Thread: Another Deportation Involving A Student

Another sob story about deportation of a college student whose parents brought her here illegally. I wonder if she was one of the ones who got in state tuition while a Canadian who was here legally with a visa was told to pay international student tuition.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_d ... 12266.html


IMMIGRATION
Former Dade student's deportation saga is familiar
Fiorella Maza knows the frustration facing Juan Gomez, a foreign-born teen fighting to remain in the only country he has ever known.
Posted on Thu, Aug. 23, 2007
BY KATHLEEN McGRORY
kmcgrory@MiamiHerald.com

OSCAR MEDRANO/FOR THE MIAMI HERALD

Fiorella Maza, a standout student, ballet dancer and track star, had just started her freshman year at Miami Dade College when immigration agents knocked on her door.

Instantly, her middle-class American life was turned upside down.

Maza now spends most of her time inside a drafty old home in Peru's capital city. She's dislodged from her circle of friends, socially disoriented. She speaks only rudimentary Spanish.

''I never thought I could be sent to Peru,'' said Maza, 19, who was brought to West Kendall illegally as a toddler and was deported in March. ``It's like a foreign country to me.''

Sound familiar? It is.

Maza's case is almost identical to that of Juan Gomez, the Killian High School grad who made headlines when he was picked up by immigration agents in July. Gomez and his brother Alex have been spared deportation to Colombia while Congress considers legislation written specifically to aid them. Thousands of other teens, however, aren't as lucky.

''We're seeing these kinds of cases more and more,'' said Kelleen Corrigan, an attorney with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

The federal government estimates 65,000 children of undocumented immigrants graduate from American high schools each year. At least 5,000 of them are living in Florida. Some have little or no recollection of living in their birth country.

The Maza family left Peru in July 1990, the month Alberto Fujimori was sworn in as president. Fiorella Maza says they left for political reasons.

The Mazas entered the country on short-term tourist visas, immigration official said. They stayed nine years before applying for relief and were denied -- a ruling that was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2003.

''Rather than complying with the order, as mandated by law, they remained in the country,'' said Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman.

By then, the family was established in South Florida. Fiorella Maza's father managed a U-Haul and a gas station in Kendall. Her mother worked as a secretary for a jeweler. They lived in a modest single-family home and owned an Isuzu Trooper.

Fiorella Maza grew up speaking English. She excelled at South Miami High. Outside of the classroom, she ran track, was on the dance team and helped produce the daily news report. Last June, she graduated in the top 10 percent of her class.

Fiorella Maza says she knew about her parents' immigration issues, but never considered she might be deported.

''I didn't want anything to do with Peru,'' she said in unaccented English. 'I was like, `Yeah, I'm Hispanic and proud of it, but I'm American. This is my home.' ''

On March 1, Fiorella Maza's father roused her from sleep about 6 a.m. Immigration agents had arrived at the house. Half asleep, Fiorella Maza tucked her wallet, cellphone, and iPod into a small bag, and climbed into a white immigration van with her family.

''I started crying,'' Maza recalled. 'I fell into my father's arms. I was just like, `Oh my gosh, this isn't happening.' ''

By 5 p.m., the family of four was on a flight to Lima.

Fiorella Maza's story isn't unique. It resonates with Luis Enrique Martinez Peña, a 19-year-old Killian grad who was deported to Venezuela in June. Peña spent seven years living in South Florida. He hoped to become a Miami-Dade police officer.

Life in Venezuela, Peña said, has been challenging.

''We do not feel safe at all,'' he wrote in an e-mail to The Miami Herald. ``The people look at us like if we were from another planet. We are rejected by people just because we lived in the U.S. and speak English.''

He added: ``No one has a clue how traumatizing it is to go through [this].''

Fiorella Maza has also had a tough time adjusting. She and her parents are staying with family in an old house in Lima. She is constantly ill. The water makes her stomach ache.

While her parents have found employment -- her father Ricardo as an accountant, her mother Martha as a hair products marketer -- Fiorella Maza does not speak enough Spanish to attend university. On most days, she sits in a her bedroom, updating her MySpace page. She has written dozens of e-mails to lawmakers and attorneys.

Although some may sympathize with Fiorella, immigration critics point out that it is unfair to bend the rules for some while other families wait years in their home countries for the chance to emigrate legally.

And they assert that in the post-9/11 world, it is imperative for the United States to maintain control of its borders.

''There are certainly some people that, in some other world, we would want to cut a little slack for,'' said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank that supports tighter controls on immigration.

``But that isn't possible given the chaos that we have in our immigration system. It wouldn't be responsible.''

Now that she is out of the country, experts predict Fiorella Maza's legal battle to return will be an uphill struggle. ''Once you're outside the country, getting back in can be a real challenge,'' said Corrigan, the FIAC attorney, who is not representing Maza. ``It could be 10 years before she's even allowed to come back legally.''

For now, Maza hopes Congress will pass the DREAM Act, broad-based legislation aimed at helping teens like herself attain citizenship.

She says she'll be lobbying from afar.

''There are probably a lot of people like me who are stuck,'' she said. ``We just want to go home.''

It is sad what these children's parents have done to them.

Thats great people are getting deported but where is all the illegal workers!!! I don't care that one or two were deported! Where the hell is the 100-200 illegal aliens were deported today, but across the nation in dozens of cities!!! ICE is throwing softballs to us! Is it all a game to make us think there doing there job?

I wrote the newspaper and accused them of dicriminating against legal immigrants and non Hispanics. Not one of those stories about illegals and their children was a non Hispanic. I also told them that not once did they write about a legal immigrant having hardship with the immigration process. Then I brought up how the college charges some illegals in state tuition and others who are entitled to it are told they have to pay out of state or international student fees. This is what I seen personally when I was there.

We have hundreds of thousands of potential cases like this one, probably far more than the 65,000 annual graduates cited here. And they're all sad. But perhaps the media along with the rest of the world ought to hold her despicable parents responsible. It's not like they didn't know they were breaking the law and a court order! Perhaps they ought to pay for all the free services provided for 19 years!! And perhaps supporters ought to be a little less arrogant. I'd bet my boots the American public, particularly me, would be much more generous and forgiving if there weren't so many and we didn't feel we've been taken advantage of -- screwed if you will. Perhaps these kids should take it up with their dads and work to make their home nation like America.

All that misery perpetrated on the kids - by the parents - because they chose to overstay their tourist visa.

Hello people!?!?!?! A tourist visa only grants permission to be in the US a very limited time - and you KNOWINGLY broke the rules. Good bye.

By then, the family was established in South Florida. Fiorella Maza's father managed a U-Haul and a gas station in Kendall. Her mother worked as a secretary for a jeweler. They lived in a modest single-family home and owned an Isuzu Trooper.

What kind of fake documents did he use to get his managment job at U-Haul? And what kind of fake documents dd she use to get her secretarial job?

This is a family of liars, cheaters and criminals. I don't find this story sad at all...this is just one small example of justice being served to a family who has been thumbing their noses at our laws for years.

I hope they have a nice life in Peru...WHERE THEY BELONG!

Originally Posted by swatchick

The Maza family left Peru in July 1990, the month Alberto Fujimori was sworn in as president. Fiorella Maza says they left for political reasons.

The Mazas entered the country on short-term tourist visas, immigration official said. They stayed nine years before applying for relief and were denied -- a ruling that was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2003.

''Rather than complying with the order, as mandated by law, they remained in the country,'' said Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman.

There is no mention of the fact that they knowingly broke the law by remaining in the US after their visa expired. Do these people have no concept of personal responsibility?

Fiorella Maza grew up speaking English. She excelled at South Miami High. Outside of the classroom, she ran track, was on the dance team and helped produce the daily news report. Last June, she graduated in the top 10 percent of her class.

I find it difficult to believe that this hispanic kid who grew up in Miami and doesn't know how to speak Spanish.

Fiorella Maza says she knew about her parents' immigration issues, but never considered she might be deported.

''I didn't want anything to do with Peru,'' she said in unaccented English. 'I was like, `Yeah, I'm Hispanic and proud of it, but I'm American. This is my home.' ''

You are not an American! This is not your country! Get it?

Fiorella Maza's story isn't unique. It resonates with Luis Enrique Martinez Peña, a 19-year-old Killian grad who was deported to Venezuela in June. Peña spent seven years living in South Florida. He hoped to become a Miami-Dade police officer.

Life in Venezuela, Peña said, has been challenging.

''We do not feel safe at all,'' he wrote in an e-mail to The Miami Herald.

I can assure him that I would feel a whole lot safer if the illegal aliens weren't around.

Fiorella Maza has also had a tough time adjusting. She and her parents are staying with family in an old house in Lima. She is constantly ill. The water makes her stomach ache.

While her parents have found employment -- her father Ricardo as an accountant, her mother Martha as a hair products marketer -- Fiorella Maza does not speak enough Spanish to attend university. On most days, she sits in a her bedroom, updating her MySpace page. She has written dozens of e-mails to lawmakers and attorneys.[

If she deosn't speak enough Spanish to attend university then why doesn't she spend her days taking Spanish lessons or an online course instead of updating her Myspace page.

For now, Maza hopes Congress will pass the DREAM Act, broad-based legislation aimed at helping teens like herself attain citizenship.

She says she'll be lobbying from afar.

''There are probably a lot of people like me who are stuck,'' she said. ``We just want to go home.''

This isn't your home. It never was.

No one wants to be held accountable for their decisions, I do feel bad for these kids my heart breaks for them, but I will not destroy a whole country for them, sometimes we have to make tough decisions.

This country just can not take everyone in who wants to come, it is impossible and one way to send that message is make the ones go back home that came in here without permission, there has to be a limit even of legal immigration or before you know it we will be like China!!


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before you know it we will be like China!!

Or worse yet we will be like Mexico!