Thread: ASU grad returns to Mexico trying to do the right thing

ASU engineering grad returns to Mexico trying to do the right thing

by Richard Ruelas - Jul. 4, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

MAGDALENA DE KINO, Sonora - Oscar Vazquez stood proudly in his cap and gown as he was introduced as an outstanding graduate from Arizona State University's Class of 2009. He was in the front row, not far from an applauding President Barack Obama, there to deliver the commencement address.

A year later, Vazquez sat in a dark bedroom in this dusty city, his engineering degree tucked in a scrapbook filled with other mementos of his college days.


Even as he listened to Obama speak of brighter futures, Vazquez knew his path first would have to go through Mexico, where he would admit his illegal status and ask for permission to re-enter the U.S.

"I decided to take a gamble and do the right thing," he said.

Pictures of life in Mexico

Shortly after graduation in May 2009, Vazquez moved to Mexico, separating himself from his U.S. citizen wife and year-old daughter in Phoenix. He figures to remain here at least through March, when, according to a letter from the government, authorities will decide whether he can legally return to the United States.

Vazquez stands by his decision to turn himself in.

"I've got to stay positive," he said. "I have to. Or else you get depressed just being here by myself."

Vazquez lives in a sparsely furnished two-room duplex, spending most of his time in the bedroom, the one room that has air-conditioning. He works the night shift at a factory that produces electronic parts for automobiles. He showed his degree in mechanical engineering to his bosses because they didn't really believe he had one.


Unwilling immigrant

Vazquez, 24, did not want to enter the United States illegally. But he was 12 and, despite his protests, did as his mother told him.

As he got close to college graduation, though, Vazquez knew he had gone as far as an illegal immigrant could go. Companies that hired college graduates did not look the other way when it came to immigration status, something Vazquez learned when he was denied college internships.

"I didn't want to get stuck in a low-end job and not be able to apply my degree to anything," he said.

Vazquez is seeking a waiver of grounds of excludability - essentially asking the government to forgive his illegal presence in the country and allow him to stay. Under the law, because Vazquez illegally remained in the country for so long after his 18th birthday, he is barred from the U.S. for 10 years.

Vazquez must make his case through paperwork. He waits in Mexico for the bureaucracy to churn out a decision.

"So far," Vazquez said, "the right way has been pretty hard."

Vazquez tries to keep himself busy so he doesn't dwell on his situation. He's teaching himself guitar. He's re-reading his college textbooks on rocketry and aerodynamics. He has a dirt bike, a great mode of transportation in this hilly town, where most streets are unpaved. The bike also is something for him to tinker with, keeping his mechanical skills sharp.


Quick visits

Karla, Vazquez's wife, visits when she can, usually for two days at a time. In June, she took a vacation from her job at an airport rental-car counter to spend a week with her husband. She pulled up to his apartment - one half of a house along a dirt road - and honked the horn. Vazquez emerged and approached the car.

"Say hi," Karla told the couple's daughter, Samantha. "Say hi to your daddy."

Vazquez leaned in and tickled Samantha's chin as Karla held her. The couple greeted each other with a quick embrace and a peck, as if Karla had just returned from the store, not a weeks-long separation. Karla said the two want to keep their emotions in check so that Samantha doesn't sense anything unusual. They hope this is resolved in March and that the baby won't remember being separated from her father.

Vazquez doesn't want to miss more of his daughter growing up. She took her first steps two weeks before Vazquez crossed into Mexico, the last milestone he was there to see.

When these trips started, the baby would recoil from Vazquez.

"It did take awhile for her to warm up," Karla said, as Oscar sat on the floor playing with Samantha. "She wouldn't go with him."

The three spend their visits in the apartment. No plans. They just want to be together.

Vazquez and his wife thought about, but quickly dismissed, the idea of the family moving together to Mexico to wait for the U.S. government's decision. "It's better for them to stay back home," Vazquez said. "There's nothing for them to come here for."


Father's footsteps

In his way, Vazquez is making the same sacrifice his father did: crossing a border in hopes of a better life. Vazquez's father, who lives in Phoenix, left the family's small village of Temósachic in Chihuahua and found work in a Phoenix factory that made box springs. He arranged for his wife and son to join him, but Vazquez didn't want to go. He had done well in primary school and won a middle-school scholarship, money his mother used instead on bus tickets to the border town of Agua Prieta, Sonora. Vazquez remained silent on the seven-hour bus ride.

A man drove them to a hole in the border fence and told them to run. It seemed like a marathon to the young Vazquez, though he would later discover it was less than a mile to the Walmart parking lot in Douglas, where they were loaded into a car and driven to Phoenix.

Vazquez excelled at Carl Hayden Community High School in west Phoenix, sticking with the ROTC program even after finding out he couldn't join the military because of his legal status.

Vazquez gained a passion for engineering through the school's robotics club. He and three other club members beat out colleges - including MIT - to win a national underwater-robot competition. Their victory was detailed in Wired magazine.

Vazquez earned scholarships to attend ASU's College of Engineering. His picture graced the cover of the school's recruiting brochure. But he lost the scholarships in 2006 when Arizona passed a law that barred undocumented students • from receiving state financial aid. He also had to pay out-of-state tuition, raising the cost by thousands of dollars. To finish school, Vazquez worked construction jobs and used donations from Wired readers and private scholarships.


Hoping on a DREAM

There's no way to know how many college graduates have sought permission to become legal residents. Most, Vazquez said, still are hoping Congress passes the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to immigrants who entered as children and went to college or joined the military.

Vazquez said he simply grew frustrated and wanted to take action.

"At least now we know the path we have to take," he said. "It's better to know than it is to be waiting."

Vazquez e-mailed advice to a fellow Arizona student who was trying the same process. In mid-June, he heard that the government had granted her waiver. He doesn't know why she was let in and he hasn't been.

Vazquez's character and accomplishments won't enter into the government's decision. The deciding factor is whether his exclusion from the country would cause "extreme hardship" for his wife.

Karla, a Phoenix native, is angry that her country has to ponder whether her husband of five years can live with his family.

"I see the part where, OK, everyone says they want to secure the border because - you know what? - there are a lot of bad people who come over," she said. "But for everyone who was brought over a child - they don't have a choice."

If Vazquez is denied re-entry, the family probably will move to Canada or Europe. Vazquez's engineering degree means he can find a job fairly easily.

"As it sits right now, I can go anywhere in the world except the United States," he said.

Vazquez tries to keep his situation in perspective. He likens the time away from his wife and daughter to military members serving overseas - fitting because Vazquez still wants to join the service, possibly the Marines, if he isn't too old when he gains residency status.


Much to offer

When he began this process, Vazquez wasn't sure how long he'd be away from his family. Karla and Samantha accompanied him to Juarez in September for his initial hearing.

He was denied his waiver, filed an appeal and was told to expect an answer in two months. He said goodbye to his wife and daughter and moved in with relatives back in his remote hometown, tucked into the mountains of Chihuahua, hoping it would be a brief separation.

But in November, he was told he needed to show more evidence of extreme hardship to his wife. The letter said his case would require further review and that he could expect an answer in 15 months.

Vazquez wanted to live somewhere close enough for his wife and daughter to visit often. But he didn't want to live in a border town because he thought it would be too dangerous. Magdalena, about an hour's drive south of the border, seemed the best choice.

But even in this sparsely populated town, locals told Vazquez not to wear a seat belt. In a hijacking, they told him, it's easier to get away if you're not strapped in.

Vazquez was hired at the auto-parts factory and quickly promoted to night supervisor. Some co-workers know he has an engineering degree.

"They always wonder, 'How come you're here if you're an engineer?' " Vazquez said. "It seems odd to them."

It seems odd to Vazquez, too. And if he allows himself to think about it, his frustration builds. He wants to use his education to contribute to the United States, which has to import engineers.

When he graduated, everyone, including President Obama, was applauding his achievement and his potential. It's hard to think the country would let all that go to waste.

"They have me," he said, his voice rising. "They schooled me. I know the culture. I know everything.

"And yet I'm not good enough to live back there."

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8473 or richard.ruelas@arizonarepublic.com.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... r0704.html

This is always the superior type student that the amnesty crowd likes to parade as the "norm." This student is the exception. Only 50% of hispanic students even graduate high school--in spite of all the added programs and testing. I would like to see the percent that graduate college compared with other groups.

The Dream Act would not just be about this type student. It would make gang members legal as well. Then all of them could bring in zillions more by chain migration!

I will probably make a few people here angry, but I actually hope this one gets let in. He did not originally come here as his personal choice, but he took responsibility, owned up to the situation. I think, if the information in this article is correct, he would be an asset to this nation.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

In his way, Vazquez is making the same sacrifice his father did: crossing a border in hopes of a better life. Vazquez's father, who lives in Phoenix, left the family's small village of Temósachic in Chihuahua and found work in a Phoenix factory that made box springs. He arranged for his wife and son to join him, but Vazquez didn't want to go. He had done well in primary school and won a middle-school scholarship, money his mother used instead on bus tickets to the border town of Agua Prieta, Sonora. Vazquez remained silent on the seven-hour bus ride.

Vazquez' scholarship money was stolen from him by his parents so the family could "enjoy a better life" in the U.S.. His parents either didn't have the foresight or didn't care that their decision would adversely affect their son. Sure, the parents are living a more comfortable life in Arizona, but now their son is living in Mexico. Thanks mom and dad.

I commend Vazquez for trying to do the right thing and hope he gets a visa so that he can support his family in the U.S.. It would be a win-win for the U.S. because one less family would be subsidized by our tax dollars and one more engineer would be in the U.S.. As an engineer, I know all too well that there just aren't enough American engineers to fill all of the engineering jobs in the U.S. these days. Most American kids would rather get a worthless liberal arts degree than earn a degree that has real value. In a perfect world, Vazquez would get a visa that would otherwise go to an engineer from India who doesn't already have a wife and kid in the U.S.. Don't get me wrong. I'm not for the Dream Act or Amnesty. Just being realistic...

Originally Posted by SecureTheBorder

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

In his way, Vazquez is making the same sacrifice his father did: crossing a border in hopes of a better life. Vazquez's father, who lives in Phoenix, left the family's small village of Temósachic in Chihuahua and found work in a Phoenix factory that made box springs. He arranged for his wife and son to join him, but Vazquez didn't want to go. He had done well in primary school and won a middle-school scholarship, money his mother used instead on bus tickets to the border town of Agua Prieta, Sonora. Vazquez remained silent on the seven-hour bus ride.

Vazquez' scholarship money was stolen from him by his parents so the family could "enjoy a better life" in the U.S.. His parents either didn't have the foresight or didn't care that their decision would adversely affect their son. Sure, the parents are living a more comfortable life in Arizona, but now their son is living in Mexico. Thanks mom and dad.

I commend Vazquez for trying to do the right thing and hope he gets a visa so that he can support his family in the U.S.. It would be a win-win for the U.S. because one less family would be subsidized by our tax dollars and one more engineer would be in the U.S.. As an engineer, I know all too well that there just aren't enough American engineers to fill all of the engineering jobs in the U.S. these days. Most American kids would rather get a worthless liberal arts degree than earn a degree that has real value. In a perfect world, Vazquez would get a visa that would otherwise go to an engineer from India who doesn't already have a wife and kid in the U.S.. Don't get me wrong. I'm not for the Dream Act or Amnesty. Just being realistic...

Well stated, that is what I was trying to express in my post, but you did a far better job

Originally Posted by cayla99

I will probably make a few people here angry, but I actually hope this one gets let in. He did not originally come here as his personal choice, but he took responsibility, owned up to the situation. I think, if the information in this article is correct, he would be an asset to this nation.

I agree with you in this one case. Rather than keep his head down and hope he's not discovered, this man is following procedure and I hope he's allowed in. He's the kind of new resident/citizen this country needs, ethical and well educated. I have no doubt he would assimlate. On the other hand, millions of illegals, most Hispanic, who sneaked into our country have displaced him in line for residency.

I'm always glad to see an illegal admit their wrong doing and return home and try to immigrate legally.

This sounds like a very honorable young man. But it is also a good example of who suffers with a parent committs a crime. The parents may have come to America for a better life but they stold and cheated to have that life. It sounds like the parents could learn morals from the child.

When an American citizen commits a crime, he is punished by going to prison and labeled a felon and barred from ever holding a decent job. His children feel the shame!...........if a illegal aliens committes a crime by sneaking across our boarder, stealing my ID and cheats the goverment, he is rewards.His children are given US citizenship. Employers are waiting to hire them when they cross the border. What is wrong with this picture??


I am so angry at hearing my goverment tell me they can not secure this border but our men and women are fighting to secure other countries borders. If we put up a electric fence with barbwire on the top, perhaps that would slow them down. The enemy is invading my country and the goverment is not only allowing it, they are encouraging it!
(Sorry.....I got off the subject a little)


"God Bless America"

I view Vazquez differently.

First off he was provided a $100,000 dollar education compliments of USA taxpayers

Second; he states he can get an engineering job anywhere in the world yet he is working in a manufacturing job in Mexico instead of applying for Engineering jobs. Why? Because if he got a good job in Mexico he would not have a case to possibly get citizenship in the USA.

If he was granted citizenship it would start a chain migration including his Illegal family. Remember he got a spot in our colleges which should have gone to a citizen plus he would be taking a engineering job away from a citizen.

I think he thought it would be easy to become a citizen if he went to Mexico because he is married to a USA citizen and has a engineering degree.

I believe this whole incident was to promote the Dream Act for IA's Children.

There are millions of illegal invaders in this country and very few are like Oscar Vazquez. If we were to make decisions based upon emotion or feelings, then Oscar Vazquez could possibly receive his Visa and eventually citizenship. I even feel for the guy and if it were just about Oscar Vazquez, I might consider his arguments.

Unfortunately, Oscar Vazquez is the exception to this issue in which the open border crowd loves to show off and flaunt as the norm. The more likely benefit of the DREAM ACT and other amnesty based rewards, are thousands of gang bangers who attended two months of continuation school or a semester at his local JC. It's the pregnant teen that dropped out of high school ,but then went back to get her GED so she could gain citizenship under the DREAM ACT.

In fact, the Act would probably be written to include any illegal that has had some sort of formal education in this country. These undesirables then would be allowed to bring in untold numbers of family members through chain migration.

If this issue were just about Oscar Vazquez, the debate might be different. But it's not and the open borders crowd will never tell you that.