After six years, in 1999, we were selected by the State Department to interview in Cotonou, Benin’s largest city, for resettlement. We could not afford the fare to get there. My parents sold all our belongings to get the money for the journey. Once there, we relocated to another refugee camp and went through several rounds of interviews with American and United Nations agencies, repeatedly recounting why we fled Togo and why we could not go back.

After the State Department determined that my parents were telling the truth and our situation was dire, we went through background and health checks before it finally approved us for resettlement. We were lucky: Only 1 percent of the millions of refugees around the world will ever receive a lifeline like the one we received.

On a bitter cold February morning in 2000, we arrived in upstate New York. The new beginning was difficult. Learning a new language and adjusting to American culture and customs proved demanding. With limited English language skills, my parents struggled to find work that could support our family.

I was 9. I had never been to school, could neither read nor write and spoke no English. An amazing group of committed teachers helped. It took me three years to learn to read and write.

I went to a great public school with teachers and guidance counselors who encouraged my curiosity and taught me that it was fine to ask for things like extended time on exams and after-school tutoring.

Now I am a graduate student at Yale, working on a Ph.D. in history, working toward being a historian, motivated by my desire to understand how a country like Togo came to be such a politically unstable place.

The refugee resettlement program is why I am alive today and able to dream of becoming a historian. Drastically reducing the number of refugees allowed to resettle in America will leave thousands of vulnerable people trapped in horrendous situations like what my family endured.

There are few places in the world where stories like mine are possible. We are alive and thriving because of a remarkable program that helped my family escape political persecution and allowed us to build a new life here — and showed us the best of America, a country we are proud to call home.

Marius Kothor is a Ph.D. student in history at Yale.

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