Colotl's legal problems started in late March when her car was stopped on the Kennesaw State campus. Born in Mexico but living in the United States since she was 11, she could not produce a driver's license, so she handed over as identification an expired passport from Mexico.
She was arrested the next day and turned over to immigration officials. She spent more than a month in the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama.
Friends came out in force and marched on campus in her defense. Earlier this month, she was released, and her deportation was deferred for a year, which will allow her to finish her studies. She hasn't returned to classes yet, but looks forward to earning her degree. link
A sympathetic figure, yes. What is a good legal reason not to deport her?
She's an adult and knows she is in this country illegally. She is driving without a valid license. She gave officers a false address.
ReplyDeleteI guess I fail to see where she is a "sympathetic figure" with behaviour like that.
She probably didn't make the decision to come across, and even if she had, and we'd convicted her, we stop punishing kids at 18 for crimes committed as adolescents. So, I'll give you sympathetic . . . but boot her now. And if she was paying resident tuition, charge her the difference.
ReplyDeleteOK…this is CNN aka propaganda for the ignorant. I mean they did go out of their way to give a balanced account. Comments in support of her from Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Georgia-ACLU, the Cobb Immigrant Alliance and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (whatever the hell the last two are, but I think they are amnesty groups) balanced by comments by...
ReplyDeleteBut I do have a few questions:
Colotl's legal problems started in late March when her car was stopped on the Kennesaw State campus. Born in Mexico but living in the United States since she was 11, she could not produce a driver's license, so she handed over as identification an expired passport from Mexico.
She was arrested the next day and turned over to immigration officials. She spent more than a month in the Etowah Detention Center in Alabama.
Friends came out in force and marched on campus in her defense. Earlier this month, she was released, and her deportation was deferred for a year, which will allow her to finish her studies. She hasn't returned to classes yet, but looks forward to earning her degree.
"I'm just trying to live the American dream and finish my education," she said.
Calling Colotl "a symbol of what's wrong with the immigration system," immigration attorney Charles Kuck thanked ICE for allowing his client to stay in the country for a year to finish her studies. He then set out to educate people about the challenges facing Colotl, providing a reason why she did not have a license.
"Jessica can't start the process to become a U.S. citizen because she's not allowed to," he said. "If Jessica could obtain a license, she would have."
OK, if she wanted to live the American Dream maybe she should have stated to become an American. The article states she has been living in the US since she was 11. If she was legally here, her parents/guardian could have applied for citizenship after five years, or she could have after she turned 18.
As far as a GA license, I checked the GA license web site and it stated this:
Citizenship Requirements
Every applicant for an initial license must prove either he/she is a U.S. citizen or legally authorized by United States Citizen and Immigrations Services (USCIS) to be present in the U.S. If the identification document presented indicates that the individual is a U.S. Citizen (by birth or naturalization) then the citizenship requirement has been satisfied.
In other words if she was a “Permanent Resident” (what we used to call “Residents Aliens”) she could have easily gotten a GA license. As I read this, she was either
a. Here illegally from day one. Not her fault obviously because she was a kid but she should have applied for Permanent Resident status.
b. Here somewhat legally. She may have been a Permanent Resident who let her status lapse and for whatever reason not renewed it. Strange that someone who wanted to live the “American Dream” would be so lazy. And if she wanted to be an American, why only a Mexican passport?
Again, deport her ass and let her come back….through the front door only!
The reason we have these types of laws on the books are to prevent situations like this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2009/11/for_about_four_months_yuma.php
or this one
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/high-school-hoops-star-jerry-joseph-unmasked-as-guerdwich-montimere-22-year-old-impostor/19474473
In both cases, because schools are legally prevented from asking a student's legal status, 22 year old men were attending school posing as teenagers and had sex with underaged girls. Seriously, this IS a problem. And that CNN and other media outlets continue to softpedal the implications of not knowing the real identities of the people who work in our schools, attend our schools or work with us is putting people at risk. Like it or not, many of the people in state and federal prisons are folks who came here illegally to perpetrate crimes against American citizens. Are we allowed NO DEFENSE?????