Thread: Revealing her once-undocumented status, Houston legislator

Putting a face on illegal immigration
Revealing her once-undocumented status, Houston legislator hopes to change perceptions
By SUSAN CARROLL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 30, 2011, 1:10AM

Erich Schlegel Chronicle
Ana Hernandez Luna was brought as a baby to Houston from Mexico. Today, she's a lawyer and House representative.
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State Rep. Ana Hernandez Luna stood before the House on the afternoon of May 9, hours after lawmakers passed the controversial "sanctuary city" bill, and started reading from a prepared statement, her eyes downcast.
"I know House Bill 12 already passed, and in the long run there is nothing that could have been done about its passage," she said.
But still, she said, she had something to say. And then, in a halting and teary speech, Hernandez Luna, D-Houston, described what life is like as an illegal immigrant.
She knows, she said, because she lived it.
"Immigration and all that it encompasses is very personal for me because I was an undocumented immigrant," Hernandez Luna said. "You may prefer to use the word illegal alien, but I'm not an alien. I am not a problem that must be handled. I'm a human — a person standing before you now as a representative for the Texas House."
With her roughly five-minute speech, the 32-year-old lawyer and lawmaker did what some would consider crazy in the current political climate. She tried to put a human face - her own face - on the illegal immigration issue.
"I believe they have a perception of what an undocumented immigrant should be, and I don't fit in that," she said in a recent interview. "And that's why I felt it was important to share my story and put a face on the issue, and let people know we're not just talking about criminals here who need to be deported."
Her story of assimilation was called remarkable even by hawkish illegal immigration foes, who have a firm hold on the House and overwhelmingly passed HB-12. The "sanctuary cities" bill, which ultimately failed to make it through the Senate, would have made it illegal to prohibit state and local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws.
Some of her colleagues across the aisle, the targeted audience for her speech, were unmoved - at least from a policy perspective.
"She's a real sweet gal," said State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball. "I admire the difficulties that she has overcome, but I still stand strong that we have got to protect our borders. We need to enforce our laws."
"For every good story, there's a bad story," Riddle said. "There are a lot of people who are frustrated with rewarding those who come over here illegally and essentially penalizing those who abide by the laws."
Childhood fear
Hernandez Luna said her parents packed up a single suitcase and brought her to Houston from Reynosa, Mexico, as an infant, along with her 4-year-old sister. They shared a brick duplex on Alamo Street, just outside downtown Houston, with her father's cousin. They overstayed their visitor's visas, and lived undocumented for eight years.
Her parents paid taxes, she said, and bought a house in Houston within about five years. She remembers fearing as a little girl that her mother would be picked up by immigration agents staking out the local Fiesta grocery store, or that her father would not come home after one of his overnight warehouse shifts.
Celia Fleischman, principal at Gardens Elementary School in Pasadena, said she remembered Hernandez Luna struggling with her English, but quickly catching on. Her mother worked in the school cafeteria, and Hernandez Luna would come in early and sleep in the corner, waiting for school to start. She always had her nose in a book, and was ready to speak up for others, Fleischman said.
"She was very smart and opinionated, even as a little girl. I know why now," Fleischman said with a laugh.
But Hernadez Luna was shy when it came to one issue - where her family was from, and her own citizenship.
"I would stay quiet because I knew," Hernadez Luna said.
She remembers her parents' relief when Congress, under President Ronald Reagan, passed the 1986 amnesty, which granted legal status to an estimated 3 million illegal immigrants. As her family sunk deeper roots in the U.S., opening their own restaurant at a flea market, Hernandez Luna decided she wanted to be a lawyer.
Special election
She pushed through high school, graduating early at 16, and went on to the University of Houston. She gained citizenship at 18, and interned at the state Capitol her junior year of college, getting a taste for politics. After graduation from UH, she spent two years working at the Capitol before enrolling in the University of Texas School of Law.
At age 25, she graduated from law school, passed the bar and settled into her first job as a lawyer. Not long after she started, one of the legislators she worked for before law school, State Rep. Joe Moreno, died in a car accident. His staffers and supporters asked her to run in a special election for his seat, she said, and she obliged. She took an eight-month, unpaid leave of absence from her new job to campaign.
She handily beat her opponent, and at age 27, she started representing the people of District 143, a solidly working-class, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood that sprawls alongside the Houston Ship Channel east of downtown.
Her immigration history didn't come up during the 2005 campaign, she said, when she faced off against another young Hispanic candidate with powerful political backers.
"I've never hidden the fact that I was born in Mexico. It's on my bio, 'born in Reynosa,'" she said. "At the time I ran in 2005, we really didn't have that anti-immigrant sentiment."
Sharing her story
Hernandez Luna said she has no aspirations for a higher office than the state House. She is married to an attorney and practices law full time when the Legislature is not in session, and is talking about starting a family.
For now, her attention is largely focused on the key, bread-and-butter issues for her constituents, like the economy and the budget deficit. Immigration enforcement is a federal issue, not one for state legislatures, she said.
Hernandez Luna said she remembers the first time she shared her immigration story with fellow lawmakers. It was a late-night committee meeting in 2007 attended by undocumented students speaking in opposition to a House bill that would deny them in-state tuition.
When she was finished sharing her story, she remembers Riddle, the Republican from Tomball, saying something to the effect of "'You've been given a gift from God.'"
Hernandez Luna bristled.
"My response to her was, 'I haven't been given anything. My parents and I have worked very hard for everything I have been able to achieve and accomplish.'"
susan.carroll@chron.com

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She should help her relatives in Reynosa but not help them come here illegally to live here at our expense.

By rewarding this Illegal Alien we have only invited Millions more.

When she was finished sharing her story, she remembers Riddle, the Republican from Tomball, saying something to the effect of "'You've been given a gift from God.'"
Hernandez Luna bristled.
"My response to her was, 'I haven't been given anything. My parents and I have worked very hard for everything I have been able to achieve and accomplish.'"

Of course she didn't see this as a gift... she really feels we OWED it to her.

I would be interested in hearing how this illegal invader was granted legal status after her initial entry was illegal and she remainded in this country for more than six months as an illegal invader.

She should be apologizing for her previous illegal alien status, but instead she seems to be boasting.

Originally Posted by Mickey

She should be apologizing for her previous illegal alien status, but instead she seems to be boasting.

You're absolutely right Mickey! She should be apologizing for her illegal actions and thanking this country for the opportunity extended to her. Instead, she remains militant, arrogant, and with that all sense of entitlement so many invaders are know for.

These criminals never apologize because they do not believe they have done anything wrong. They feel as if this is their right to take what they want when they want it!

We dont owe her nothing.Just like me and every AMERICAN LEGAL citizen we have to earn it.Yes she was brought here as a child but how much did her family get for free off the US goverment?How much did she get because she was a poor hispanic trying to better herself taken away from some AMERICAN kid that had it just as hard and couldnt get help for nothing.All we need her in house there helping fight for illegals rights.

She is a House Representative? Aren't they supposed to uphold the rule of law instead of spreading her own sob story and the sob stories of all other illegal aliens? Typical Hispanic politiican.