child from Cuba. The kids who arrived in the ‘60s were welcomed with open arms and we need to find it in our hearts and in our conscience to do the same with these recent arrivals,” said Codina. “This award is a promise of what we’re going to accomplish with this new project in trying to really humanize the issue of children who are here as refugees and what we need to do to protect them and to offer them due process.”

'This is the new America'

Another honoree was Carl Philippe Juste, a photojournalist who fled from Haiti with his family in 1965 and established roots in Miami’s Haitian community. Juste attended Archbishop CurleyNotre Dame Prep (class of 1981) and the University of Miami and eventually found work with The Miami Herald. His work has earned him many recognitions, including a Pulitzer Prize and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.

“What I do is never for any specific accolade. I do it because it is my calling,” said Juste, who praised the work of CLS.

“Catholic Legal Services work is not only important because it’s giving voice, it’s important because it’s magnifying the ideals of being an American and the ideals of being a person of faith,” said Juste. “Justice is not about vengeance. Justice is not even about retribution. Justice is about mercy. Justice is about forgiveness. This is the new America.”

Dr. David Tse remembers how merciful justice allowed him and his siblings to leave communist China for Hong Kong in the early 1960s, and later come to the U.S. Tse is an ophthalmic professor and surgeon who was named a Best Doctor in America and one of America’s Top Doctors. He directs the Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid Orbital Vision Center at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.

“That was my life-winning lottery ticket,” Tse said after receiving his New American Award. “It allowed me to come to this country to realize the American dream. In a sense the mission of Catholic Legal Services in providing professional immigration services to South Florida’s refugees and immigrant communities is a gift of opportunity for many deserving immigrants and refugees to realize their dreams for a bright and secure future in America.”

'We're all interconnected'

Another honoree was Marlon Hill, an attorney specializing in corporate, intellectual, property and government law. But Hill always finds time to give back by working pro bono at what he refers to as the most gratifying law firm: “The law firm of G-O-D.”

“The work that we do in the law firm of G-O-D happens anywhere, both in the public sector and the private sector, and also in one of the divisions of the law firm of G-O-D: Catholic Legal Services,” said Hill after receiving the Pro Bono New American Award.

Hill, who was born in Jamaica, has assisted with numerous citizenship drives for eligible permanent residents — most recently the Mega Citizenship Day at Marlins Park, where over 1,000 residents received free help with their applications.

He attended St. George’s College, a Jesuit high school in Jamaica, where he recalled numerous unaccompanied minors were accepted and assisted.

“We’re all interconnected in some way through our faith,” Hill said.

Archbishop of Miami Thomas Wenski, an advocate for immigration reform, said “the Church is to accompany migrants in many ways, but in a very special way through the work of Catholic Legal Services. What this agency does in so many ways is also helping to keep the families together and to give people the possibilities and hope for the families that they leave behind.”

The Catholic Legal Services team serves over 1,000 immigrants on a monthly basis. Many of the staff are immigrants themselves.

“We do save lives at Catholic Legal Services when we reunite families and that is something that I’m really happy about,” said Myriam Mezadieu, CLS’ chief operating officer. She, too, was recognized for her 25 years of service at the agency.

“We are a country of immigrants. Those who are here deserve respect and they deserve to be here because they are already here,” Mezadieu said. “As a Haitian, a black, a woman and an immigrant, I think I am called to serve these people and I am very proud of what I do, and I can say that my faith leads me here to where I am today.”