Posted on 03/02/2012 5:44:32 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
A high school valedictorian with big dreams says her future could be ruined by an immigration nightmare.
And with all her awards, metals and accolades Daniela Pelaez is well on her way.
"I love school. I love education. I'm the valedictorian of my high school," said Pelaez.
Daniela is a senior at North Miami Senior High School where she's in the international baccalaureate program and has a 6.7 grade point average.
"I applied to Yale. I applied to Dartmouth, Duke University, Trinity and Wesley," she said.
But just days before she'll find out if she's been accepted to any of those colleges she may be forced to leave the country.
On March 28th, Daniela and her sister are scheduled be deported back to Columbia.
"I've been here since I was 4, I'm American," she said.
Daniela and her siblings came to America with her parents back in 1991.
Her parents divorced and in 2006 when her mother had to go back to Columbia for medical reasons she was denied access back into the country.
Daniela now lives with her father---who's a resident---but on Monday a judge deciding she and her sister can no longer live here.
More than 3,000 people already signing an online petition to stop Pelaez from being deported.
Daniela's attorney is appealing the court's decision.
Her classmates at North Miami senior High School are rallying in support and plan to walk out of class Friday morning in protest.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc2news.com ...
But the difference is that arguably Einstein was voluntary and the German scientists like Von Braun weren’t quite so free with their actions. Besides, these examples came from first world universities that were comparable to or rivaled those in the United States. A very very select few for very high end science training is different than any guy with a PhD in math or computing that wants to come our way.
German scientists like Von Braun weren’t quite so free with their actions. Besides, these examples came from first world universities that were comparable to or rivaled those in the United States. A very very select few for very high end science training is different than any guy with a PhD in math or computing that wants to come our way.
You are probably right, but the article’s written so badly...I was thinking that IF her father’s a legal resident and IF she’s not yet 18, she MAY not be illegal, because a minor; but MAY become illegal at age 18.
In an ideal world I could slap a restraining order on journalists like this one. :)
Ugh sorry for the repost.
she “applied”? so what?
she is an illegal alien STEALING the seat of a student who is a citizen OR is legally in the USA.
This is a miami routine news story.
remember a few years back there were two brothers with the same “validictorian” story.
I BET THE SAME IMMIGRATION lawyer is involved. The client has NOT CASE and so the lawyer is DESPERATLY trying to gin up pr.
If she gets in, she should leave and then return with a valid J visa as a student. LEAGALLY.
I would bet she is a known conservative also, and that is why they are trying to deport her while giving the liberal aliens here illegally every chance in the world to stay.
she has been here since four.
THERE IS A 10 YEAR ROLLING AMNESTY program which is already law and allows for just this situation.
THE LAWYER SCREWED up the case and now is whoring to the media to save the case.
remember
immigration application => immigration judge = immigration appeal court => Federal District Court => Federal Appelate District Court => United States Suprem Court.
custody follows the parents. She must no longer be a minor.
“Her classmates at North Miami senior High School are rallying in support and plan to walk out of class Friday morning in protest.”
If they walk out they should be dropped a grade.
IOW she gamed the system to even steal the validictorian spot from someone more worthy.
But the climate has since changed. A new policy started under the Obama Administration last summer gives more leniency to immigration trial attorneys when it comes to undocumented immigrants like Gomez and Pelaez.
The policy lessened the focus on undocumented immigrants with no criminal record or who are caring for a sick child, who have been victims of domestic violence or crime, or who arrived in the country as children. Instead it turned the focus on the detention and deportation of dangerous foreign criminals and foreigners deemed threats to national security.
Those undocumented immigrants, like Pelaez, however, still must go through legal proceedings.
The ruling for voluntary departure only becomes final after 30 days, if an appeal is not filed, said her attorney, Jack Wallace. “If it’s filed within 30 days, she can’t be deported anywhere.” He plans to file the appeal next week, though he didn’t disclose on what grounds.
Wallace said he did not seek leniency under the new policy — called prosecutorial discretion — because he believes it’s best for those with no chance of winning approval to stay in the country. “Daniela has a good chance, if we win in court in Washington, to stay legally in the United States,” he said.
The deportation process can drag on for years, with all appeals from 59 immigration courts around the country going toWashington, D.C.
Pelaez’s family, who is originally from Barranquilla, Colombia, finds themselves on both sides of the immigration line. Her mother, Ana Gonzalez, returned to Colombia in 2006 to get successful treatment for colon cancer and now can’t return to the United States. Her older brother, Johan, is a U.S. citizen and serves in theU.S. Army, returning from a tour in Afghanistan last year. Her father, Antonio Pelaez, was able to receive residency through her brother. But Pelaez and her sister, Dayana, are struggling to find a way to stay in the country legally.
Meanwhile, Pelaez’s classmates and teachers have launched an aggressive online effort to gain support for her case — and keep her in the United States.
They have created a Facebook page and started an online petition, with more than 3,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon that they aim to send to theU.S. House of Representatives. They have made posters, banners and handed out fliers encouraging students to join Friday’s protest.
“We really are a family,” said Emily Sell, a 17-year-old senior. She and Pelaez attend the rigorous, college-prep International Baccalaureate program at North Miami Senior.
“I won’t allow that [deportation] to happen to her. For her to be deported means I’m losing one of my closest friends, our school is losing one of its brightest minds ... That means a lot of loss that’s felt not only by me but all of her friends and family,” Emily said.
The news of the judge’s order was “devastating,” said Larry Jurrist, who leads the school’s IB program and teaches Pelaez in advanced Spanish. “It’s shocking to think that someone you’ve known for four years is suddenly going to be shipped off somewhere.”
When students started the online petition, Jurrist signed it and posted it on his Facebook page. “Not only did a tremendous amount of my friends and families sign it, they shared it, and it’s spread around tremendously, not just through me, but everyone else who’s doing the same thing,” Jurrist said.
For a decade, immigrants’ rights groups have pushed the DREAM Act, a federal proposal that would allow undocumented children to obtain permanent residency, either by enrolling in college or serving in the military. The bill has been criticized for promoting illegal immigration — and has never been signed into law.
According to estimates by the Urban Institute, 192,000 students in Florida would benefit from the DREAM Act. That means they came to the United States when they were younger than 16, have lived in the country for more than five years and have graduated from a Florida high school.
Last month in the Florida Legislature, efforts to let undocumented students pay in-state tuition were shot down. Under current state law, undocumented students must pay out-of-state tuition, which is nearly three times higher than the rates for Florida residents.
Juan Rodriguez, the youth coordinator with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said it’s important for students to reach out to their community.
“They need to create their network of trusted friends that they can share their story with or teachers they can trust,” he said. “We understand there’s a lot of fear. There’s more fear on the part of the parents ... The majority of cases of students that have been stopped, it’s been people whose community has been aware of their story and do advocacy for them.”
Pelaez said she’s grateful for the rally at her school.
“I am annoyed and humiliated by all of this; I don’t feel I deserve this,” she said. “Criminals have more rights right now than I do — that’s humiliating. I’m a good person, I know I am.”
Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-valedictorian-deportation-order-030212,0,4002452.story
This link goes into greater detail..check out it
From
Also, we let foreigners attend our colleges all the time; so it seems she should be able to file for a student visa if she gets accepted into a college.
Obama’s injustice department won’t deport her. They don’t care about the rule of law.
here are some facts about the case, which I have gleaned from other, competently-written news articles.
Her family came to this country on a tourist visa when she was 4 years old (not 1991).
She is 18 years old now.
She applied for a green card when she turned 18. She was denied, and that is what prompted her voluntary deportation order.
Her older brother is U.S. citizen, and serves in the Army.
Her mother went to Colombia for treatment of colon cancer, but then was not able to return.
Her father is a legal resident, because of his son being a U.S. citizen. But that doesn’t extend to adult siblings.
So, in summary. When she came here at age 4, she did so legally. And of course, you can’t blame a 4-year-old for what their parents do. At some point, their tourist visa expired, and the family became illegal. This is a common way for people to be here illegally, and is the method that is most often correctable by filing the correct paperwork.
As her father has gained legal residency through the older son, the children were also legal while they were minors.
But when they turn 18, they have to file for their own legal status, and that is where they are right now. Given that they were legal before 18, it is not in my opinion a good case to argue that we should automatically reject her application because she’s breaking the law.
In fact, it seems probably that she WILL be granted legal status, either directly (through an appeal of her application), through the student visa process (she was a legal minor, and her grades will probably meet the standards for foreign student visa applications), or if necessary, through hardship status (being in America since she was 4 years old, she has no ties to her “home country”, and would have little chance to integrate into the society — she might not even speak the language.
Now, we normally discount that as “not our problem” since it’s not our fault her parents cut her off from her culture, but given that she was a legal minor, she didn’t break the law coming here, and in fact followed the legal process as soon as she was able to act independently, I don’t see why she shouldn’t be considered.
And in fact, I presume that’s why we here stories like this — because the pro-illegal forces want to pretend all the stories are like this, when many are not.
Please provide links to the other articles.
Now they have honors classes that have more possible credit over regular classes, which is why it is possible to get above 4.0 average. From what I have seen the “regular” classes are dumbed down so “honors” classes are what used to be regular classes so yes it is grade inflation.
Anyway, our high school civics teacher came up with the idea of having the class write to our congressman for a special relief bill for the young man. Four months later, the bill was passed and the young man was approved for citizenship. The young man proudly took the oath the next time they had a group of newly-minted American citizens in the nearby larger town.
That's the way exceptions were handled back in my day. Nobody saw the logic of some "comprehensive" solution like granting a blanket amnesty to gang bangers and jihadis to help one exceptional deserving kid.
Ah yes, the old "We've got to give comprehensive amnesty to all gang bangers and jihadis because we might hurt one deserving kid if we don't" argument.
See my post #76.
Back in that time, I think the only news article the kid got was 4 or 5 column inches inside our local weekly. That's because he didn't serve an agenda.
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.