A DREAM Student’s Family Caught in Arizona’s Snare
By Roberto Dr.
Cintli Rodriguez
New America Media
Jul 20, 2010
In October of 2009, I wrote a column
about a brilliant, undocumented high school student whose goal is to
attend college this September. I referred to her as Leticia X. When she
spoke to my class at the University of Arizona last fall, she had my
students in tears, knowing full well that unless the immigration laws
change, she will be unable to pursue her dream.
Leticia X has a special love of land
(agriculture), and her hope is to become a teacher in Mexican American
studies. I saw her this past week at the annual Raza/Ethnic Studies
conference in Tucson, but this time, it was she who was in tears. Her
father had been picked up that morning by local sheriff’s deputies and
turned over to the Border Patrol.
The most dynamic of educators from
across the country had come to learn about the battle against HB 2281 —
the new anti–ethnic studies law — and SB 1070 law, the racial-profiling
law scheduled to take effect July 29. Leticia X’s story provided a
lesson they weren’t expecting and demonstrated again that Arizona has
become the epicenter of dehumanization.
Because Congress has still not passed
the DREAM Act or reformed the nation’s immigration system, Leticia X
will not be going to college. But that pales in comparison to the
greater tragedy she is now experiencing in this insane asylum known as
the apartheid state of Arizona.
Leticia X is not afraid of using her
real name; she did so when she spoke to my class. It is I who choose not
to identify her publicly. Nor does she consider herself undocumented or
an illegal alien. Neither do I. To do so buys into the dehumanization
that has become normalized in this society.
Other DREAM students aren’t afraid,
either. Recently, a group of them staged a sit-in at Senator John
McCain’s Tucson office, subjecting themselves to arrest so that they
could take control of their own movement. In Phoenix, another group
served Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio with a community indictment,
charging him with crimes against humanity.
The notion that children, who had no
choice in coming to this country, can be considered illegal stands logic
and morality on its head. Leticia X crossed into the United States when
she was 3, hardly an age when she could have consciously broken any law.
She considers herself a U.S. citizen because she has no memory of any
other nation than this one; she is guilty of no crime, and should be
treated as such.
Her father is not illegal, either;
his only “crime” was to try and make a better life for his family.
President Obama recently directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to
concentrate on deporting violent criminals who are a threat to public
safety or (a canard) to national security; Leticia X’s father is
neither.
In the heat of a campaign in which
she is vying to become the elected governor of the state, Arizona’s
unelected Gov. Jan Brewer has taken the lead in the misinformation
department, alleging that most migrants are carrying drugs, and that
drug cartels have been beheading people in the Arizona desert. Both
claims are fiction.
Brewer should meet Leticia X, a
beautiful human being deserving of treatment as a full human being. If
anything, this future teacher merits a full scholarship.
President Obama should also meet
Leticia X. He should meet her father and be reminded about his recently
declared immigration enforcement priorities. Meeting them, he would know
the face of this debate; he would know that it is high time to reform
the nation’s immigration laws and to bring millions of people, not into
Arpaio’s infamous tents, but into the tent of humanity.
For more info re this unfolding
situation:
landandfreedom@gmail.com. To support Leticia X and her father,
checks can be written to: Barrio Sustainability Project— TYLO. They can
be sent to: Tierra Y Libertad Organization, 3649 S. 7th Ave. Tucson, AZ
85713.
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