There's nothing they can do to change this picture:
Posted on 06/03/2007 9:29:21 PM PDT by freespirited
WASHINGTON - At 23, Mariana should be carefree. She is finishing up her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has been accepted to a master’s program at Harvard University’s education school.
But life is not so simple for Mariana, who insisted that only her first name be published because she is illegally in the United States and worries she could be deported to Guatemala, where she was born.
"I’m even afraid of eating an apple in the library because I’m afraid of getting caught," she said.
Mariana also worries about how she will pay her tuition and what kind of work she will get after she completes school. "What happens next? Without a work permit, how do you exercise your degree?" she said during a recent interview.
Mariana is among an estimated 50,000 undocumented students in U.S. colleges today. These students would be among the people who would benefit from a part of an immigration bill that the Senate plans to resume work on this week.
Children born in the United States to undocumented parents are granted citizenship automatically. A section of the new legislation deals with illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. They would gain temporary legal status when they graduate from high school as long as they agreed to enroll in college or enlist in the military.
They would be put on a fast, three-year path toward getting their permanent resident status and their green cards. While waiting for that, the students would be eligible for federal student loans and could work legally _ options not available to them now.
The overall bill would help roughly 12 million illegal immigrants. For most, it would take a minimum of eight years to get a green card. The larger group also would have to pay fines that would not be imposed on the high-school graduates who came to the U.S. as kids.
In all, about 1 million people now in the country illegally could potentially benefit from the provision aimed at children. Those include students currently in elementary and secondary schools. Current law allows children in the U.S. illegally to get a free K-12 education. They can go to most colleges if they can pay their way.
The immigrants who would benefit from the provision must have been age 15 or younger when they were brought to the U.S. and must have arrived before January of this year. People older than 30 when the law is enacted would not benefit.
While the bill is the subject of widespread debate, the provision addressing students is popular. Advocates say they will try to add it to other bills moving through Congress if the immigration legislation does not pass.
"I’m going to look for every chance I can find to make this the law," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a chief supporter of the idea.
"What we’re saying is these kids deserve a chance," he said. "They didn’t decide to come to America. Their parents did."
One of the most vocal student advocates is Marie Gonzalez, a 21-year-old junior at Westminster College in Missouri. She has made numerous trips to Washington to tell her story.
Her parents were deported to Costa Rica two years ago. Gonzalez, whose deportation was deferred, said she could be sent back next year.
She said saying goodbye to her parents was awful. "There’s no words to describe it. It’s been absolutely terrible. I’m an only child. They’re my best friends," she said.
But she said she cannot contemplate departing the United States for Costa Rica, a country she left when she was 5. "I’ve thought about visiting, but not going back to live there," she said. "That would be like a crashing of my dreams."
Student advocates say many of their peers drop out of high school because illegal immigrants typically only get jobs for low-skilled workers.
But the provision is motivating some students to stick with their studies, said Tam Tran, 24, who just graduated from UCLA.
"The idea that it might pass someday _ that they might be able to use their college degree to get a job _ that drives people," said Tran, who was born in Germany to Vietnamese refugees.
Neither Germany nor Vietnam recognizes her as a citizen, so she considers herself stateless in some ways and a typical American in others, Tran said.
She said she tries not to dwell on her status and that of many of her friends.
"It’s like a form of rejection," she said. "We can’t fully participate in what we have worked hard to become a part of."
But these kids will get green cards three years after the date that the bill is enacted--as long as they have two years of college or military service. They will immediately qualify for higher ed assistance. And they wouldnt have to leave the country.
Would be nice if our representatives would at least be honest with us.
bump for later reading
Would be nice if our representatives would at least be honest with us.
:::::
You must be kidding. Honest? Not a trait of Washington. And as we watch them crafting and engineered immigrant society...and favoring those that will have the ability to make more money, thus paying more taxes to save Social Security and solve the national debt ??? There is a real pattern emerging as we find out more covert facts of this piece of legislation that was written by Satan.
This illegal stole a position in graduate school from an American, and I would love to see her undergraduate transcript.
Duplicate post (not your fault) under different headline, sourced to AP:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844121/posts
“There is a real pattern emerging as we find out more covert facts of this piece of legislation that was written by Satan”
If not written by satan, he was a co-signer.
What the hell was she doing in high school to begin with?
Later, you will be promoted first because the employer needs to show diversity; those are the same qualities that got you into college in the first place. No need to worry about the native born, English speaking person you displaced. Show them the same disdain you did your fellow countrymen who followed the law and await permission to enter the US. Merit, American culture etc. has been replaced by multiculturalism, political correctness (that means actually wrong) and no one bases anything on ability.
Well, Mariana , you get the idea... and you can always apply for or get scholarships and government grants to cover your education. As taxpayers, we love funding the destruction of our country.
My aunt retired from an ivy league school's admissions job 5 years ago. She told me then how insane the preferences for Hispanics was becoming. She said it is a virtual frenzy now. She has seen non-Hispanic applicants lose spots with substantially higher SAT/MCAT scores and GPAs again and again, often with full scholarships. She herself initiated numerous investigations of admissions fraud (applicants using a false name and claiming Hispanic "ethnicity") as part of her job, and faced substantial pressure and threats for doing so, even though it was part of her job. She was constantly at odds with her co-workers and was disgusted at how racially-driven ivy league admissions had become.
The endless articles defending illegals here who suck our systems dry makes me sick. The MSM is like some weird Orwell story. The government cares more about illegals than us. What the hell is going on? Has the world gone mad?
No doubt. I am the son of 2 college professors, so I can wholeheartedly concur with your post.
Good. Let's keep it that way.
Probably the best talking point ever used. Blaming parents who are here illegally to promote a program, while simultaneously giving Amnesty to the offending parents.
“Has the world gone mad?”
You post
we concur...............
There's nothing they can do to change this picture:
Oh, but they are, technically. But it's a matter of the truth vs. the whole truth.
I keep reading junk like this...and the May 1 picture in Los Angeles comes to mind.....
thanks for the laugh, I needed it. You have been great on so many immigration threads. Keep it up. I will start another round of calls in the morning.
And the American taxpayer will be stuck with the bill AGAIN!
Thanks for that story. It is further proof that the cancer of socialism and PC have our Republic on it’s knees. The left is pure evil in its relentless obsession to destroy everything that is good about our wonderful Republic.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.