20 year old mexican sent back home after living here since 6 weeks old.

[Wakabo]

Only posting it because the kid was some student body president at my highschool.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-no...rters_say.html

In a small classroom at Portland State, the university president, two elected officials and a pack of students rallied Tuesday around a cell phone delivering the voice of Hector Lopez.

"I want go home to Portland," said Lopez, 20, from Mexico City. "I spent my life in America. I just want to come back home, where I belong."

Lopez is among 2 million young people across the nation who grew up in the United States without citizenship because their parents are undocumented immigrants.

A bill in Congress would create a course to citizenship for those like Lopez stalled in the Senate Tuesday amid debate over a Pentagon spending measure.

Lopez was 6 weeks old in 1990 when his parents came into the country illegally and settled in Milwaukie. Siovhan Sheridan-Ayala, his Seattle lawyer, said that when Lopez was 9, his parents paid someone to file immigration papers. They never knew that the person never did the work or that a judge later issued a deportation order.

Lopez did well in school and became senior class president at Rex Putnam High School. He got a Social Security number and an Oregon driver's license. He coached Little League and did hundreds of hours of community service. He aimed to enroll at Portland State to study marketing.

But on Aug. 23, federal authorities picked up Lopez and his father on the 11-year-old deportation order. On Sept. 1, they were shipped to Mexico -- where Lopez said Tuesday he doesn't speak or write the language and cannot find a job.

Lopez's defenders called a news conference Tuesday at Portland State to urge passage of the bill in Congress, the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors or DREAM Act.

"The country is better for us being here," said Portland State President Wim Wiewel, who emigrated to the United States as a young man. "We are fools if we do not change the current system."

Jeff Cogen, chairman of the Multnomah County Commission, and City Commissioner Amanda Fritz -- also an immigrant -- said their governmental bodies have unanimously approved resolutions asking Congress to pass the bill.

[Salodin]

Wow, kids life went from having a future, getting ready to further his education, to becoming a stereotypical mexican laborer. Jesus that sucks... I can only imagine how sad, scared, and infuriated he must feel all at the same time...

[Snprphnx]

ok, all the upcoming debate over "oh he was 6 months old vs he was still illegal" aside. the fact they will hunt down and deport him and his father for an 11 year old court order, yet they will house and feed the thousands upon thousands currently in our prison system, giving them possibly better living conditions than this 20 year old has now is pretty fucked up.

[jmc]

If he was illegal, how did he get a social security card/number? Or a driver's license.......... Don't care his parents were illegal's this kid should be considered a citizen based off documentation he has

[Jefe]

Eh, this happens every day. When I was volunteering for MALDEF one of the things I had to do was to raise awareness among the Latino community about unscrupulous "lawyers" aka notaries public. Basically they are lied to w/ the promises of fixing their illegal status. Such notaries public submit their citizenship paperwork as political refugees. That means they are fucked because there's no such thing for most latin countries. They get deported and lose a few grand in the process. Also, they are penalized w/ I think it was ten years from ever applying for a visa iirc.

Anyway, even if the dude was still here he'd be able to attend the uni, at least here in Cali. After that he wouldn't be able to do shit. I know a few who already graduated and cant do squat. Best thing to do is to look for a gringa and get married asap.

[ChooChooTrain]

Took them nearly 20 years to get him? Hide and Seek champion.

[Xanakali]

Took them nearly 20 years to get him? Hide and Seek champion.

It's not hard when there's nobody looking. Things are pretty crazy out here in California, walk into any given supermarket, warehouse, fast food, etc and you'll find a dozen or more people who will just tell you straight up they're illegal. Working in such places I've become friends with many people in the same situation - they seem to get by fine so long as they're not causing trouble and are arrested, or randomly pulled over.

While this story is unfortunate, the people we should really be pissed at here are the people that supposedly filed their paperwork. If any pitchforking is to be done, seems to me that's the first place to go.

[miokomioko]

My girlfriend and I just recently found out that half of her family is illegal, lol. It's way too fucking easy. I'm not sure if there's a lot of sympathy to be had if you're finally found out. Shouldn't someone be responsible enough to get things straightened out before shit hits fans?

[Kuya]

I always thought citizenship should be auto-granted to people who have lived in the US for a set amount of time rather than since birth, particularly those who are in the US since early youth. It makes more sense to me.

[Kaisha]

I always thought citizenship should be auto-granted to people who have lived in the US for a set amount of time rather than since birth, particularly those who are in the US since early youth. It makes more sense to me.

What would stop illegal immigrants from trying to abuse that to ensure their children are better off somewhere other than their homeland and playing hide-and-seek until that 'amount of time' passes? Illegal is illegal. Can blame the parents for this one, as ignorant and douchey as that makes me look.

Obviously the system does need a change, but good luck finding someone who wants to actually get the wheels rolling on that one.

[Lucienne]

God forbid trying to give your children better future than they ethnically deserve, right.

[Kaisha]

Don't have kids until you're life is settled and safe?

[Lucienne]

Humanity would probably slowly die out.

[AyzenBahamut]

If your here illegally then you need to have your ass deported, there is ways to get over here legally, if you cant follow the process then stay out, just my 2 cents about it.

[Kuya]

What would stop illegal immigrants from trying to abuse that to ensure their children are better off somewhere other than their homeland and playing hide-and-seek until that 'amount of time' passes? Illegal is illegal. Can blame the parents for this one, as ignorant and douchey as that makes me look.

Obviously the system does need a change, but good luck finding someone who wants to actually get the wheels rolling on that one.

US immigration policy doesn't make any sense anyway. They have the same number of visas for Mexico as, for example, Sweden, when the former is where the highest volume of people come from. Also, it's probably better to just let people pass through the border relatively freely since policing the border is more hassle than it's worth. All that clandestine infiltration of the country seems to do is nurture crime, much like clandestine use of drugs breeds crime.

All that whining over immigration policy probably has less to do with immigrants having a significant negative effect on US labour and more to do with people looking for the nearest dark thing to blame for the fact that Mister MoneyBags over at Wall Street fucked everything up.

If your here illegally then you need to have your ass deported, there is ways to get over here legally, if you cant follow the process then stay out, just my 2 cents about it.

I don't think you're going to wait 20 years to get into the country when you need to get in now.

[Killgannon]

wait wait

so the kid is 20, hispanic, has hispanic parents that speak spanish, graduated well off in high school, and yet still cant speak spanish?

Parents and kids fault for trying to be more american and dropping their roots so that when this "legal system" finally caught up with them they're even more fucked then they were originally.

edit: think of it this way, had his parents or him taken in an interest in their native language, he wouldnt be having this issue, an american education, and bilingual, pretty sure he could EASILY land a decent job down there with that. so yes our "system" is to blame in this, but so is he, and so are his parents (not only for being illegal, but for not passing along a language that would push your kid even further ahead)

[Silenka]

This kind of makes me sick, what the fuck america, do they forget this country was built on immigration? Kid lives here for 20 years and suddenly 'oh we can't have you anymore, even though you weren't causing us trouble in the first place, bye'? This is just not right at all. I hope the guy ends up doing something spectacular like curing cancer or someshit and gives Mexico the glory instead.

[Rhinox]

Don't have kids until you're life is settled and safe?

Congratulations you've just told 1 out of every 7 Americans not to have children.

don't be stupid.

[Rhinox]

wait wait

so the kid is 20, hispanic, has hispanic parents that speak spanish, graduated well off in high school, and yet still cant speak spanish?

Parents and kids fault for trying to be more american and dropping their roots so that when this "legal system" finally caught up with them they're even more fucked then they were originally.

edit: think of it this way, had his parents or him taken in an interest in their native language, he wouldnt be having this issue, an american education, and bilingual, pretty sure he could EASILY land a decent job down there with that. so yes our "system" is to blame in this, but so is he, and so are his parents (not only for being illegal, but for not passing along a language that would push your kid even further ahead)

What I find amusing is if this 'kid' knew very little english you would probably blast him for not assimilating. You can't win

[Stumblingdrunk]

Congratulations you've just told 1 out of every 7 Americans not to have children.

That doesn't make it bad advice