13-year-old Boy Scout faces deportation to El Salvador
13-year-old Boy Scout faces deportation to El Salvador
Top
By Holly Hobbs
Source: Loudoun Times-Mirror
TUESDAY, JUNE 10 2008
UPDATED SATURDAY, JUNE 14 2008
http://www.loudountimes.com/media/ph...408_1_t203.jpg
Jose Andrade, 13, of Leesburg, came to the United States in 2005 and has been active in the Boy Scouts for two and a half years. He is being deported to his native country of El Salvador in July.
Jose Andrade is a bashful 13-year-old living in Leesburg. He's a graduate of Catoctin Elementary School, and in a few days, he will have completed seventh grade at J. Lupton Simpson Middle School.
His teachers describe him as a pleasure to have in class, a hard-working student with a positive attitude who takes pride in his work, although on occasion he can be a class clown.
His Boy Scout troop leader calls Jose the most dedicated 13-year-old Scout in the troop.
And when he grows up, he says he wants to be a policeman -- mostly because of the cool uniform, but also to help protect people.
But it's unlikely Jose will be able to realize his dreams.
A native of El Salvador, the teen has until July 16 to leave the country – alone and without his family.
The journey here
Born in Guatajigua, El Salvador, in 1994, the youngster experienced the fallout of the county's brutal civil war, which had ended in 1992.
His mother, Mirna Andrade, left the country in 2000 to find work in the United States. Jobs were hard to come by in El Salvador, and providing for her family was difficult, she said.
“I was a single mother and it's difficult to get ahead,â€