Eight Forty-Eight - Iraqi-born Lawyer Aids Iraqi Immigrants

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Iraqi-born Lawyer Aids Iraqi Immigrants

DeKelaita works with Iraqi refugees like this grocery store owner. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Among the big issues defining the presidential race are the Iraq War and immigration. They both happen to be close to the heart of Robert DeKelaita. He’s an immigration lawyer in Skokie. Business picked up for him at the start of the Iraq war and has remained steady ever since. That’s because many of DeKelaita’s clients are Iraqi Assyrians who've fled persecution in their home country.

Assyrians are an Aramaic-speaking people and distinct ethnic group in the Middle East. Unlike most Iraqis, they are Christian. DeKelaita is also an Iraqi-born Assyrian—and he says, like his clients, his family came to the U.S. after experiencing persecution in Iraq.