Thread: NC-SOB: Dreams Driven, Dreams Dashed

Dreams Driven, Dreams Dashed

Winston-Salem Journal (North Carolina)
September 13, 2009
JOHN RAILEY, JOURNAL EDITORIAL WRITER

IN LIMBO: Maria Delise Campos' future is hanging on a decision the state community college system may make this week (Chapman). A21: Delise Campos, center, reads The Paper Bag Princess to 5-year-old Cindy Ariza (left) and Diana Campos, 9, during a Kids' Cafe program (Carroll).

Maria Delise Campos, who almost died in a car wreck five years ago, is determined to become a nurse in the United States.

But sometimes she feels like this land of rebirth is playing a cruel joke by stopping her from achieving her dream. "To tell you the truth, sometimes I do lose my hopes," she said recently.

Campos, a 19-year-old graduate of Atkins High School in Winston-Salem, is banned from degree programs in North Carolina's community-college system because she is an illegal, or undocumented, immigrant. She agreed to use her real name for this story in hopes that her candor will shed light on the challenges that she and so many others face.

She came to the United States when she was 8. She is one of millions of illegal immigrants whose parents brought them to the United States from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries when they were children. Many Americans favor deporting all illegal immigrants, or at least denying them benefits such as entry into public community colleges and universities.

Others argue that it's neither practical nor humane to deport those brought here by their parents, and denying them entry to public colleges will create a permanent underclass that will drain social services, costing us all. That's the dilemma that officials with North Carolina's community-college system have been wrestling with for the past few years. This week, the system's board is expected to decide whether illegal immigrants will be allowed to enter degree programs, with the condition that they pay out-of-state tuition.

Campos waits and worries over the board's decision. "I've never given up hope," she said. She said she wants to "be somebody."

Hers is a story that, in one respect, makes Campos' friend Nora Laws, who met her through a Kids Cafe program, ashamed of this country. "To hear her say that she wants to be somebody ... She is somebody, and for somebody to make her feel like she's not, it's just not right," Laws said, choking back tears.

"To me, we have a responsibility to all children, and not just children who are citizens, but we have a responsibility to all children," she said. "These children had no idea when they came here that they weren't supposed to be here."

Finding her way

Campos favors blue jeans and T-shirts as much as any other 19-year-old. She's soft-spoken, with a constant shy smile, but is firm in her words.

She hardly remembers Mexico, she said. Her trip here wasn't some near-death experience of crossing a desert at night. An uncle drove her and a sister across the California border, she said. Family members then took the sisters to New Jersey, where they reunited with their parents. Then, the family made its way to Winston-Salem in search of work.

Campos is one of five children. Her father is a construction worker, and her mother has worked at several low-paying jobs.

Soon after they arrived here, Campos began attending a Kids Cafe program at Parkway United Church of Christ that later moved to St. Paul's Episcopal Church. These programs provide meals and tutoring and are aimed at needy children. The one Campos attended is primarily Hispanic.

Laws, a physician's assistant who has children of her own, soon formed a bond with Campos. "She had this really long hair," Laws said. "She was very polite, very eager to work on her homework and please everyone."

With the help of Laws and her fellow volunteers, Campos progressed in school. But she readily admits she wasn't perfect, especially as she entered adolescence. She became restless at Hill Middle School and dreamed of being a model. She didn't always hang around with the most responsible friends, she said, and didn't really care about her future.

On Oct. 13, 2004, 14-year-old Josima Garcia Morales took his father's car and picked up Campos, who was also 14; her 5-year-old brother, whom she was babysitting; and a 13-year-old boy. Morales wrecked the car on Cole Road in Winston-Salem. He sustained fatal injuries. Campos' brother and the 13-year-old were not seriously injured.

But Campos had severe head injuries, internal injuries and a broken pelvis. When she emerged from a coma at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, she underwent weeks of rehabilitation at the Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation. She had to learn to walk again. Medicaid, Campos' family and an insurance policy held by the driver's family paid for her care, Campos said.

A volunteer speech therapist and a volunteer physical therapist began working with her. "She pretty much had to relearn everything," Laws said. "She couldn't remember her English or her Spanish."

"It was like I had to start from kindergarten all the way to the level that I was," Campos said. She lost memories of her native country, she said.

"She's remarkable about sticking with everything," Laws said. "She has a lot of determination."

Campos spent the remainder of her eighth-grade year studying from home with the help of frequent visits from a school-system teacher. Through friends, she heard that some of her fellow students were openly questioning why she survived the wreck and Morales did not. Their criticism hurt.

But Campos said, "I knew I had to finish eighth grade, I had to move on. I was like, 'They can say whatever they want as long as I knew it wasn't true.' As time passed they didn't ask me any more questions."

She was already used to being criticized for being in this country illegally. But she became determined to become a nurse, like those who had cared for her after the accident.

Because she was still recovering, she could have opted to take a lighter course load when she entered Atkins, but didn't. "She wanted it all," said Trish Moody, a former case manager for exceptional children at Atkins. "It's very unusual for a child to push you to the limits."

"She's just one of those kids who sticks in your heart and you never forget them. I'll probably remember her in my 90s."

Campos chose Atkins' biotech course of study. Marcus Neal, a career and technical education teacher, said Campos was very quiet and shy at first, but gradually gained confidence in her abilities.

Campos' big sister was the first person from their Kids Cafe program to go to college. Her sister helped her through her recovery, and she nurtured her dreams of becoming a nurse. But by Campos' senior year, the state's community-college system, which at one point had left it up to each college to decide whether to admit illegal immigrants, had banned them from degree programs. Forsyth Technical Community College, which had allowed the immigrants into those programs if they paid out-of-state tuition, has had to follow the ban.

Many of her fellow Hispanic students dropped out in the face of the ban and other difficulties, Campos said. "Some people just say, 'Yeah, whatever,'" she said.

The four-year high-school graduation rate for Hispanic students is 49.4 percent, said Superintendent Don Martin. That's in sharp contrast with the overall graduation rate of 72.7 percent.

By federal law, officials of public primary, middle and high schools are not allowed to ask about the immigration status of their students. Campos said there are a lot of illegal immigrants at Atkins. Many of her immigrant friends have landed in low-paying jobs, she said.

She hopes that the board of the state community-college system, at a meeting later this week, will agree to allow illegal immigrants to enter degree programs. The board will take up a recommendation from its policy committee that the system allow admission of illegal immigrants who have graduated from a U.S. high school, agree to pay out-of-state tuition rates and do not get government financial aid. That's the policy of the University of North Carolina system, and the recommendation for community colleges would go one step further: Illegal immigrants couldn't displace legal residents from classes.

Some state community-college systems allow the immigrants to pay in-state tuition, but they have been sued by legal residents of other states who contend they should be given the same rate.

Stuart Fountain of Asheboro, the chairman of the policy committee, said that the recommendation has been criticized by both advocates for illegal immigrants and hardliners on immigration. The advocates want the children of illegal immigrants to be allowed an in-state tuition rate. Hardliners say the ban should stay in place.

Fountain said he is optimistic that there's a good chance that the full board will approve the recommendation. "This is primarily aimed at children brought here by their parents," he said.

"It will take a very determined person to be able to afford the out-of-state tuition rate and complete two years of study. That's the kind of person we'd like to have."

The out-of-state tuition rate at North Carolina community colleges is about $7,000 annually, about five times the in-state rate. But Campos, who plans to work her way through school, said it's a start. She also hopes to win scholarships. Laws, whom Campos calls "abuelita" or "grandmother," stands ready to help her with financial support.

Campos also wants to become a United States citizen. A federal proposal, the Dream Act, offers hope. It would start a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who graduate from high school and complete two years of college or military service. But it's been stalled in Congress.

Laws said such measures are crucial in preparing illegal immigrants for productive lives in this country. "It's not like everybody's going to go away," she said. As it is now, she said, "I think you're going to have this portion of the population that will stay uneducated and in low-paying jobs with no benefits. And I think our community will lose out on a lot of bright people who can make a difference."


Frustration and hopes

In June, Campos proudly walked the stage to receive her diploma at Atkins. But even as she did so, she was frustrated, jealous of many of her classmates who would be entering degree programs denied to her.

"They're going to make their own life," she said. "They're going to go to college where they want to go. They're going to get their career that they dream about. I'm glad for them that they're seeing their dreams come true and getting everything they want, but I'm not happy for me, as hard as I worked in school."

She has two younger brothers and a sister who are citizens because they were born here and will enjoy all the rights that come with that status. Campos will have to wait.

Illegal immigrants can take community-college classes outside a degree program. With financial help from Laws, Campos took a CPR class at Forsyth Tech this summer and is now taking a personal-care assistant class there.

"Even though the doors aren't open, I'm still going to keep studying," Campos said. "When the change happens, I'll be ready. I won't be left behind."

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/En ... 72&start=2

Let them take their dreams back to Mexico.

Campos, a 19-year-old graduate of Atkins High School in Winston-Salem, is banned from degree programs in North Carolina's community-college system because she is an illegal, or undocumented, immigrant. She agreed to use her real name for this story in hopes that her candor will shed light on the challenges that she and so many others face.

Are her parents breaking the laws, too?

What about the Grade Point Averages (GPA) of American Citizens/Students getting messed up due to Campos illegal status and law breaking? She is displacing the American Citizens behind her.

ALIPAC: Lifting ban on illegal immigrants may profit college
http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-885029-.html#885029

Where's the compassion for poor American students?

I am soooooo not interested in hearing any more of this assnine non-argument about illegal aliens who were brought here as children by their illegal alien parents.

At the age of 18 years old, these are no longer children under the control of their parents.

It is their responsibility, as adults, to obey the law, return to their home countries, and apply to enter this country legally. And while they are waiting in line, they can use their time, and their education at our expense, to work toward the betterment of their own country and people.

PERIOD. No ifs, ands, or buts.

I don't understand why she hasn't been arrested and deported. We know her name, what is our problem about enforcing our immigration laws.

How much has the girl already cost American taxpayers. Joyriding at 14 and the following hospital bills, plus the free meals at school, plus the free education we already have given her. And undoubtedly, she and her family will not be able to pay for higher education, so she will have to go after more tax payer dollars by getting aid.
Deport the entire family, and there are plenty of more inhumane things going on around the world like people getting limbs blown off by bombs, etc.