...and guilty!
Or am I being to harsh?
Posted on 04/14/2009 10:47:12 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
In elementary school, Benita Veliz dreaded substitute teachers. Her classmates would act up and the sub would threaten to call the principal, a prospect so upsetting to Veliz that her regular teacher began placing her in a colleague’s classroom on days the teacher could not make it to class.
Imagine how Veliz, now 23, reacted this January when she was thrown in jail after a traffic stop because she is an unauthorized immigrant.
“To go from that to being in jail was surreal,” Veliz said, tears welling in her eyes.
Veliz’s parents brought her across the border when she was 8 years old. She worked doggedly in school, graduating valedictorian of her class at Jefferson High School in 2002 and later from St. Mary’s University. She works as a secretary for a church and dreams of going to law school.
However, if Congress doesn’t change immigration laws, Veliz most likely will be deported to Mexico. She has an immigration hearing scheduled in June.
Like the estimated 65,000 unauthorized immigrants who graduate from U.S. high schools each year, Veliz has pinned her hopes for the future on the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for children brought here by their parents before age 16.
Under the act, immigrants must serve in the military or earn a college degree to stay permanently. After failures in past years, lawmakers reintroduced the bill last month.
With a Democratic-controlled Congress and a supportive president, advocates say the stars could align this year.
“The (presidential) election was a real game changer on this,” said Paco Fabian, a spokesman for America’s Voice, a campaign for comprehensive immigration reform.
As in years past, the DREAM Act will face opposition from groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform. According to director Ira Mehlman, the act creates an incentive for parents to break the law. Children must pay for their parents’ actions, he said.
“It isn’t fair, but it is the parents who created the situation,” Mehlman said.
Giving up isn’t in Veliz’s vocabulary.
“You don’t have to accept that,” Veliz said. “You can make a conscious decision to fight for justice.”
The consequences of Veliz’s status didn’t hit until high school, when her friends began getting drivers’ licenses and jobs at McDonald’s. She realized her college dreams were imperiled because she wasn’t eligible for federal financial aid.
People have said she should have gone back to Mexico and applied for residency.
“At 14, was I going to drive over to Mexico? And do what? Stay with who?” Veliz said.
The last time she visited relatives in Mexico, she was 6. They had no electricity or running water, and she rode a donkey to reach the remote outpost.
Instead, Veliz worked feverishly to pack her resume with achievements, from joining Future Farmers of America to performing in the class musical.
Claiming she’s not naturally smart, Veliz took the hardest classes at Jefferson, getting to school early and staying late for extra tutoring. She didn’t like to hear other kids make excuses — I’m poor, I’m not good at school, my dad is an alcoholic.
“Whatever, whatever, whatever,” Veliz said. “I’m going to overcome it.”
A testament to her tenacity, Veliz did all this with a tumor growing silently in her nose, making her persistently sick with what doctors told her was allergies.
When doctors finally diagnosed and removed the benign tumor, Veliz realized she had been breathing through her mouth for five years.
Her hard work paid off with a full scholarship to St. Mary’s University. But after graduation, her options were limited.
In January, a police officer stopped her for rolling through a stop sign. Veliz didn’t have a driver’s license or residency documents, and the officer handcuffed her and turned her over to immigration officials.
Veliz assumed she would find a legal avenue to stay, but a lawyer quickly dashed her hopes.
“She told me there was nothing I could do. I had images of being thrown out of a van in Mexico,” Veliz said.
That’s when Veliz decided to go public.
Her story appeared in a New York Times column, and her friends started a Facebook group called “Don’t Deport Benita Veliz.” Several television stations picked up on the story and in a couple of weeks, she is scheduled to appear on a national Spanish language show called “Al Punto” with Jorge Ramos.
On her way to becoming the national poster child for the DREAM Act, Veliz has mixed feelings about the publicity.
“It’s not about Benita Veliz getting deported,” she said. “It’s about kids all across the nation in this situation who are not free to speak out. It’s wasted potential.”
More than anything, Veliz just wants to work. And pay taxes.
“I want to give back,” Veliz said. “By deporting me, I will never have that opportunity.”
How about if she just goes back?
WRONG! She was thrown into jail for being an illegal invader who snuk into our country and was helping suck off the lifeblood from our social support network, our educational system, our medical system, and the taxpayers who were supporting the schools she was parasitizing.
Cruel words, but necessary ones to define the menace America and patriots are facing from their own government and elected officials in both parties who have made a career of collaborating with foreign nations and their nationals to rape and plunder us to satisfy greedy corporate executives who want to benefit from cheap labor.
She graduated HS 5 years ago in 2002, she’s 23 years old, so conscientious, and she’s soooooo smart. Why didn’t she fix her immigration problem a long time ago. I knew whether or not I was a citizen back in HS and I wasn’t valedictorian.
If I were a LEGAL immigrant, I would resent like hell these line jumpers sneaking in front of me when I had followed all the rules, filled out all the forms, paid all the fees, and waited my turn. People like that would have been better off just sneaking across the border like all these parasites do.
And her sob story doesn't move me one bit. My guess is her attorney (probably working pro-bono), helped her manufacture it,
Why doesn’t she give back to her own country in her own country. She’s had a golden opportunity; so she should use it to help her own country while being in her own country.
Did I make myself clear she should return to her own country? :)
Adios muchacha!
Talk about your freakin' entitlement mentality!
Hey, what would you bet she voted for Obama?
Agreed. I'll never understand why legal Mexican Americans are so eager to have illegals come here.
And take their jobs. And crowd their schools. And deplete their economic opportunities.
Legal Mexican Americans are at the "back of the bus" on so many, many levels.
Why? Why do they want even MORE illegals?
Give back...to Mexico...
Veliz’s parents brought her across the border when she was 8 years old.
The last time she visited relatives in Mexico, she was 6.
So, where was she for two years?
This story stinks to high heaven. Send her and her parents back.
In elementary school, Benita Veliz dreaded substitute teachers.
Let's see, she was 8 when she moved here, and presumably spoke no English, or very little. Elementary school back then generally meant K-3, which ends when a child is 9. So, within a year she was a star pupil. Mkay.
“You can make a conscious decision to fight for justice.”
Fifteen years worth of living in this country, getting a free education, and now SHE wants justice.
Yet another bleeding heart article. Barf.
The consequences of Veliz’s status didn’t hit until high school, when her friends began getting drivers’ licenses and jobs at McDonald’s.
And yet they still did nothing to rectify the situation.
“At 14, was I going to drive over to Mexico? And do what? Stay with who?” Veliz said.
Perhaps the parents could have helped her. Oh, wait, that's mean for me to say.
When doctors finally diagnosed and removed the benign tumor, Veliz realized she had been breathing through her mouth for five years.
And who paid all of those doctors bills? She had a benign growth in her nose and this article makes it sound like she overcame some sort of debilitating handicap.
You are correct, this article is insulting.
The beginning of a series of heart wrenching stories from tagged illegals to be synchronuized with Il Douche’s immigration amnesty push.
and if she hit someone and paralyzed them what would happen? no license, no insurance, no desire to follow even the simplest laws. but she'll soak up all the benefits....
get out of here!
Star student? .. then perhaps she understands what the word “illegal” means.
Send her home, send the bill for the amount American Taxpayers paid for her education. .. then allow her to apply for entry legally.
So now the phrase is “unauthorized immigrant?”
Wow, they really, really reach to call them anything except what they reall are.
You’re illegal, Tootsie, hasta luego.
Sooo, in the last 5 years she never attempted to get legal standing to become a legal immigrant?
Sounds to me like she either didn’t trust the system or wanted to avoid the system.
But now we are expected to believe she wanted to give back to the system she either doesn’t trust or want to be engaged with?
...and guilty!
Or am I being to harsh?
Incomplete evidence. There IS a reasonable doubt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.