If the prospect of a high-school valedictorian who has been in this country since he was three years old facing deportation bothers you as much as it bothers me, then how about a 13 year-old Boy Scout who faces the prospect of being sent back to a country he doesn’t remember ?
Jose Andrade is a bashful 13-year-old living in Leesburg. He’s a graduate of Catoctin Elementary School, and in a few days, he will have completed seventh grade at J. Lupton Simpson Middle School.
His teachers describe him as a pleasure to have in class, a hard-working student with a positive attitude who takes pride in his work, although on occasion he can be a class clown.
His Boy Scout troop leader calls Jose the most dedicated 13-year-old Scout in the troop.
And when he grows up, he says he wants to be a policeman — mostly because of the cool uniform, but also to help protect people.
But it’s unlikely Jose will be able to realize his dreams.
A native of El Salvador, the teen has until July 16 to leave the country – alone and without his family.
Here’s how this insane state of affairs came to be:
Born in Guatajigua, El Salvador, in 1994, the youngster experienced the fallout of the county’s brutal civil war, which had ended in 1992.
His mother, Mirna Andrade, left the country in 2000 to find work in the United States. Jobs were hard to come by in El Salvador, and providing for her family was difficult, she said.
“I was a single mother and it’s difficult to get ahead,” said Mirna, now 33. “I heard that there was work [here].”
Jose stayed with family members, who refused to send him to school and instead put him to work, at which point Jose headed north to be with his mother:
In 2005, 11-year-old Jose, followed his mother’s route to the United States.
She said her son’s education was a primary reason for bringing him here, adding it was important to her that she be with her son.
“I want [my children] to study,” said Mirna, who has two younger children who are U.S. citizens by birth.
“If God allows, [school will] help them realize a good career so that they know how to support themselves.”
The route, which wound from El Salvador to Guatemala, through Mexico and finally across the Rio Grande into Texas, is more than a month’s journey traveling by foot and car, Mirna said.
“We were hungry all the time, and tired,” Jose said.
So now, the teenager faces the prospect of being sent back to El Salvador alone and without his mother and two siblings.
Anyone who can tell me why this is an acceptable outcome is welcome to opine.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Doug, if I wanted to, I could list all the crimes committed by illegal immigrants. The crimes committed by illegal immigrants would not be representative of most of the illegal immigrants, but many of them do commit crimes. These cases you list are just as absurd.
There is another curiosity. These boys were brought to this country knowing little about it by parents who knew little about it. As too many of them have yet to learn English, too many of them still know too little about it. Now it is a monumental tragedy to send them all back? LOL!
Why don’t you just admit the cause of the problem. The reason you can list such cases is because too many government officials have done everything they can to avoid enforcing the law. That, not the law itself, has allowed such situations to arise. The solution is to rigorously enforce the law.
Is not the war El Salvador over? What is stopping the illegals from there from going home?
June 14th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Tom,
Please list all the crimes committed by this 13 year old boy, then perhaps what you say will have merit.
And while you’re at it, tell me why it’s a good idea to separate a child from his mother and siblings.
June 14th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Doug, The reason the boy is here is that people broke the law and did not enforce the law. Just because somebody has an agenda, the ONLY thing we are suppose to consider is the awkward situation of this boy? We are suppose forget the lawbreaking that put him there?
There a seven billion people in the world. Many of them are poor little boys and girls in need of a free education. Why don’t we just bring them all here?
June 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am
[...] the Beltway is using the story of youngsters whose parents sneaked them into the country (here). Now we supposedly cannot enforce the law because a child would suffer for a sin committed by [...]
June 14th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Tom,
The one thing I’ve learned from working in a profession where there are a lot of rules is that, sometimes, there have to be exceptions made.
This is one of those cases. Unless, of course, you want to send a 13 year old boy back to a country where he has no family left.
June 14th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Yeah, we know about our government and exceptions. I refer you to the one our glorious trustworthy leaders made in 1986. Then there is this exception that they tried to make just recently, the amnesty that was not an amnesty.
How do you propose to make this one without them screwing it up?
June 14th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Easy. Let the kid stay with his family.
Now, let me ask a question — do you really think that deporting everyone who is here illegally is either possible or likely ?
As a practical matter, I think we need to admit that it’s not going to happen and work on creating an immigration system that let’s people who want to come here legally actually do so.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:03 am
It is easy, BUT it is not going to happen. So to make it EASY, we open the borders to the point where we virtually do not have any.
Why don’t you try a thought experiment. See how EASY it is for you to immigrate to Mexico.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Tom,
I don’t want to immigrate to Mexico, and I doubt many people would.
On the other hand, people want to come here — and it’s not because of the welfare benefits either.
I don’t think we have any more right to slam the door in their face then the people who were saying the same thing back in the 1890s would have had the right to slam the door in my Great-Grandparent’s faces.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Doug – As usual, you try to brush off the issue again. Nonetheless, the issue is still there. Just because you or I believe something does not mean anybody else believes it. Therein lies the problem. People do not believe the same things. When people are raised in different societies, the difference can be extreme. People can have a great of difficulty understanding each other. Often they literally cannot understand each.
Given number of civil wars and fratricidal killings throughout human history, it should be readily apparent that achieving a stable society is difficult. Usually after considerable struggle, communities are formed when people find a way to reach a mutual accommodation. Since slavery has been the norm throughout history, it should also be apparent the form mutual accommodation takes does not have to be fair or voluntary. Sometimes the factions with the greatest power give those with the least the choice of enslavement or death.
To protect themselves from outsiders, people erect borders. No society wants newcomers who will not give that society their loyalty. Any society that accepts hordes of newcomers risks the submersion of its culture by that of the newcomers. The members of submerged society usually find themselves dead or classified as second class citizens.
While Mexico may be a poor nation, its citizens remain almost notoriously proud. Most do not want a bunch of gringos coming in and taking over. At the same time, Americans are proud of this nation. Most people see little advantage in the flooding our nation with poor Mexicans. The cultural changes these people will bring are just too unpredictable. They are also not likely to be advantageous. Do we really need a nation with two major languages?