Thread: Family: Illegal-immigrant student martyred himself for Dream

Family Hopes Teen's Suicide Pushes Passage of DREAM Act


Written By Bryan Llenas November 28, 2011 Fox News Latino





While most families are gearing up for the holidays, a family in Texas is planning a funeral, after an 18-year-old committed suicide the day after Thanksgiving. Joaquin Luna took his life, his family claims, because his aspiration to study engineering was dashed after Congress' failure to pass the DREAM Act.

Luna was brought to the United States when he was six months old. He was undocumented, and the lack of legal status weighed heavily on him, his oldest brother, Dire Mendoza, told Fox News Latino.

SUMMARY

In an essay obtained by Fox News Latino entitled “Fulfilling a dream in waiting…â€

The onus is on the parents--- the weakness was in the child. It is a sad incident, but as sad as it is--the initial action that started this situation moving forward-- was his parents coming here illegally.

Joaquin Luna: undocumented migrant whose lack of hope drove him to suicide
Family says teen feared harsh anti-immigration laws in Texas, and became especially distressed after Dream Act failed to pass

guardian.co.uk
Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 November 2011 11.09 EST

Before he died, Joaquin Luna put on his best suit, white shirt and black skinny tie, the same outfit he wore every Sunday without fail to the Pan de Vida church in his home town of Mission, Texas. As his brother put it: "He dressed himself to go to God."

Then he shot himself in the shower room, leaving behind a note that explained why he ended such a promising life. He spoke of his desperation at what he felt to be the wall blocking out his future and preventing him from attaining his dreams.

A wall reserved for undocumented immigrants in America.

Aged 18, and in his last year at Juarez-Lincoln High School in La Joya, Luna appeared to have it all going for him. He spoke fluent English, had grades that were regularly 100% and never below 85%, and was skilled at operating computer graphics.

"He was one of the smartest kids at school. His passion was for math and engineering, and he had developed his own blueprint for designing houses by computer programme," his elder brother, Carlos Mendoza, says.

The one thing that Luna did not have was the paperwork to grant him legal status in the US. He was born in Ciudad Miguel Alemán in Mexico, right on the border with Texas.

When he was six months old his family, including his parents and five siblings, crossed the border without visas and travelled just about 40 miles to Mission, on the US side of the frontier.

As he grew older, Luna grew more and more anxious about his lack of a social security number that he would need were he ever to find a job. He used to talk about it often to his brothers and sisters, fretting that even if he gained a good college education, he would never be able to find work or support a family of his own.

He also followed politics closely, reading in the newspapers about the harsh immigration laws passed in other southern states such as Alabama and Arizona. "He got angry," Mendoza says. "He said the people passing these laws had no heart: how could they leave so many kids without parents and destroy so many lives?"

When the Dream Act – a law that would have granted undocumented immigrants in higher education such as himself permanent residency status – failed to pass the US senate last year, Luna took it heavily.

"He got depressed real bad," Mendoza recalls. "Every one of us, we all get depressed. Some of us can handle it, some of us can't. Joaquin couldn't."

Shortly after 9pm on Friday, Mendoza received a call on his cellphone from his younger brother. Luna was at their mother's house and sounded strange on the phone.

"He told me to have a good life, and when I asked him why he was saying that to me, he said: 'Because I'm not going to be here.'" In his last words to his brother, Luna said that he felt he couldn't accomplish his dreams because there was a big wall in front of him.

Fearing the worst, Mendoza began running to his mother's house, but arrived only in time to hear the retort of the gun.

The note Luna left is in the keeping of police investigating his death. Detectives have told family members that in it, he tells them that his main motive for suicide was his lack of legal status and the failure of the Dream Act.

Mendoza believes that his brother took his own life for a purpose. "Everybody has a mission in life and I think this was his – to communicate to people what's going on in America."

The family is planning a small funeral for Joaquin Luna on Wednesday.

At the weekend a letter arrived for him from the University of Texas-Pan American. It offered him a place for next year in its undergraduate course in engineering.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/no ... as-suicide

As his brother put it: "He dressed himself to go to God."

If he was such a church going young fellow and so "devout" why was he totally unaware of how God frowns on suicide and also what a selfish act this is to do to the people that loved him?

Sorry, but this story reeks. Soon the illegals will be making posters with his picture on it - he will have streets named after him and will be hailed as a martyr for the "Dream" because he took the cowards way out.

They are NOT telling the whole story here! Nobody in their right mind is gonna off themselves just because they can't get in state tuition!

He could have gotten an education in Mexico and worked to improve his own country instead of trying to steal college openings from US Citizens.

How disgusting that they would use this tragedy to further their agenda. I agree with others that put the responsibility on the family. First they brought him here illegally, then they failed to provide the support and help he needed emotionally. This young man was very fragile if lack of free college tuition would push him over the edge.

IF THE UNTHINKABLE SHOULD HAPPEN HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-256425.html

I blame all these pro illegal immigration invasion groups that have gotten all these young adults and kids whipped up into a frenzie behind the failed Dream Act Amnesty.

By using these kids as political pawns and filling their heads full of false expectations they caused this angst.

If these young people were encouraged to go abroad as most American students do, yet return to their home nations for college they would be much happier.

I bet this young man was bombarded on a regular basis about how evil Americans were holding him down and stopping his progress etc etc...

When in fact this young man could have been anything he wanted to be with the right outlook and a focus on complying with the laws instead of asking Americans to bend the laws for him.

These Dream Act Amnesty supporters use these kids as political cannon fodder and don't think for a second they won't haul this young man's corpse up on a stick and parade down main street with it if they think it will further the goals of their invasion of the American homeland.

W

RELATED

[size=150]New information emerges about “Dream Act Suicideâ€

CNN Helps Politicize Tragic Teen 'Dream Act Suicide'

newsbusters.org
By Matt Hadro
November 30, 2011 | 17:13

Video @ link

After an illegal immigrant teenager killed himself allegedly because his lack of citizenship would derail his college dreams, CNN ran a segment on the "'Dream Act' Suicide" and asked his family about the importance of the liberal "Dream Act" to other illegal immigrant students.



The family of the teenager Joaquin Luno claimed that his suicide was due to stress over his illegal immigrant status and his frustration that the Democrat-supported "Dream Act" did not pass Congress – legislation which would help him achieve his goal of attending college. The second half of CNN's segment was then devoted to the status of the liberal immigration bill.

"Mendoza says the letters his brother left behind reveal his fears about being in the country illegally. He was also frustrated the Dream Act never passed," CNN correspondent Rafael Romo reported, sourcing the teen's brother, before leading into the status of the legislation.

"A new push by Democrats in Congress this year didn't go too far, either. Republican lawmakers called the bill blanket amnesty and have strongly opposed it," Romo ominously reported. Are Republicans now the bad guys for blocking legislation that a teenager deemed vitally important, at the cost of his life?

CNN later aired another comment from the teen's brother, who insisted that many other illegal immigrant teenagers are depending on the Dream Act to attend college. "It's like all these kids that are here, they're all dependent on that Dream Act, to keep on studying," Diyra Mendoza told CNN.

The report ended on a "down" note with the news that passage of the bill is currently unlikely. "But with the Congress unable to reach a compromise to reduce the deficit, and presidential elections less than a year away, the chances of any immigration reform seem very unlikely," concluded Romo.

A transcript of the segment, which aired on November 30 at 1:47 p.m. EST, is as follows:

RANDI KAYE: A teenager in Texas who dreams of being an engineer felt his status as an illegal immigrant would keep him out of college and deny him a career. His family says the pressure drove him to suicide. Rafael Romo has his story.

(Video Clip)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN correspondent: (Voice-over) Joaquin Luna was only 18 years old. The senior at Juarez Lincoln High School in Mission, Texas dreamed of going to college. But since he was in the country illegally, that was nearly impossible.

DIYRA MENDOZA, brother of Joaquin Luna: He just saw no other way or no other option.

ROMO: His brother says Joaquin wanted to be an engineer. The sketches he left behind show his ability. But he was quickly losing hope of ever going to college, his family says. Last Friday, according to family members, he went into the bathroom, and shot himself in the head.

MENDOZA: And as soon as I pulled him out to the kitchen, I could see the bullet hole. And there was no movement, no signs of anything. He was gone.

ROMO: Mendoza says the letters his brother left behind reveal his fears about being in the country illegally. He was also frustrated the Dream Act never passed.

(on camera): The initiative would legalize young immigrants who have been in the country for more than five years if they attend college or served in the military. The Dream Act fell five votes short in the Senate last year. A new push by Democrats in Congress this year didn't go too far, either. Republican lawmakers called the bill blanket amnesty and have strongly opposed it.

Sen. JOHN CORNYN, (R-Tex.): It is a band-aid. And maybe worse, it will provide an incentive for future illegal immigration.

ROMO (voice-over): The Dream Act was also a hot-potato issue in the recent CNN debate of Republican presidential candidates.

Rep. MICHELE BACHMAN, (R-Minn.), GOP presidential candidate: The federal Dream Act, which would offer taxpayer subsidized benefits to illegal aliens. We need to move away from magnets, not offer more.

NEWT GINGRICH, GOP presidential candidate: I don't see any reason to punish somebody who came here at 3 years of age but who wants to serve the United States of America.

ROMO: Back in Texas, Mendoza is thinking of other young immigrants like his brother.

MENDOZA: It's like all these kids that are here, they're all dependent on that Dream Act, to keep on studying.

ROMO: But with the Congress unable to reach a compromise to reduce the deficit, and presidential elections less than a year away, the chances of any immigration reform seem very unlikely. Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(End Video Clip)

KAYE: Thanks, Rafael.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro ... z1fFJU71f7

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