--- title: Padma Lakshmi on the Importance of Telling Immigrant Stories | TIME description: As Padma Laskhmi accepted a TIME100 Impact Award on Tuesday, she spoke about immigrants—and how her advocacy work has led her to dive more deeply into telling their stories. canonical: https://time.com/video/uMVt9554/ og:title: Padma Lakshmi on the Importance of Telling Immigrant Stories og:description: As Padma Laskhmi accepted a TIME100 Impact Award on Tuesday, she spoke about immigrants—and how her advocacy work has led her to dive more deeply into telling their stories. og:url: https://time.com/video/uMVt9554/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uMVt9554/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Padma Lakshmi on the Importance of Telling Immigrant Stories twitter:description: As Padma Laskhmi accepted a TIME100 Impact Award on Tuesday, she spoke about immigrants—and how her advocacy work has led her to dive more deeply into telling their stories. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/uMVt9554/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Entertainment # Padma Lakshmi on the Importance of Telling Immigrant Stories > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Padma Lakshmi on the Importance of Telling Immigrant Stories [Watch (HLS stream): Padma Lakshmi on the Importance of Telling Immigrant Stories](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uMVt9554.m3u8) (7:20)  _Published 2023-12-13. As Padma Laskhmi accepted a TIME100 Impact Award on Tuesday, she spoke about immigrants—and how her advocacy work has led her to dive more deeply into telling their stories._ --- Dec 13, 2023 4:20 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Eric Nam's TIME100 Impact Awards Acceptance Speech](/video/arGtcL1N/) ### Eric Nam's TIME100 Impact Awards Acceptance Speech [Nigeria: Victims of Abductions Tell Their Stories](/video/FKUfwoSE/) ### Nigeria: Victims of Abductions Tell Their Stories [Richard Gere And Padma Lakshmi Are Dating](/video/0NnF3oNS/) ### Richard Gere And Padma Lakshmi Are Dating --- ## Transcript Thank you, Kristin. I'm sorry. I'm not Taylor Swift. I had to say it. Come on, you know, I'm even my daughter would want me to be Taylor. Anyway, I really want to say thank you to Time Magazine to Sam Jacobson, Jessica Sibley and Mark and Lynne benioff as well and all the time editors and reporters and writers. You know, I didn't think there was anything cooler than making the time 100 list, which I did earlier this year. But here I am and I'm very grateful. So thank you. And by the way that time 100 party is so cool. It's the best party in town. It is anywhere else. Can you rub shoulders with an African nun? Hey sister Rosemary Nicki Minaj and a coke brother all in the same room. It's my favorite party of all-time in 2016 7 years after I co-founded the EFA. The end of each is his foundation America. I was recruited by the American civil liberties Union. And I met a man named Lee gallant and I have no idea how impactful he would be to my career. And actually just to my life. I'm leasing attorney. He's probably the country's foremost expert on immigration law and over the two over the next two years. He under his tutelage and mentorship. I received quite an education. I read redacted court filings. I read interviews of mothers were separated from their kids. I spoke to Asylum Seekers. I read books about refugees all over the world. I was there when he argued in front of the Supreme Court, and he was there when I crossed our Southern border In Brownsville, Texas on foot to Matamoros and Reynosa and back in August. I saw the crisis and folding first-hand. I witnessed what people go through to enter our country. And I was going to say I I stand before you tonight as an immigrant. I was raised by a single mom and she enjoyed none of the resources. I enjoyed today as a parent and yet she was able to make a life for us. I am still that 4 year old girl who boarded a Pan Am Flight of the bound from India for Elmhurst Queens, who is here with you all tonight in the sparkly dress. and frankly my journey is living proof of the best America there is I'm speaking about Lee Gaillard because my work with Lee made me pivot and pour all that. I learned into my professional life through creating taste the nation I've met. The many who build this country every day they give me hope even in times like today when Frank Lee is hard to feel hopeful about our country. They aren't media trained and they don't often wear sparkly dresses, but they're here standing with me in spirit. They honor us with our stories they could just lie share their lives. They open their homes to me and they bear their hearts for the whole world to see I've heard stories of severe abuse of mothers who've watched their children die of starvation in their arms in the jungle of racism is an active force in the daily lives of people who are helpless against it people like Emiliano mirantis of a Lemmy restaurant in El Paso who spoke to me of how folks and braced his food, they loved his job didn't care about the hands that made that food. I'm inspired by the Cambodian refugees who came to Lowell, Massachusetts who in one or two generations turn the economy of that Tawny New England town around. And I can show through them how immigrants aren't a drain on our economy. But rather the engine that feels it I am deeply deeply indebted to them for helping me prove this point. I grew up in immigrant communities on both coasts but through the ACLU. I saw how much America meant to so many and why is it important to fight just to stay in that brighter vision of America where anything is possible for everyone meeting Lee really changed my life. He introduced me to Jillian Thomas of the ACL used women's rights project to along with the wonderful Jessica. White encouraged me to write an op-ed about my own story of sexual violence. It would be one of the most difficult and rewarding things I've ever done. They reminded me that I have a voice in a story to share but really everyone has a compelling story. He just have to be willing to listen. I've been fortunate enough to have a career as a writer in food and television and Time Magazine. I thank you so much for this acknowledgment of that career. I feel it's a little premature. I have to be honest. I'm just getting started now that I've had Kristen take over for me and Top Chef. But for all my work in those fields, I realize that you know what the analysis of food is interesting and it's important the people that make that food. That they are truly fascinating and the participants of taste the nation and Top Chef for that matter build a true Mosaic of what America looks like today a fuller picture and while our nation is far from perfect full of contradictions and her father sees in his policies. It can still show the world that you know, a country needn't consists of only people from the same ethnicity or religion. It can be built with all of us who see the best possible America and help it lurched forward. Stumbling off and along the way towards a future where we will hopefully share the same rights. And all are welcome. I thank you so much for this. Most precious honor. 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