Pelaez gains two-year deportation reprieve
By Hannah Wang
Published on Friday, April 27, 2012
Last weekend, Daniela Pelaez, who has committed to Dartmouth as a member of the Class of 2016 and whom news outlets have dubbed the “poster child” for the DREAM Act, came to Dartmouth along with over 530 other prospective students for Dimensions of Dartmouth last weekend. Pelaez was facing deportation by the end of March, but she and her sister have recently been granted a two-year reprieve, largely in response to a student-led protest staged in her honor.
The DREAM Act would allow illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors andwho have completed high school and spent the last five years in the country to become citizens.
“I have a two-year reprieve, so hopefully I’ll be able to work on my case and get a visa while going to school at the same time,” Pelaez said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Pelaez, this year’s valedictorian at North Miami Senior High School, was brought to the U.S. from Colombia illegally at the age of four by her parents. Her father and brother have since become legal residents. Both Pelaez and her older sister, who applied in conjunction with their mother for permanent residency, however, were unable to receive their green cards because their mother returned to Colombia to receive treatment for colon cancer.
“I guess they didn’t realize that [leaving the country] not only derailed [Pelaez’s mother’s] own green card application, it derailed her daughters’ as well,” Larry Jurrist, International Baccalaureate program coordinator at North Miami Senior High School, said.
Since receiving a notice of deportation on Feb. 27, Pelaez and her sister have been working through the court system to try to become legal permanent residents, according to Pelaez.
Pelaez’s friends organized a large demonstration at their high school protesting against her deportation after receiving the notice, according to Emily Sell, Pelaez’s friend and one of the demonstration’s lead organizers.
“We sat around a table and said, ‘OK, what are we going to do? We can solve this, it’s in our power,’” Sell said.
Sell drafted a petition against Pelaez’s deportation and publicized it to her Facebook friends. The petition spread quickly, receiving more than 1,000 signatures in the first hour and more than 100,000 in total, according to Sell.
“We’d get signers from all over the world, and we read through the comments about families who are going through similar situations,” Sell said.
Pelaez’s friends planned a mass protest in which “3,000 kids voluntarily walked out of the school,” according to Pelaez. The protest was widely covered by many major news networks, she said.
“It was just one of those things that went viral,” Jurrist said. “Every single news outlet was camped outside the school.”
Jurrist said he was impressed by the students who organized and led the protest.
“I was most astonished because although we adults participated, it was really the kids who did most of it,” Jurrist said. “It was their idea — they did most of the work for it, and we followed along.”
The news coverage from the protest launched Pelaez to international recognition, with politicians such as Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., openly expressing support for Pelaez. Rubio, however, has not come out in full support of the DREAM Act, a proposal which would grant permanent residency for children of illegal immigrants like Pelaez.
“My hope is to come up with a bipartisan solution to this problem, one that does not reward or encourage illegal immigration by granting amnesty, but helps accommodate talented young people like Daniela, who find themselves undocumented through no fault of their own,” Rubio said in an interview with The Huffington Post.
Pelaez has found the media attention to be somewhat overwhelming but has been handling it well, according to her friends.
“At first, I didn’t really believe I was worth so much attention in the news, but now that I’ve learned a lot more about immigration reform, I’m really honored to have the ‘poster child’ title,” Pelaez said.
Sell said that Pelaez is not only a stellar student, but an inspiration as well.
“Of all the struggles she’s been through, she’s really come out of it with a sense of positivity, and that’s really inspiring,” she said.
Tiantian Zhang, a prospective student who met Pelaez at Dimensions, said that she was impressed by Pelaez’s modesty.
“She was very sweet, and I wouldn’t have known that she was this huge icon because she just seemed like an average person,” Zhang said
She is here illegally, whatever her personality is, and should be shipped back.
DS
By Robert Segal on Apr 27 | 7:04 am
Daniela, I admire your courage and can’t wait to see you on campus next year. You and your friends are already making a positive difference, keep it up!
By D13 on Apr 27 | 10:08 am
What I don’t quite understand is why our government is willing make such exceptions for illegal immigrants, but has no problem kicking out those who are here legally on, let’s say, a student or work visa. What people often forget is that those who are here on visas not only have to reapply on a regular basis, but they are actually paying taxes and contributing directly in a financial manner to the daily operations of our country. On the other hand, those who are here illegally are not required to pay taxes and contribute as a citizen would.
Why, then, are we sending someone back to his/her respective country of origin who urned his/her degree here LEGALLY and who could directly benefit our legalized workforce? We educate those who come here legally and then send them back to their home countries, where they instantly become our competitors. There is a flaw in whoever thinks that this sound judgement.
I’m not saying that this issue isn’t extremely complicated, nor am I saying that those who are here illegally don’t contribute in some positive ways to our society. Nor do I have anything against the individual in this article’s being at Dartmouth. What I am saying, however, is that the principle behind the DREAM act doesn’t seem at all fair to those international students and employees who work so hard to be here legally, only to be booted out with no exceptions. Meanwhile, their illegal counterparts often get a free ride. Something is fundamentally wrong with this picture.
By Anonymous on Apr 27 | 10:31 am
@Robert Segal, that is a pretty silly justification.
Of course she’s “here” illegally.
There is (to put it mildly) some controversy over whether our current immigration laws are correct or not. And unless your ancestors came here across the Bering land bridge 16,000 years ago, you probably have some parents or grandparents who showed up in this country and “took jobs from real Americans,” worked for too little money, did not speak English well, and — oh yes — would have been illegals today.
If we change our immigration policies, she would not be here illegally.
By csb on Apr 27 | 10:56 am
You, sir, are a bigot. If you go to Dartmouth, I’m embarrassed to call you a schoolmate.
By D’12 on Apr 27 | 11:12 am
We know that mob rule is an ugly thing. The way this has been handled so far is like a banana republic. There are millions of people waiting to be legally allowed to become citizens. This girl could go to school anywhere, even her own country of Colombia and it wouldn’t make a difference to Dartmouth, the U.S. or her. She will be successful no matter where she goes. She is not a poster child for the DREAM Act, she is the poster child for a national party that finds it in their interest to get votes and power by making the illegal legal. These are the same people who are suing Arizona, mandating us to buy health insurance, groping little kids and our grandmothers to get on an airplane, these people are power mad and it is ugly. Ugly right here in the good old United States.
By Anon on Apr 27 | 11:18 am
Robert Segal, I don’t know if you’re a bigot or just woefully illogical. The issue has nothing to do with her personality. It has to do with the fact that her parents brought her here when she was FOUR YEARS OLD and thus she has committed no crime, assuming a four-year-old is not responsible for her own movements.
I had somehow never heard of this girl before through all the stories about the DREAM Act. Hope she will have a great time at Dartmouth!
By Will Bishop on Apr 27 | 11:52 am
To all those who don’t understand the term “illegal,” you don’t belong at Dartmouth College. There is something wrong with your (pin) heads.
By Anon on Apr 27 | 1:26 pm
@ Anonymous 10:31 Your comment is unlikely to be remarked upon by anyone other than those who support your comment because it destroys the case made for this girl to be here and stay here as an illegal. It doesn’t matter at what age she was brought here through no fault of her own. It is supposed to be a deterrent to the parents who were responsible for themselves and for their family from illegally entering and staying in the country. What do the people who think we owe it to her to let her stay think about President Obama’s Aunt Zeituni and Uncle Onyongo who were ordered deported 20 years ago but stayed anyway and stayed in public housing on the public tab. Onyongo was stopped for drunk driving in Massachusetts while here illegally and now is going to use the same lawyer that Aunt Zeituni used to get herself permanent residence in the country after being ordered out. it looks like you can do far better for yourself by breaking the law, including public sympathy than by adhering to it. Is that what you who support the illegal are saying? Is it that laws don’t apply to liberal Democrats?
By Anon on Apr 27 | 1:58 pm
Daniela is a committed member of the ‘16 class. That makes her one of us, and no matter what we think of technical aspects of immigration law, she is welcome at Dartmouth. She is not an alien or an illegal. Those are just hurtful rhetorical terms. She is a talented young woman. Anyone who reads her story and feels animosity towards her instead of a “there but for the grace of God go I” empathy really needs to talk to a therapist or something.
By Andy Schmidt ‘02 on Apr 27 | 2:44 pm
My family came to the US legally when I was three years old. All told my parents spent a small fortune on attorney fees and applications and missing work for interviews to get do everything by the book. They started their own business and for fifteen years they have paid taxes and legally employed thirty five people in professional positions. I too am the Valedictorian of my class however I am on the wait list for the Dartmouth class of 2016. I can’t help but wonder if we came illegally, I might have been accepted for regular admission or benefited from a student protest. My father tells us just do the right thing and life will take care of you. I trust he is right.
By Anonymous on Apr 27 | 2:58 pm
Undocumented immigration would be less prevalent if there were actually a comprehensive reform that would incorporate the people already making this country their home AND improve the ridiculous stipulations for legal migration. The fact of the matter is that the system in place now does NOT work. Criminalizing undocumented immigrants does nothing to alleviate the problem. The same goes for ignorant comments (hello Robert).
Yes, “legal” migration would be wonderful. However, the truth of the matter is that is not an option for everyone because of how ridiculously hard it is to do so. Take a second to analyze what “undocumented” immigrants have to do to get here. Do you think anyone would swim across a dangerous river or walk hours across a desert for no pressing reasons? For many people, staying in their home countries is a life or death decision.
While most people who oppose undocumented migration might say, well that’s not our problem, actually it kind of is. If you look at the U.S.‘ relations with foreign countries, you start to see a pattern. The more the U.S. has intervened in a country in the past, the higher the number of migrants. We are talking about the Braceros program, U.S. sponsored coups in central and south America, death squads, etc. That is the history that many Americans conveniently tend to to forget. Without understanding the whole picture, it is easy to say they are “illegal” and should be sent back.
Take a class here, you might actually learn a little more. Even if you somehow continue to have the same views, at least you might be less likely to make such ignorant, unfounded comments.
As for Daniela, YOU GO GIRL! You are an inspiration to many! Keep working hard and it will be worth it in the end because you are doing the right thing.
By Anon on Apr 27 | 5:47 pm
She seems like a very sweet girl.
However, and I bet this will change the minds of many of you: She is getting a full ride (tuition, room&board) to Dartmouth. While I, a fellow ‘16 and an American citizen, have to pay $62k a year because on paper my family can pay, though in real life it will be a very big struggle. She also didst have to deal with the more competitive/selective pool of international applicants, so that’s unfair, too.
By 2016 on Apr 27 | 6:25 pm
I’m Larry Jurrist, the man quoted above as Daniela’s IB Coordinator. I have very strong feelings about students like Daniela being allowed to stay in the country, since I have a great many more wonderful students just like Daniela who are exactly in her situation. I know that this is a difficult issue, and I can certainly expect honest differences of opinion. However, I’m shocked by the completely ignorant, yahoo tone of some of the remarks posted here. I can only hope that they come from people outside the Dartmouth community. It’s too scary to think otherwise. All four of my grandparents immigrated from Europe around 1900. They were all legal. They were legal not through any virtue on their part, but because there were no immigration laws in place then yet. People who speak self-righteously about being legal or illegal need to think hard about “there but for fortune go I.”
By Larry Jurrist on Apr 27 | 10:19 pm
She’s human like the rest of us. That’s enough for me to hope she can be a ‘16.
By David Ong on Apr 28 | 12:30 pm
@ Good Old Larry. “Hi, I’m Larry and I’m shocked, I tell you shocked by the not just ignorant, but "Completely” ignorant, yahoo tone of the some of the remarks here.“ Larry finds it shocking to hear that the changing of a law would be the slightest impediment to a free, full ride scholarship to an illegal alien at Dartmouth College. How could anyone be prepared for a law that has changed as recently as 1924? Larry’s strong feelings don’t apply to Australian citizens who are married to US citizens but still wait years to come to the US legally if they ever get here. Who cares, says Larry, as long as my feelings are paramount, and I have feelings for many other students in Daniela’s exact situation.. And I always thought that yahoos were lawbreakers and those whose feelings support lawbreakers…oh, I was right they are yahoos. Oh yoo-hoo, Larry.
By Anon on Apr 29 | 12:38 am
Why is Dartmouth giving a full scholarship to someone who of this writing has to leave the country in two years ? (ie without graduating)
I guess I should have applied to Dartmouth…I certainly had the grades to get in, just not the money. My parents were here legally, but because they were on J visas I could only apply as an international student…which meant no hope of any financial aid. We were too poor to afford it…if I’d been illegal like Pelaez it seems I could have gotten a full ride.
I’m not against immigration, but I am against immigration injustice, specially when it favors illegals over legals.
By Anonymous on May 11 | 12:44 am