Thread: Undocumented Students Living in a 'Purgatory'

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... 729Z4.html

Undocumented students living in a 'purgatory'
'Wilson 4' case fails to solve U.S. immigration problems

Jul. 29, 2005 12:00 AM

By now just about everyone knows about the "Wilson Four" - Oscar Corona, Jaime Damian, Yuliana Huicochea and Luis Nava - and the former Wilson Charter High School honors students' fight to stay in the country.

But for every one of them, there are thousands - probably tens of thousands - of undocumented students in elementary, middle and high schools in Phoenix schools. Like the Wilson Four, these students were brought into the country illegally as young children and have known only the United States as home. They can speak Spanish and English very well, wear Sean John and watch SportsCenter.

They strive to do well, hold their families dear and recite the Pledge of Allegiance every school morning. But again, like the Wilson Four, these thousands of students and former students are caught in a perpetual purgatory that our so-called political leaders either can't or won't resolve.

If the case of just four kids took three years and presumably thousands of dollars and lots of court time to handle (and it's still not resolved), how will we handle the thousands of other students in Phoenix?

Don't kid yourself, this is a major challenge for Arizona, the Southwest and states like Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. It's a very complex problem for which there is no easy answer. Asking all illegal immigrants to voluntarily leave - like Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl would do in his immigration plan - is pure fantasy.

The Roosevelt, Phoenix Elementary, Isaac, Murphy, Cartwright, Fowler, Phoenix Union and several other city districts have thousands of undocumented kids in classes. Schools are not obligated to ask questions concerning citizneship, and they don't.

So while Valley business owners keep recruiting and hiring undocumented immigrants, their undocumented children keep filling our classrooms.

Some readers have written me to say that if Valley businesses would just stop hiring the undocumented, more unemployed Americans would find jobs and wages would be raised across the board because Americans would not be paid as low as the undocumented.

Soon thereafter, the world would be all right again.

Sweet kids, these people.

The immigration judge's decision on July 21 to essentially throw out the case against the undocumented former students was celebrated by Latinos and others who closely followed the plight of the four. But the decision means nothing to thousands of others just like them.

It set no precedent. It doesn't keep the four in the United States permanently. It doesn't even keep immigration enforcement officials from continuing their push to kick them out of the country. The decision applies only to those four, Nava, Huicochea, Damian and Corona.

So what do we do with tens of thousands of other students who are in this country illegally but are otherwise productive citizens and contributing as much, or more, than many legal residents?

I'm not entirely sure. But I know we have to do something soon. It's hard to believe that our immigration situation could get any worse, but if we don't act on this aspect, it likely will.

Teclo Garcia is the editor of ¡Extra! and an assistant city editor at The Arizona Republic. Contact him at (602) 444-8281.

Boo Hoo! Sob! Sob! What a pity.