Thread: Prospect of deportation looms for young immigrants raised in

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Prospect of deportation looms for young immigrants raised in U.S.


By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer

July 20, 2005, 2:42 PM EDT

PHOENIX -- For Luis Nava, a 21-year-old illegal immigrant facing deportation after spending all but two years of his life in the United States, his native Mexico is really a foreign place.

He said he wasn't sure of his immigration status when he and three other Phoenix high school students were apprehended by authorities during a school trip near the Canadian border three years ago.


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The four will likely learn from an immigration judge Thursday whether they will be sent back to Mexico. The government is seeking to deport the four, all brought to the United States as toddlers, because they entered the country illegally.

"It's just like any other U.S. citizen going somewhere where they didn't grow up," said Nava, who spent the last three years trying to finish his management degree at Arizona State University. "That's what I'm worried about _ the culture shock."

An estimated 65,000 illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for at least five years graduate from high school each year, said Randy Capps, an immigration analyst for the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group.

Advocates for immigrants said it's rare for students who aren't legal citizens to undergo deportation proceedings after spending most of their lives here and that the system has some room for accommodation.

While judges don't have much discretion in applying immigration law, other federal authorities can decide whether to pursue deportation, said Josh Bernstein, director of federal policy for the National Immigration Law Center, which aims to protect the rights of low-income immigrants.

Earlier this month, immigration officials granted a 19-year-old living in Missouri a one-year deferment rather than deport her to Costa Rica.

Congress also has passed special bills allowing individual students to remain in the country, immigrant advocates said.

U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor of Arizona introduced a bill last week to waive deportation requirements for Nava and his three former classmates.

The four were on a school trip in June 2002 to compete in a solar-powered boat competition near Buffalo, N.Y., when they drew the attention of immigration officials.

Their immigration status was discovered when they were trying to make a side trip to Niagara Falls in Canada. Federal agents inquired about their immigration status after a teacher questioned whether the students would be allowed to return to the United States with only their student IDs.

Judy Flanagan, attorney for the four, said her clients either don't have or don't know their relatives in Mexico.

"I don't think anybody is prepared to go back," Flanagan said. "It's not a reality you can imagine."

The four finished high school, and three of them are either enrolled or have completed college, Flanagan said.

Advocates for immigrants say Congress can't intervene in all cases and should approve a 3-year-old proposal to give children of illegal immigrants the chance to become U.S. citizens.

The proposal would allow students to apply for legal residency if they entered the United States before they were 16, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school or are enrolled in college.

It was first proposed in Congress in 2001 and is expected to be reintroduced in the coming months.

Supporters say it's unfair to boot the students because their parents decided to bring them into the country illegally and that those kids have spent much of their lives here and are essentially Americans.

"If a mother runs a red light, you don't give the child in the back seat the ticket. You give it to the driver," said Melissa Lazarin, an education analyst for the National Council of La Raza, which promotes Hispanic issues and supports the proposal.

Opponents said it would lead to more competition for legal students who are seeking admission at universities.

"Even though it wasn't those kids who made these decisions in most cases, their parents broke the rules, and we shouldn't give them an advantage over other people," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates restrictions on immigration.


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Most people empathize with students who face deportation, but the proposal amounts to amnesty and would reward people for breaking the law, Mehlman said.

The federal government also is responsible because it isn't adequately confronting the nation's immigration problems, Mehlman said.

Nava, who expects to graduate in August, said he would have to seek a business management job in an industrialized area of Mexico where he wouldn't have any family.

He has aunts in a rural area of Mexico but he has never spoken to them and wouldn't likely be able to find a job there anyway.

"It makes no sense for me to go back there," he said.

QUOTE:
Advocates for immigrants say Congress can't intervene in all cases and should approve a 3-year-old proposal to give children of illegal immigrants the chance to become U.S. citizens.
The proposal would allow students to apply for legal residency if they entered the United States before they were 16, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school or are enrolled in college.
It was first proposed in Congress in 2001 and is expected to be reintroduced in the coming months.

NO WAY HO-SAY! NO SPECIAL TREATMENT. ILLEGAL IS ILLEGAL!