Thread: Some find the doors closing

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/356594.html

Last update: April 06, 2006 – 10:24 PM

Some find the doors closing
A family who left Mexico about nine years ago has suffered the effects of not having a path to citizenship.
Jackie Crosby, Star Tribune

Felipe Mancera never thought much about citizenship until his senior year at Highland Park High School in St. Paul. Because he was part of a family of illegal immigrants, he was bounced from a college scholarship program he'd been enrolled in since the seventh grade.
"This whole time I'm working toward this great opportunity and suddenly I felt like I was a criminal," said Mancera, 19, who came to St. Paul on a tourist visa with his family when he was 10.

Mancera's father, Felipe Sr., was a high school math teacher in Mexico City. His union activity made him unpopular with government supporters, the father said, and in the early 1990s he came to visit his brothers in St. Paul. He worked for three years to bring his wife and three sons to St. Paul. All have overstayed their visas.

In the eyes of the government, Felipe Sr. said matter-of-factly, he and his family are "illegal." Yet he and his wife own a two-story house in St. Paul, have full-time jobs as maintenance workers, pay taxes, and said they have never taken a penny of public assistance.

If a compromise reached Thursday in the U.S. Senate holds, families like the Manceras who have been in the United States longer than five years would be allowed to stay and seek citizenship if they can pay a $2,000 penalty.

But Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has highlighted immigration issues, does not support amnesty, automatic citizenship or permanent status for those who came here illegally, spokesman Brian McClung said Thursday.

For young Felipe Mancera, the arguments at the state and national level couldn't be farther from his reality.

He came to America as a child, learned English, became a leader at his school. As an A and B student, he thought he had fulfilled the requirements of the Multicultural Civic Engagements Program, which offered a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota if he kept up his grades.

But when officials discovered his immigration status, they said he would have to pay the rate charged international students - three times the in-state tuition.

Now Mancera is working through the Minnesota Immigration Freedom Network to try to change state and federal laws that make it tough for immigrant students like him to attend college.

"It used to be illegal for a black person to sit next to a white person on a bus," he said. "Bad laws get changed all the time."


Staff writer Patricia Lopez contributed to this report. Jackie Crosby • 651-298-1541

I am sick to death of these Mexican illegals using blacks history with white ppl as examples to further their illegal causes

The history blacks and whites in THIS COUNTRY has nothing to do with them! They have no civil rights here, because they are ILLEGAL!

He came to America as a child, learned English, became a leader at his school. As an A and B student, he thought he had fulfilled the requirements of the Multicultural Civic Engagements Program, which offered a full scholarship to the University of Minnesota if he kept up his grades.

But when officials discovered his immigration status, they said he would have to pay the rate charged international students - three times the in-state tuition.

I've never heard of a state supported school that has a "rate charged to international students". Most schools call it what it is: the out-of-state rate.

Send him back to Mexico. My great uncle had the door closed on him when the US restricted immigration in 1921, so he ended up stuck in Germany. In WWII he was killed during an allied bombing raid.

Why do all these people think the US owes everyone in the world "the American dream"?

"It used to be illegal for a black person to sit next to a white person on a bus," he said. "Bad laws get changed all the time."

Actually there's a big difference here; these black people were Americans & they had rights, therefore an injustice was corrected, Illegals do not have rights.

"It used to be illegal for a black person to sit next to a white person on a bus," he said. "Bad laws get changed all the time."

I SURE HOPE IT PISSES OFF A LOT OF BLACKS TO SEE A COP OUT LIKE THIS ONE! TYPICAL JACKASS TRYING TO RIDE THE COAT TAILS OF ANOTHER RACE THAT HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH! THAT BLACK PERSON WAS LEGAL ON THAT BUS AND DIDNT DEMAND A FREE RIDE EITHER YOU SOB!

Send his ass packing and good damned riddens! [/quote]

Originally Posted by Americans1st

I am sick to death of these Mexican illegals using blacks history with white ppl as examples to further their illegal causes

The history blacks and whites in THIS COUNTRY has nothing to do with them! They have no civil rights here, because they are ILLEGAL!

I am too . . . before this is over, I think the blacks and whites will have a better appreciation of each other. They are trying to DIVIDE AND CONQUER - but they are forgetting one thing -- WE ARE AMERICANS!!! whether Black Americans or White Americans . . .