Thread: Deportation for student who didn't know he was I.A. UPDATE

Deportation deferred for student, 23, who didn't know he was undocumented

The Department of Homeland Security has deferred Monday's planned deportation of a 23-year-old Florida honors student who didn't realize until he applied for university that he has been undocumented since he was 3 years old.

Walter Lara, who considers himself the "all-American guy next door," came to the United States with his parents 20 years ago. He was supposed to be deported to Argentina, a country he says he knows little about.

“As I look to celebrate Independence Day with family and friends this weekend, I have once again seen what makes America the best country in the world. Americans are fair, just, and kind," Lara said in a statement.

Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., whose office confirmed the DHS decision, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., both have intervened on Lara's behalf. The order defers the deportation for one year.

Lara graduated from Miami Dade Honors College with an associate's degree in computer animation. He was arrested in Feburary by immigration agents, The Miami Herald reported.

He lives in Orlando with his grandmother, a legal resident, and his 15-year-old sister, who is a citizen, the newspaper reported..

Posted at 02:50 PM/ET, July 02, 2009 in Americas, Crime, Human interest, Immigration, Politics, Washington
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Buenos Aires may be poorer than the United States but there is no longer an oppressive military junta and the quality of life is good there.

another example of the unlawful defacto Amnesty being created by the Obama administration.

W

Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., whose office confirmed the DHS decision, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., both have intervened on Lara's behalf. The order defers the deportation for one year.

Another hopeful for a future Obama amnesty.

IMMIGRATION

As his deportation hearing nears, young undocumented dreamer shares his story

BY BRITTANY LEVINE
blevine@MiamiHerald.com

Walter Lara considers himself the all-American guy next door, raised on the mantra that if you work hard and do well in school, you can ''make something of yourself.'' But the 23-year-old, undocumented Florida resident -- who supporters say is ''as American as apple pie'' -- faces deportation on Monday because his parents never adjusted his immigration status after they moved to Miami from Argentina when he was 3.

He has garnered support from lawmakers and immigration activists, but time is not on his side.

Lara held a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, hoping to sway lawmakers to write a bill that could keep him in the United States. The only ways to stall Lara's deportation are if immigration officials postpone it, or if Congress passes a private bill granting him temporary residency. But with Congress out of session and the July Fourth holiday approaching, things don't look good, Lara advocates said.

Florida Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson has asked a top Homeland Security official to postpone Lara's deportation, and Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, has penned a private bill seeking the same thing.

Lara, who did not know he was undocumented until he tried to apply to University of Central Florida, said he knows little about Argentina.

MDC GRAD

He graduated from Miami Dade Honors College with an associate's degree in computer animation. He dreams of working for Pixar.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Lara in February while he was installing satellite dishes for DirecTV.

Lara's story parallels that of Alex and Juan Gomez, two local youths who were to be deported in 2007, but weren't.

Like Lara, they had a Facebook group of more than 1,300 members calling to halt their deportation. They, too, had a private bill and lawmakers on their side.

The difference for the Gomez brothers was timing and popularity, said Miriam Calderon, a policy director at First Focus, a children's advocacy group handling Lara's public relations. The Gomez's became poster children for the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant citizenship to undocumented immigrants who attend college or serve in the military.

Juan, now 20, is at Georgetown University and Alex, 21, is studying in South Florida.

Halting their deportation was seen as a temporary solution until the DREAM Act passed. But it didn't pass in 2007. The measure was introduced again in March, and advocates say it has a better chance now that President Obama, who has publicly supported immigration reform, is in office.

Lara lives in Orlando with his grandmother, a legal resident, and his 15-year-old sister, who is a citizen. He plans to watch July Fourth fireworks with them.

In 2007, Lara's neighbor offered to sponsor his citizenship and hire him to work as a high-tech sculptor. John Wilkinson, a sculptor from Central Florida, said only Lara and a handful of others know how to make the specialized art with 3D lasers.

Wilkinson, 54, visited an immigration attorney with Lara, but the attorney said not to do anything because immigration reform was ''just around the corner.'' ''Then we had a chance. Now there's a zero percent chance Walter can stay,'' Wilkinson said.

DREAM Act critics such as Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank, said, 'It's not America's responsibility to clean up the parents' mess.

''This idea of picking and choosing particular cases and passing bills for particular individuals is no way to run a railroad,'' he said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/1123810.html

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Lara in February while he was installing satellite dishes for DirecTV.

He was working.
Did he have a Social Security card?
Was it his?
How did he get it without showing his birth certificate and immigration papers?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Lara in February while he was installing satellite dishes for DirecTV.

He was working.
Did he have a Social Security card?
Was it his?
How did he get it without showing his birth certificate and immigration papers?

I guess he would have you believe his parents gave him a fake social security card.

Let's face it, the guy is a big time fraudster, his story is a big lie.

If he had a card and it wasn't his, who's ID did he steal?

If he didn't have one how was he working?

There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

[b]If he had a card and it wasn't his, who's ID did he steal?

You don't need to steal a SSN to work you can make one up, that is how most illegals do it.

Originally Posted by Bowman

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

[b]If he had a card and it wasn't his, who's ID did he steal?

You don't need to steal a SSN to work you can make one up, that is how most illegals do it.

If the number you make up has been issued to someone else you are consider to have stolen their identity.

If it is an unused number you have not.