A Love Story

Greg Varner, GW Today, Mar. 21, 2024

"Comedies often end with a wedding, and there’s a marriage in this story, but it’s not a comedy. This is an immigration story, and it ends in a naturalization ceremony, with some painful, dramatic scenes along the way. It begins in the Soviet Union with a gay boy called Sasha, and ends in the United States with a gay man named Alexander. They’re the same person, with a lot of credit for that transformation due to students and faculty of the Immigration Clinic at GW Law. Alexander Love, as he is now known, was born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union. ... Love’s gratitude for the students who helped him remains undimmed. “The students were the stars of my case,” he said. “I should frame their pictures. I’m thankful to all of them.” The closing scene in Love’s immigration story takes place at his naturalization ceremony in 2020. Benítez and Vera were present to congratulate him on becoming a U.S. citizen."

Paulina Vera and Alberto Benítez joined Alexander Love, a former client of the Immigration Clinic at GW Law, for his naturalization ceremony—“the happy part of immigration cases,” in Vera’s words.