Thread: Teen's dream hits a detour

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... &cset=true

By Ana Beatriz Cholo
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 7, 2006

Anthony Harvey Jr. had no idea he was in the United States illegally until he asked his stepmother when he would be able to get a driver's license.

Now 18 and a recent graduate of Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Harvey had hoped to spend the summer getting ready for his first year at Carthage College in Kenosha, where he was to play on the football team. Instead, he is preparing to move back to Jamaica, which, though utterly foreign to him, is his legal home.

Leaving voluntarily is one way for the Rogers Park teenager to avoid deportation while applying for a U.S. resident visa. The alternative would be to stay here unlawfully and hope for a change in the law.

Either way, there is a risk.

Supporters say his plight exemplifies the need for Congress to pass the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would grant temporary residency status to students with a high school diploma who enroll in college. The students would achieve permanent residency once they earned a college degree or served in the U.S. military for two years.

Harvey would have fit perfectly under the requirements of the DREAM Act, but it's too late. He leaves for Jamaica on July 2.

His parents smuggled him into the United States when he was a baby. His mother abandoned him when he was a child, and when he was 13, his father was suddenly deported. He was left with Deidre Williams--then his father's girlfriend and now wife--who is petitioning for her stepson's residency.

"I feel bad for the kids," she said of Harvey and his younger sister, Krystle, 16, who was born in the United States. "They led a life of disappointment, but I think they are adjusting OK. They are troupers."

Rosalie Musiala, principal of Pope John XXIII School in Evanston, said Harvey stood out as a pupil there. She said he was always courteous and polite and had a positive spirit. Even after he graduated, he helped clean up the school as a volunteer.

Now, the church community is rallying around him, as they did five years ago. Musiala was his 8th-grade teacher when Harvey's father was taken from the family's apartment in the middle of the night and deported five days after Christmas.

"He did not have a mom or a dad at his 8th-grade graduation," Musiala said. "Most kids would use this as an excuse to not put 100 percent of an effort into their work or behavior, but Anthony continued to give 200 percent."

Supporters referred Harvey to Donald Kempster, a Chicago immigration attorney who took his case last year. He recommended that Harvey leave the country within 180 days of his 18th birthday--by the first week of July--to avoid penalties.

"Once you hit 18, if you are here without permission and ... reach the six-month mark, you can be subject to a three-year bar," Kempster said.

His chances of being able to come back are good, thanks to having an American stepmother, a spotless criminal record and transcripts that show he's college-bound. But the entire process can take a year and a half.

Harvey is spending his last weeks here like a typical American teen: sleeping, hanging out with friends, playing basketball or going bowling.

One afternoon, he sprawled on a chair in the cramped living room, perusing his new Loyola yearbook. The photos brought smiles to his face.

There was one of him working at Loyola Summer Camp, carrying several children on his back as if he were a giant tree. Another had him posing with his football buddies, No. 91 on his jersey. One caught him midair in a belly-flop above a pool.

Looking back, Harvey said, there was one clue into his past. When he was 12, he noticed a small blue-tinged paper on the dining room table that read "Social Security" above his sister's name.

Harvey asked where his card was. He does not remember what his father said, but the subject was dropped--until freshman year, when he learned the truth.

He wanted to start immediately on the paperwork, but tracking down his biological mother proved difficult.

"At the time, I didn't think it was that serious," Harvey said. "Oh, OK, the paperwork will get started and I will get my Social Security number, driver's license, and then I can get on with my life. But the lawyer said it's a long process. I was like, uh-oh."

He was angry at his mother and father.

"Why didn't they get this stuff done earlier?" he said.

Catherine Salgado of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights said Harvey is one of about 65,000 young adults each year who graduate from U.S. high schools but are in this country illegally.

"This is his country, basically," Salgado said. "He has never left this country. He didn't make the decision to come here, why should he go back?"

Harvey is shy and has not welcomed the attention he has been getting over the last month, since his story became known at school.

Even his closest friends did not know Harvey was not a U.S. citizen until a teacher asked for their support in trying to keep him in the U.S.

"I think he is embarrassed when he is part of the limelight," said Selina McGuire, a guidance counselor at Loyola who has known Harvey since freshman year and is one of his biggest cheerleaders. "He is just a spark and hard not to notice," she said.

But McGuire said Harvey would love to blend into the background.

"He didn't want to bother anybody or put anybody out," she said.

When asked why he didn't want people to know, Harvey turned silent. Finally, he said, "It's like, what are they going to think? Am I bad person?"

He looks forward to seeing his dad, who works in a tire retreading factory, but is worried about life in his birthplace.

Jamaica has one of the world's highest homicide rates, according to the United Nations.

"It's kind of scary," he said. "It doesn't sound like all that good of a country. ... The tourists stay on the outskirts. They see the nice beaches, the trees. But once you get in there ..."

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acholo@tribune.com

and when he was 13, his father was suddenly deported.

Don't you think that should have been Junior's first clue that something was wrong??

Easy. He was 13 years old.

He was angry at his mother and father.

"Why didn't they get this stuff done earlier?" he said.

Now he's an American. He's not blaming you or I and will get his status straightened out.

He is paying for his parents mistakes and that is a shame. He sounds like a good kid. He is going to follow the law and come back the legal way which is as it should be. His parents should have applied for citizenship along time ago for him and he rightly got angry at the people responsible for this, his parents.

I wish him the best of luck but this is what must be done to control this situation. These stories are the ones they are trying highlight to get the American people to capitulate. What people need to realize is this is not a problem to be looked at individually, this is a national problem that must be handled by laws.

These stories are the ones they are trying highlight to get the American people to capitulate.

I agree. There's going to be a lot of these stories, and for each good guy there's is likely another guy grabbing his crotch at me that I'll have to remember on my own since the news is totally biased.

I am a member of ALIPAC I understand illegal and I mean No Amnesty.

Call me cynic, but I am having some problems with this story. First of all there is this.

He was left with Deidre Williams--then his father's girlfriend and now wife--who is petitioning for her stepson's residency.

I guess dad managed to get back and get married. Did Dad get a green card when he got married?

An American stepmother hmmmmm. He could go to college in Mexico, they have them you know.

His chances of being able to come back are good, thanks to having an American stepmother, a spotless criminal record and transcripts that show he's college-bound. But the entire process can take a year and a half.

Why would they just take the father and leave the kids? Did they think the kids belonged to the girlfriend/now stepmother?

Now, the church community is rallying around him, as they did five years ago. Musiala was his 8th-grade teacher when Harvey's father was taken from the family's apartment in the middle of the night and deported five days after Christmas.

To me there is whole lot of this story thet was left out to make it sound good.

I am glad he is going through the process now and I wish him well.