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Last week my young friend, Jose, appeared once again in federal immigration court here in Dallas. We pled his case with the federal prosecutor, begging him to exercise his administrative discretion and delay deporting our young friend until he completed college.
We informed him that Central Dallas Ministries committed to stand with him, pay for his higher education and support him in every other way as he completed college. All we wanted was a delay until he completed his education.
The prosecutor's office had indicated in earlier conversations that such an arrangement might be possible, even desirable. In court those hopes were dashed...
The government's attorney argued that if he did it for Jose, he would be compelled to do it for every other young person like Jose. What he failed to acknowledge was our commitment as an organization to stand with the student over the four-year period in question.
Jose was brought to the United States as a child by his undocumented parents. Now he must return to a nation he knows nothing about. Sending Jose to Mexico would be about like my sending my daughters to Scotland when they turned 18.
Jose received a judgment of "voluntary deportation" in 120 days -- four months.
The only alternative we and Jose have is to lobby the U. S. Congress for an individual bill declaring that he can stay in the country, a very unlikely prospect given the current climate regarding immigration.
It is a very sad development.
I honestly don't know what we as a people are thinking.
When will we wake up?
Jose is pictured above standing at the left of a Washington Bureau reporter for The Dallas Morning News in the halls of a U.S. Senate Office Building where he had gone to lobby Senators on behalf of the D.R.E.A.M. Act that would have provided relief to young people such as himself. For more background to this case, click here, here, here, here or here, or enter the key word "Monica" in the search box above.
Published March 3, 2008 by Larry James |
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| Tags:
DREAM Act
Immigration
Latino
Mexico
Public Policy
