Thread: {Sob} Star CHS student facing deportation

Star CHS student facing deportation
Ray Parker
The Arizona Republic
May. 4, 2007 05:56 PM

Chandler High senior Maria Duenas is going to have a difficult time cracking higher education after her high school graduation May 30. She may be deported.

Things have unraveled for the Mexican-born teen with straight-A grades and multiple college scholarships in the wake of Proposition 300, which Arizona voters approved last year. The law denies in-state tuition and financial aid at state schools to undocumented residents.

"I've been here for 16 years, so it feels like something is being taken away," the 18-year-old said.


She's racked up scholarships to Chandler-Gilbert Community College and Arizona State University but won't be able to use them. The reason: She's not in the country legally and has no green card. She now faces deportation even though she's married to her high school sweetheart, an American citizen.

For undocumented students, Arizona holds out the promise of a better education, but only up to a point. The college application process blocks many, especially with the new law. Finances hinder even more.

Ineligible for federal aid, they are charged non-resident or international tuition rates - double or triple the normal tab.

This is not the case in 10 states, including California and Texas, which allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school to pay in-state tuition for college.

Friends and family are worried about Duenas' future.

"Right now as it stands, she will have to go live in Mexico for two or three years, and it's uncertain if she can return to the U.S.," said her husband, Anton Bernard, 18, who graduated from Chandler High last year.

This week a crowd of more than 15,000 people marched in Phoenix in support of immigrant rights, just one event held in cities across the country aimed at pressing Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.

Many undocumented students now see their only hope for attending college in the proposed federal DREAM Act, which would allow those who grow up in the United States and graduate from high school to attend public colleges for in-state tuition and eventually gain citizenship.

National figures put about 1.7 million undocumented students under 18 in U.S. schools. About 65,000 graduate each year, according to a 2005 study by The Bell Policy Center.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling required public elementary and high schools to educate all children regardless of legal status.

Duenas' entry into Chandler public schools began in elementary school, after her parents brought her illegally to the U.S. when she was a toddler. Over the years, the teen has blossomed into a stellar student who tutors other students. She likes working with children and is interested in becoming a pediatrician or schoolteacher.

"She's a poster child for passage of the DREAM Act, allowing children who came as young kids and graduate high schools to become permanent residents on their own," said the teen's lawyer, Gerald Burns, a Chandler attorney who's a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Duenas' case became complicated after her parents first used an immigration consultant who claimed legal credentials but did not have any. Burns said the consultant ended up creating more trouble for the families' immigration case.

"It's really just tragic, if Congress would just address this problem then we wouldn't' t put children like Maria in this position," Burns said.

Burns recommends the Chandler teen take voluntary deportation before June 25, when she turn 18 and half, because her chances for returning and becoming a citizen improve. If she remains in the United States after that age she faces forced deportation and greater hurdles in returning legally.

"Even though she's lived in the state for more than 10 years and is married to a citizen . . . she has a very weak case," Burns said. That's because they married just two months ago, have no children or property together, and are not living together because her husband attends college out of state.

As Arizona grapples more and more with the social ramifications of illegal immigration, the Chandler teen said, "I just wanted people to know there are people like me."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 4-ON.html#
What do you think?

"Even though she's lived in the state for more than 10 years and is married to a citizen . . . she has a very weak case," Burns said. That's because they married just two months ago, have no children or property together, and are not living together because her husband attends college out of state.

Sounds like a marriage of convenience. Perhaps they thought the marriage would make her path to legalization easier.

MW wrote:

Sounds like a marriage of convenience. Perhaps they thought the marriage would make her path to legalization easier.

Yeah, that's about as plain as the big nose on my old face

Originally Posted by MW

"Even though she's lived in the state for more than 10 years and is married to a citizen . . . she has a very weak case," Burns said. That's because they married just two months ago, have no children or property together, and are not living together because her husband attends college out of state.

Sounds like a marriage of convenience. Perhaps they thought the marriage would make her path to legalization easier.

"It's really just tragic, if Congress would just address this problem then we wouldn't' t put children like Maria in this position," Burns said.

Huh? If her illegal alien parents had not snuck across the border and made her an accessory to their crime none of them would be in this position. At what point do these people take responsibility for their criminal activity and realize that unlike Messyco, when you break the law in someone elses' country and get caught there is a price to be paid. Deportation IMHO is a slap on the wrist compared to what would happen to an American in Messyco illegally for 5 minutes, not more than a decade.

I have empathy for her. I wouldn't know what to do in her situation. But yeah, the parents are to blame, no doubt.

Bye.. Bye... Getting married did not save your butt

Blame your parents for sending you back to Mexico and no we are not paying for your college education

"I just wanted people to know there are people like me."

Believe me we know. There are thousands of you still holding their hands out for something to which you have no entitlement.

GO HOME!

Go back to mejico, get an outstanding education there on law, and come back when you're ready to do it legally!!

ICE better hurry before she drops an anchor

Things have unraveled for the Mexican-born teen with straight-A grades and multiple college scholarships in the wake of Proposition 300, which Arizona voters approved last year. The law denies in-state tuition and financial aid at state schools to undocumented residents.


Now, these multiple scholarships can be offerred to legal immigrants and American citizens.