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New York Today

New York Today: Refugee, Immigrant and Citizen

Luis Mancheno, an immigration attorney.Credit...Yana Paskova for The New York Times

Good morning on this splendid Monday.

When Luis Mancheno was 14 and living in Quito, Ecuador, he knew he had to learn English, and fast.

It was around that age that he realized he would eventually need to leave his evangelical family, his all-boys Catholic school and his country: He feared they would reject him for being gay.

So he holed up with the “Harry Potter” books, and he studied the movies’ English subtitles.

“I was able to identify with Harry, being different in a world where no one understands you,” Mr. Mancheno said.

Over the years, Mr. Mancheno grew from a teenager with a secret into a young adult facing violent persecution. He became an immigrant from Latin America, a refugee and eventually an American citizen. Now a lawyer in New York City, Mr. Mancheno, 30, is supporting others on that journey.

Mr. Mancheno was one of more than 100 names submitted by readers as being a model New Yorker who has made a difference in the community and put others first in challenging situations.

“My job is to give a voice to all the Luises out there,’’ he said, “who are completely alone, completely resourceless, and who are fighting a gigantic system that tells them that they don’t have the right to a better life.”

His experiences in Ecuador were harrowing, and the breaking point came in 2007, when he and a gay friend were drugged at a bar. He woke up with his pants down, in his car, on the edge of a cliff. The car had been crushed beneath a light post.

Soon after, he inquired about an international exchange program, and, with limited English and $200 in the bank, he left Ecuador on a student visa, bound for college in Oregon. There, he learned about refugee law and decided to apply for asylum. By 2009, it had been granted.

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“The Constitution will never allow me to be president, but if I could, I would run today.”Credit...Yana Paskova for The New York Times

During a graduate program at Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island, Mr. Mancheno began guiding low-income people through deportation proceedings and representing them in immigration court. He spent time at the United Nations’ refugee agency in Washington, D.C., and he helped detainees in Arizona.

“I saw myself — and I still see myself — in every single one of the clients that I represent,” Mr. Mancheno said. “I see the fear in their faces, the uncertainty, the powerlessness.”

In New York, he joined the inaugural class of the Immigrant Justice Corps, a group of young lawyers providing legal services for people facing deportation. And through his work with The Bronx Defenders, he became part of the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which provides free legal representation to disenfranchised people detained in immigration court.

Mr. Mancheno — now a teaching fellow at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan — became a United States citizen less than a year ago.

“People from all over the world — Russia, all different countries in Africa and Europe — we were all there saying that we wanted to be a part of this country,” he recalled of that morning in June. “And just like that, by raising my hand and putting it down, suddenly, I was an American citizen.”

Since then, the climate for refugees and immigrants coming to America has changed dramatically.

“I am Latino. I am an immigrant. I am gay. I am a refugee. And every single one of those elements that are part of my identity are under attack today,” he said. “But even then, there’s now an opportunity for me to actually change the narrative.”

Last month, when a federal judge in Brooklyn blocked a travel ban under President Trump’s executive order on migration, Mr. Mancheno stood — in the same courthouse where he had been declared a citizen — among a group of immigration lawyers representing several people who had been detained at Kennedy Airport and who were facing imminent deportation. Among those people was a Syrian woman, one of Mr. Mancheno’s clients. Her story was presented to the judge minutes before she was to have been flown back to Syria. It was this woman’s story, Mr. Mancheno said, that helped the judge to decide to halt the order as quickly as she did.

“Right now, that’s what I want to do with my day, with my time, with my energy,” Mr. Mancheno said. “The Constitution will never allow me to be president, but if I could, I would run today.”

Do you know of a New Yorker who has made a difference in his or her community? Email nytoday@nytimes.com with the person’s name and why you are nominating him or her.

Here’s what else is happening:

Our February springtime will stick around until Friday.

Today is looking grand: nippy in the morning, and then a high of 53.

Protesters marched to the offices of news organizations to support the press. [New York Times]

With just over six months until the Democratic primary, no credible challenger to mayor Bill de Blasio has emerged. [New York Times]

A squirrel hunt in western New York State is drawing the ire of animal lovers. [New York Times]

A decades-old murder helped lead to the arrest of a man believed to have killed two teenagers in the mid-2000s. [New York Times]

Could jumping a turnstile lead to deportation? [Gothamist]

More than a million people watched a live stream of a giraffe named April giving birth at an upstate zoo. [Pix 11]

Today’s Metropolitan Diary: “‘Lift Your Head Up!

For a global look at what’s happening, see Your Monday Briefing.

Off-Broadway Week begins, with two-for-one tickets to more than 45 theater productions in the city. [Through March 12]

The New York International Children’s Film Festival continues through March 19 at venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan. [Times and ticket prices vary]

Taste of the Dining Concourse offers free bites from several restaurants in Grand Central Terminal. 11 a.m. to noon, and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., through Friday.

Kanye Confidential”, a comedy show about Kanye West, at the Creek and the Cave in Long Island City, Queens. 10 p.m.

Looking ahead: Join the Overseas Press Club on Wednesday evening for the Middle East Hands Reunion, a panel of foreign correspondents, at the International House on Riverside Drive. [Register here]

Yankees at Orioles, 1:05 p.m. Mets host Astros, 1:10 p.m. (SNY). Devils host Canadiens, 7 p.m. (MSG+). Knicks host Raptors, 7 p.m. (MSG).

For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

Subway and PATH

Railroads: L.I.R.R., Metro-North, N.J. Transit, Amtrak

Roads: Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking: in effect until Wednesday.

Ferries: Staten Island Ferry, New York Waterway, East River Ferry

Airports: La Guardia, J.F.K., Newark

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An Ash Wednesday observer. Let us know: What are you giving up for Lent?Credit...Spencer Platt/Getty Images

For many Christians of New York, Lent begins this week, on Ash Wednesday.

During Lent, which lasts about six weeks, observers may give up everyday habits or luxuries as a way to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For those observing Lent, we’d love to know: What are you giving up this year, and why?

We encourage you to share your responses in the comments, or to send us an email at nytoday@nytimes.com, for possible inclusion in a New York Today column — and we may contact you in the coming days.

New York Today is a weekday roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning. You can receive it via email.

For updates throughout the day, like us on Facebook.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, email us at nytoday@nytimes.com, or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Follow the New York Today columnists, Alexandra Levine and Jonathan Wolfe, on Twitter.

You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com.

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