Sun Times Columnist wants a anwser
Oscar a true immigration success story
Do you also want to deport someone with so much to offer?
September 4, 2007
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist
Oscar was 9 years old when his family slipped unchallenged in broad daylight through a hole in the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Ariz. Two days later, they caught a plane from Phoenix to Chicago, where they met up with relatives already living here.
That was 12 years ago. Oscar is now in his third year at Governors State University, where he's carrying a 4.0 grade average with a double major in computer engineering and computer science.
Oscar is paying his own way through school, mostly with income from a computer business he started in high school. Finding that he was helping everybody else with their computer problems, Oscar saw an opportunity to make some money. Now he does everything from simple repairs to Web design to consulting small businesses.
But don't pigeonhole Oscar as a computer geek. He's personable and well-spoken, so well-spoken that a local immigrant-rights advocate offered up Oscar and some like-situated young men and women to serve as the person I said I was seeking to replace Elvira Arellano as the face of illegal immigration in the United States.
I would never do that to Oscar or the others, what with my own hate mail continuing unabated more than a week later.
But I will gladly share Oscar's story with you, if for no other reason than to ask last week's question another way:
Speaks several languages
Good riddance to Elvira Arellano, you say. OK, well what about Oscar? Do we send him back, too?
Oscar would make a good American. He already considers himself one, as a matter of fact, and has no intention of returning to Mexico, except to visit, if he ever gets an opportunity to legalize his immigration status here.
You can't complain about Oscar's English. He speaks it quite well. He also considers himself fluent in French, Italian and Portuguese, all of which he taught himself. He told me it was pretty easy, given the similarity to Spanish, which is spoken in his home. Oscar's father also speaks English, he says, while his mother and grandmother have taken courses but aren't as comfortable using it.
Oscar finished third in his graduating class at a south suburban high school and scored 30 on the ACT. That allowed him to be accepted by some bigger-name colleges such as the U. of I. and Purdue. But Oscar couldn't afford those schools because as an illegal he can't get a Social Security number, a necessity for seeking college financial aid.
Oscar still lives with his parents and younger brother in the house the family owns. I mention they own it to drive home the point that they pay property taxes, although renters also contribute to the school tax base through the tax payments of their landlords.
Before moving his family here from Mexico City, Oscar's father operated a stand selling shoes in a flea market. His son says he came here to escape economic hardship and in hopes of getting his children a better education.
Life got harder after high school
Oscar's dad now has a deliveryman's job, from which he pays income taxes, using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number that the IRS issues to individuals who are ineligible for a Social Security number. Oscar has his own I.T.I.N. to pay taxes on his computer earnings.
In the interest of disclosure, Oscar admits his father has a made-up Social Security number for work. I can't say if someone else legitimately has the same number, the potential problems of which I don't minimize. But there is no intent to steal someone's identity. As is usually the case, the intent is the opposite: To use a number that nobody else is using.
Oscar took the train downtown to meet me last week. He drives sometimes, which is risky, because he can't get a driver's license. He emphasizes that he carries automobile insurance.
Except for the nagging fear of disclosure or deportation, Oscar says his illegal status was never much of an impediment until he neared the end of high school and saw his options were limited.
"It's like the doors close on you," he says.
For many young illegal immigrants who came here with their parents, some so young that this is the only country they have known, it is a discouraging time as they see that their status will prevent them from going to college or finding a good job, Oscar says.
"I owe a lot to this country because of everything it's given me."
What he wants, he says, is an opportunity to use his talent to pay us back. He wonders why we would throw that away.
