Thread: He just wanted a FREE education. No Harm no Foul!

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGBCU8GV5EE.html

Illegal Immigrant, 27, Caught Posing As High Schooler
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By LISA A. DAVIS and RONNIE BLAIR The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 28, 2005

TRINITY - Josue Oswaldo Ramirez-Mejia just wanted a good education.

That's the story the 27-year- old told Pasco County Sheriff's deputies Tuesday when he was arrested for posing as a 17-year-old J.W. Mitchell High School student.

An illegal immigrant from Guatemala, Ramirez-Mejia has been attending the school since shortly after the new academic year began in August, sheriff's officials said.

His real age was discovered Tuesday after he lost his wallet during gym class, which was found with his identification cards with his real birth date: Jan. 3, 1978.

Ramirez-Mejia enrolled in the school Aug. 25 with someone posing as a parent at his side, according to school officials. He used forged documents, including a birth certificate stating he was born Jan. 3, 1987, sheriff's officials said.

He also was enrolled in English as a second language classes, school officials said.

Ramirez-Mejia, of 1820 Hacienda Way, Holiday, is being held at the Land O' Lakes jail on a charge of uttering a forged instrument. Bail is set at $5,000.

FBI and immigration services have been notified, the sheriff officials said.

Funny how he was so uneducated and yet he knew enough to forge documents in order to enroll in high school.

I think all illegals regardless of age should be allowed access to our public high schools in order to benefit from our free education! Whether your 17 or 70 it definately is appropriate after all we have a responsibility to make sure that these illegals are educated so when they are doing the jobs Americans won't do they will not be taken advantage of and accept meager pay scales of $2 - 3.00 an hour!


The Real ID card is going to do nothing to stop illegals after all for a proce there will be those who will make up phony documents, etc for the illegals. The only thing it does is tighten the governments chokehold around the necks of US citizens.

Holy Smoke, Dee. This story is hitting home !! During registration for school this year I observed this very thing happen at the registration desk at our high school!!

Three very poor English speaking Hispanics came up to the desk. They were trying to register a "girl" for the 10th or 11th grade. They were showing a lot of papers and the administrator was finding them to be very suspicious papers and transcripts. She kept looking at them and noticed many dates were not coinciding and began asking questions about the girls age. They were claiming that she was a certain age, and then the administrator noticed a date which was way out of sinc. She asked all of them to state her date of birth and age, which they all did and it was an appropriate age for entering school. Then she pointed out that if her age was what they were claiming it to be then HOW could one of the dates on the paper be what it was ??

Then in a VERY FIRM manner she asked them, "How old is she?" They hesitated and then admitted her age. It would have made her 23 years old at the time that she would graduate from high school.

The Black American Administrator slammed the folder closed, and firmly said, "There is NO WAY way she will attend school here. I cannot and will not allow an adult to attend class with our children!! I noticed how she referred to high school kids as "children", and I understood why. She was furious at the idea because of the potential danger and jeopardy kids could be in with "adults" posing as kids meandering around school campuses. She did a beautiful job of being extemely vigilant and also letting them know that she did not appreciate their attempt to get past the laws.

She informed them of the name of the adult school for the "woman", and told them to go there. They continued to stand there, as if they were ready to continue to fight the issue. Then as we all stood quietly and watching, one of them sighed, they all rolled their eyes, the "student" grabbed her folder and they went out the door.

I was speechless. I was so happy over her handling of the situation. Out of respect for the administrator, I did not believe that I should say too much. But I did smile, and say, "You certainly do a great jobl!!" Then I proceeded to carry on with our business.

It was a great fifteen minutes for our American "children"

I didn't realize this was so rampant Legal. I wonder how many adults are attending high schools because of the indifference of the school administrators when it comes to questioning paperwork, etc. The administrator at your school should get an award!

I'm sure they will just go to another school and keep trying.

You know Dee, since reading all of this I'm wondering the same thing.
How rampant is this ? Common sense is telling me that it is probably very rampant, and it is TRULY a danger. Imagine, high school freshman are merely fourteen years old.

To me THIS should be given an immediate Congressional Hearing and Investigation. Forget Katrina now, it's over, START TODAY in finding out EXACTLY what dangers are LURKING with our children everyday for seven and eight hours, and sometimes more. That's it, we need to take action on this right away.

This news is appalling. The American children deserve SO MUCH better than this "No Child Left Behind President" is providing. Perhaps it should be the "Bush No Adult Left Behind Program". I'm livid about this.

Teenagers may be bigger physically, but the fact is that they are a VERY VULNERABLE group in our society. They ARE being LEFT BEHIND. I'm not kidding.

I have some thoughts on this matter.

Since our supreme court has so thoughtfully decreed that we must educate those illegally in our society...then we should take the bull by the OTHER horn.

There should be no FREE educaton, no FREE transportation in this society. That any level of government insist that our taxes be paid out for folks who are not legally citizens...is appalling. The result is that while we PAY for it our own children are at risk of being pushed out of the schools...gang fights and other dangers lurk daily. How can our children focus on LEARNING in an atmosphere of fear??

There should be tuition for each semester of school and also a tuition charge for riding the school bus. They do this quite successfully in other countries...especially republics like Singapore who have a large number of different nationalities...therefore a tution based school is provided for each nationality. The American School, The Indian School, etc.

That would also go a long way to provide discipline in schools...just let a child go home and tell a tuition paying parent that he/she was unable to learn in an enviromment where students are disrupting classes and threatening teachers.

Educating children is the responsibility of parents...and parents, not the government, should be in control of that education. No more governmental brainwashing and governmental blackmail. We pay for the whole thing anyway.

RR

The Real ID card is going to do nothing to stop illegals after all for a proce there will be those who will make up phony documents, etc for the illegals. The only thing it does is tighten the governments chokehold around the necks of US citizens.

You got it. It will only track Americans and do nothing for those coming here illegally with false documents.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... al/3382440

Oct. 4, 2005, 8:47PM



[b]AFTER-SCHOOL DETENTION
A 27-year-old undocumented immigrant lied and cheated â€â€

I wanted a free college education but I didn't get one--I ended up spending about 20 K.

One has to admire his grasp? Now just which grasp is that?? The one where he has bothered to discover and take advantage of every break intended for American citizens?

Will he be a loss to this country? What a question. No. The space he's taking in school belongs to an American...and the loss of an American child's education will certainly be felt.

I'm so full of this 'poor, hard working, desirable felon' drivel. They couldn't find evidence that he was a lawbreaker???? Hey, he's standing right there in front of them.Wake up!!

RR