I’m a refugee who reports on America’s ills. I still believe in its promise

‘We should not confuse America’s governing institutions with the ideals that have always challenged those institutions to become better.’ Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

It was a hot, dry afternoon, sometime in the spring of 2009. I was wearing an oversized T-shirt and a pair of shorts twice the size of my waist, held up with a piece of wire. I sat beneath a tree across from the bamboo office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), waiting.

My heart pounded as sweat rolled down my face. Every few minutes I looked toward the dirt road, hoping to see the white van. Finally the blue IOM logo came into view, and within seconds, dozens of people were running toward it.