This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Leezia talks about US immigration laws from a unique perspective: someone for whom America was the only home since early childhood, suddenly learning that she's become an illegal immigrant due to recent immigration law reforms.

An executive communications specialist at Rackspace Hosting, Leezia oversees the company's speaker’s bureau for the Americas region. She is a first-generation American, of African and Indian descent, who immigrated to Texas from Canada in 1996. Leezia's interest in writing and foreign affairs led her to Northwestern University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science. Leezia is also the weekend cops reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and serves as secretary of the SA2020 Commission on Education. As a news reporter, her work has been published in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and the San Antonio Express-News, among other media. In April 2014, Leezia’s research with Northwestern University’s Medill Innocence Project, a journalism think tank that investigates cases of potentially wrongful convictions, contributed to the release of an inmate who spent nine years incarcerated in an Illinois prison. Her work helped Medill to win the Investigative Reporters & Editors Award and the Peter Lisagor Award for best online feature story.