Thread: UW grad granted last-minute stay of deportation

UW grad granted last-minute stay of deportation

Martha Kang

January 4, 2010

SEATTLE -- The undocumented University of Washington student facing deportation has been granted a last-minute stay.

The Department of Homeland Security deferred the deportation of Jorge-Alonso Chehade on Monday, just one day before his scheduled deportation hearing. Chehade has been ordered to report to immigration officials on Feb. 15 instead.

Chehade is the son of Peruvian nationals who immigrated to the U.S. illegally. He was14 then, and grew up unaware of the implications his parents' - and consequently, his - actions, shielded by a 1982 court ruling that entitles undocumented children to a public education up to the 12th grade (Plyler vs. Doe).

"I always knew but it was just part of my reality -- a reality that started getting to me when (I started) seeing my friends at the U taking on internships and traveling abroad, which I couldn't," he said.

Now 22, Chehade has been fighting to stay in the U.S. since last March, when he got lost during a weekend trip to Bellingham. A wrong turn led Chehade to the U.S.-Canada border where he was identified as an undocumented immigrant and detained.

Chehade was scheduled to be deported last September, but a personal bill introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, bought him some time.

He faced another deadline in November, but Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pressed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to reexamine the case. Cantwell successfully convinced federal officials to defer action on Chehade's case, but only until the end of 2009 and not until the end of the current legislative session, as she'd hoped.

Chehade has been granted a series of stays, but he has no reason to believe a deportation isn't in his future. Still, he has not surrendered to what may appear to be his inevitable fate; Chehade is fighting to stay in the place he's made his home.

"I consider myself an American because even though I was born in Peru, I was shaped by this nation. I learned all the chapters of the American story," he said. "I feel that I deserve a chance to have the opportunity to have a normal life."

The unique barriers faced by Chehade and other undocumented children are not lost to lawmakers.

The U.S. Senate is currently debating the DREAM Act, which would grant temporary legal status to the qualifying children of undocumented immigrants and make them eligible for U.S. Citizenship. Both Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., support the measure.

And lawmakers in the U.S. House are debating the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security And Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009, which proposes a process through which undocumented workers can apply for resident status and citizenship.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/80677137.html

I don't know all the details of "personal bills", yet I wonder if, when they are brought on behalf of a foreign national, with no legal status in the US, if they do not actually constitute an illegal act of agency.

How do the people who were in his ninth grade class feel. Jorge is getting a free American education and the only difference between us is that he broke immigration law.

"I consider myself an American because even though I was born in Peru, I was shaped by this nation. I learned all the chapters of the American story," he said. "I feel that I deserve a chance to have the opportunity to have a normal life."

No Jorge you are not, you are not an American. You are a Peruvian who would now have a priveleged position in Peru due to an education American citizens paid for but instead of doing that honestly you're here violating the rights of American citizens.

He faced another deadline in November, but Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pressed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to reexamine the case.

Oh gee...wonder how this one is going to turn out! By next year, this invader will be working for DHS! Janet Napolitano is a disgrace!! Another SLAP in the face to those immigrants who stand in line for years and in accordance with our laws to come this country.

To those legal immigrants who played by the rules to come here - I apologize to you on behalf of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, for her disgusting display of pandering and favoritism exhibited to those who entered this country in violation of our immigration laws.

I'm truly sorry....

I'm wondering how he paid for his education at U of W?