FOX8 Staff Writer

10:44 p.m. EDT, August 22, 2011
THOMASVILLE, N.C. (WGHP)—
If a 24-year-old from Thomasville doesn't get a stay of deportation in the next two weeks, he will be heading to a country he hasn't seen since he was two.

Fredd Reyes and his family came to the United States from Guatemala in 1988, when the country was in the middle of a civil war. Reyes said his family fled after receiving death threats.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified him last fall that he was set to be deported on Sept. 6 of this year. Reyes said he remembers little, if anything, about his place of birth.

"You might as well deport me to Africa. It would be the same thing. America is all I know. I say the Pledge of Allegiance, sang the national anthem. My world has revolved around this culture," Reyes said.

Reyes is one of 300,000 cases nationwide that are being reviewed by the Obama adminstration. People not deemed to be a threat to society could have their deportation stopped and could get the chance to apply for a work permit.

Most of the cases under review involve young people brought to the country by their parents. The DREAM Act, which would have given these children the chance to become citizens, has yet to pass Congress.

The Reyes family originally intended to stay only until the Guatemalan conflict was over, Reyes said.

"'Let's just wait for things to settle down.' But it didn't happen like that. We're making a life here. You start to make a home here," Reyes said.

Reyes has more than made America his home, though. He has made it big here.

This summer he made the Top 10 in the Spanish version of America's Got Talent, based in in Los Angeles. There were 25,000 applicants in all.

While the DREAM Act has failed, Reyes said he hopes the review from the Obama adminstration will lead to another dream.

"I think every situation out there should be handled individually. You can't just put a big group of people and say 'You guys are all illegal, and you all should be deported,'" Reyes said.

Reyes was accepted into UNC-Chapel Hill and NYU, but he had to turn those down because his lack of citizenship negated $70,000 in scholarship money. He now goes to a community college.

Local politicians have varying opinions on the reviewing the cases. Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat, said it is a step in the right direction. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican, said the policy looks a lot like a backdoor amnesty policy.

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-thomasv ... 5428.story