HARRISONBURG - At about noon today, after Harrisonburg High School's graduation ceremony is over, most of the Blue Streaks will return home with their families.

They'll eat cake shaped like a diploma. They'll use blue-and-white napkins, take pictures and exchange gifts.

And then, in a few weeks or months, the happy grads will go on to jobs or college. They'll go on road trips with friends. They'll study in Europe. They'll vote. And in the fall, they'll proudly return home for a football game or two, wearing their college hoodies and bragging about life as a grown-up.

But Maria Martinez will probably never live that dream. She's unlikely ever to land a job in the United States or get a Virginia driver's license.

Maria can't do those things because she is an illegal immigrant. Her parents paid to smuggle her into the United States from El Salvador when she was 12.

On Aug. 24, a few short weeks after receiving her advanced diploma at HHS, Maria will be voluntarily deported. She will be the only one in her family to make the exit from America.

"My mom is legal, my brothers are legal, my sisters are legal. Everyone is legal but me," said Maria, 19. "I'm alone."

Earlier this week, Maria sat down with the Daily News-Record for about an hour to talk about her life as an illegal immigrant. Maria was in a unique position to talk on the record about her experience because immigration officials already know about her status.

In essence, she had nothing more to lose.

"I want to be normal and go to college. I want to drive. I want to vote. I want to be an organ donor," Maria said. "It's hard to try to be someone when you can't, you're not allowed."

Growing Up

Maria was born in March 1990 in San Miguel, El Salvador, which is the country's fourth-largest city, boasting about 218,000 people. The city is about 1,800 miles south of Harrisonburg.

El Salvador is Central America's smallest and most densely populated country, bordering the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras.

Maria grew up outside the city in a rural area with lots of trees and pastures with farm animals. Her surroundings were beautiful, she said, but life was no picnic.

"Life was bad," she said, flatly.

In 1990, about the time she was born, the nation was still in the midst of a 12-year-long civil war that wouldn't end for two more years. Jobs were scarce, so her parents fled to the United States to provide for their family.

Her father, Miguel, left for America when Maria was a baby, and her mother, Olivia, left when she was 3. Although the couple lived a short while elsewhere in the South, they quickly settled in Harrisonburg where they found jobs in the poultry plants.

Back in El Salvador, Maria was left in the care of her maternal grandmother. She remembers sleeping outside after the earthquakes of 2001, which killed more than 1,200 people and destroyed more than 100,000 homes.

Maria's mother called weekly, and once, when Maria was 8 years old, she visited. But other than that, life went on without her. Thanks to a little luck, her mother became a U.S. citizen; she would stay in America.

Coming To America

Then, one day in January 2003, everything changed. Maria's parents had called. It was time for the 12-year-old girl to join them in Harrisonburg.

"I told [my parents] I would only go because my grandma has a visa and promised to visit me," Maria said.

The trip was exhausting, illegal and expensive.

Maria boarded a bus and drove illegally through Guatemala. She didn't have a passport, but her family had paid the fare. People would look the other way.

Maria and a group stayed two days in an old motel before they crawled into a small raft - she called it a tire - and made a nighttime crossing of a small river into Mexico. On the other side, she and a woman rode in a bike-taxi to a nearby city and boarded a plane for Tijuana on the Mexican-U.S. border.

The next step was a little trickier, Maria said. To cross into San Diego, Mexican-American couples with dual citizenship used their children's passports to smuggle in similar-looking Latino kids. Maria's smugglers required her to learn various facts, including her fake name and the names of her "parents."

"They made me learn the colors of the flag in case we were caught," Maria recalled.

But after several tries, Maria couldn't remember the necessary information. The smugglers tired of her failed attempts and moved on to the next paying customer. It was four days before Maria would get her next chance. She remembers eating the meatballs and milk that people gave her for breakfast.

"I wasn't scared," she said. "It didn't seem wrong. This was just how I was supposed to go see my mom and dad."

The smugglers, Maria's "parents," waited until dark to drive into the U.S. When the authorities pulled them over, the couple instructed Maria to pretend she was sleeping. It worked. She was in.

From California, Maria flew to Baltimore-Washington International Airport where her parents were waiting to take her to Harrisonburg.

It had taken eight days, but Maria had crossed illegally into three countries. She had taken a bus, a bike, a boat and two planes. She doesn't know the cost for the trip, only that it was expensive.

Life In Harrisonburg

The journey to Virginia was just the beginning of Maria's childhood adventures.

Maria's mother had seen her just once in nine years, during the visit home four years earlier. When Maria arrived in the Harrisonburg, her mother was still expecting to see a small girl.

"She had bought little pants for me," Maria said. "She thought I was still a little girl."

Her pant size wasn't the only thing Olivia didn't know about Maria. Olivia didn't know Maria's favorite color, or the food she liked to eat. She didn't know her dinner routines or her favorite games or the things she liked to do for fun. They were strangers.

"I missed my grandma," Maria said. "She cooked much better than my mother."

A month after arriving, Maria enrolled at Thomas Harrison Middle School and life as an "American" began.

"When I came here, I didn't even know the English word for [the number] one," Maria said. "They tried to make us learn [English] in El Salvador, but I thought, ‘Why would I need to know that? I'll never use it.'"

Fortunately, Maria made friends quickly, especially with other Hispanic children. She went to Mass and sang in the choir. She and her friends loved to shop, go on picnics, to the movies and on road trips.

Soon, Maria took an interest in mathematics. She applied herself in school and took advanced courses. She started volunteering at the public library, shelving books. She worked as a translator for parent-teacher conferences at Spotswood Elementary School, where the ESL population in the Harrisonburg City Schools is at its highest.

As she grew older, her illegal status finally became an issue. Her other classmates - those with American citizenship - got driver's licenses, jobs and voter registration cards.

Meanwhile, she and her friends in the U.S. illegally watched from the sidelines.

"It makes it easier because I'm not the only one," Maria said. "It's still hard."

Getting Deported

Maria's mother was legal and so were her half brothers and sisters who were born here. So, in 2006, as a 16-year-old, Maria applied for citizenship.

Her mother admits some regret now for that decision. Maria was denied and, by applying, the U.S. government knew, officially, she was here illegally.

On her 18th birthday, she would need to return to her grandmother's home in El Salvador, or immigration officials would force her to leave the country. If she was forced to leave, Maria could not apply to return to the United States.

Olivia paid $1,300 for a lawyer who was able to defer Maria's voluntary deployment until after she graduated from high school.

"I'm sad and I'm depressed," her mother said in Spanish as Maria interpreted. "I worry. I want to cry and I can't sleep."

Olivia said more, but Maria teared up and refused to translate. It was too painful.

"I hope we can do something," Maria said as she resumed translating for her mother. "I'm proud of Maria because she's a good girl. She's well-mannered. She wants to keep studying."

Maria's family decided not to do as their friends and move away from Harrisonburg to avoid deportation. They had too much to lose.

Maria has sisters, a 7-year-old brother, Juan, and a 2-year-old brother, Erik. And they were happy here.

"I can't sacrifice my two little brothers for me," Maria said. "They have a good life here."

A Little Hope

A few of Maria's HHS teachers recently discovered her situation and are trying to help.

"She's the most incredible young woman I've ever taught," said Sandy Mercer, Maria's sophomore English teacher.

Mercer contacted an attorney, the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador and U.S. Sen. Jim Webb's office.

Maria, her mother and the teachers say they are hopeful but understand the reality of the situation. Fighting deportation takes time and money, and they don't have much of either.

"I'm not negative, I'm just realistic," Maria said.

For today, though, Maria and her family will celebrate her graduation. They've planned a fiesta for after the ceremony. She and her friends will do a little more shopping and watch the summer blockbusters at the theater.

And come August, Maria will go back where she came from.

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