Another Illegal Immigrant Sob Story -- from IOWA
December 26, 2009
Ready for immigration reform? Think about Yadira Montelongo
LINDA LANTOR FANDEL
lfandel@dmreg.com
As the immigration reform debate gets under way once again, keep Yadira Montelongo in mind. The Obama administration recently announced it will push to overhaul the broken system in 2010, including insisting on a path to legal status for the estimated 12 million people in the country without documentation.
But this effort has been made before without success, despite the shameful consequences of inaction, such as exploitation by employers and hardworking families torn apart when loved ones are caught.
Montelongo is one of the 12 million. The story of this thoughtful, dignified young woman is an argument for finally passing comprehensive immigration reform. Because the United States has benefited from the presence of people like her, and stands to gain even more in the future.
But her future right now is in terrifying limbo, as Montelongo waits for next April when she faces a federal administrative court hearing that could lead to deportation.
She was 13 when she came to the United States with her mother. Like virtually everyone who makes the journey, they sought a better life. In 1989, a bus took them from Monterrey, Mexico, to the border near El Paso, where they crossed a bridge on foot "into the unknown, a new beginning," Montelongo said.
Soon they ended up in Marshalltown, where Montelongo recalls being the first Hispanic student at the high school. Though she spoke no English at the beginning of ninth grade, she graduated in four years with good grades - a mix of As and Bs - thanks to hard work and the help of a caring teacher.
What happened in the two decades since, however, shows how much potential is lost when the undocumented are not allowed to fully participate in society - and how this is particularly unfair to those brought here as children with no say in the matter.
"I wanted to go to college," said Montelongo. "Back then, I wanted to be an architect, but I was shut down right away when I was told if I didn't have a Social Security card, I couldn't go to college."
Her first job was at a Burger King. Others followed: secretary at the Iowa Department of Transportation, a teacher's aide at a Marshalltown elementary school, and making sure food met USDA requirements at a factory in Georgia. Then she returned to Des Moines. Her last job here was working as a secretary and certified medical interpreter at an Iowa Health Systems clinic where she was known by another name, Montelongo said.
It ended abruptly on July 16, when a supervisor showed up to escort Montelongo to the human resources office.
Two law enforcement officers were waiting to question her. "They said, 'Obviously you are not the person you say you are. Tell us who you are.' At that point, I asked for an attorney," she recounted, looking as shocked as she must have felt that day.
The worst was yet to come.
Montelongo, who had never been in any trouble, said she was arrested on charges of identity theft. Then she was locked up in the Polk County Jail.
She had been using a Social Security card with someone else's name of necessity. Otherwise she could not work. But leading a double life had psychological consequences: "I didn't like what I was doing. I wanted to be me."
She spent about a month and a half at the jail. "It was really a scary experience because I didn't know much about what was going on," said Montelongo. And she worried her 8-year-old daughter would think she had abandoned her. The child was in the care of family members, who explained her mother was on vacation.
After Montelongo was released on bond on the identify theft charges from the Polk County Jail, she was shackled and sent immediately to the county jail in Eldora - which also serves as a federal immigration holding facility. There, she said, she was asked to sign papers agreeing to be deported. "I was told if I didn't sign, they would put me in a penitentiary for 20 years," but she decided to fight back, and said no.
Montelongo said she left Eldora on Sept. 28. The identity theft charges have been dropped. It is possible she might be allowed to stay in the United States because she was a victim of domestic violence - under a provision of the federal Violence Against Women Act - but it's far from certain and she is by no means counting on that.
About the news of Congress trying again for immigration reform, Montelongo said she is taking a wait and see attitude: "I don't get too hopeful because so many times over the years we hear the same thing, that it is really important, and something needs to be done about it, but it doesn't go further than that."
This time, Congress should make sure reform passes because it is important. The United States needs a pragmatic approach to immigration that welcomes a reasonable number of legal immigrants, to meet employment needs, not one that encourages people to live in the shadows. Let the 12 million undocumented stay, if their only violation is working, because of what they have contributed.
Start by allowing Yadira Montelongo, and others brought here as children, to move toward citizenship. They grew up here. It's their country, too.
LINDA LANTOR FANDEL is the Register's editorial page editor.
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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... Montelongo
Re: Another Illegal Immigrant Sob Story -- from IOWA
Ready for immigration reform? Think about Yadira Montelongo
Oh trust me....I WILL think of this liar and thief when making sure that none of them ever get amnesty in my country. Count on it :evil:
Re: Another Illegal Immigrant Sob Story -- from IOWA
Quote:
It's their country, too.
No, it is not.
