ICE DEPORTS HIGH SCHOOL VALEDICTORIAN
By Corinne Ramey

AlterNet
n/87462/
June 9 2008
CA

ICE proves its efficiency at wasting U.S. tax dollars.

I’ve written about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
officials’ schoolyard antics before, but the recent news that ICE
is planning to deport a California high school valedictorian just
affirms my view that these immigration authorities need to get out
of the schools. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The valedictorian at Fresno’s Bullard High School won’t be attending
college in the United States this fall because he’s scheduled to
be deported.

Seventeen-year-old Arthur Mkoyan’s 4.0 grade-point average qualified
him to enter one of the state’s top universities. But he and his mother
have been ordered back to Armenia after their last appeal for asylum
failed. The family fled from what used to be part of the Soviet Union
and has been seeking asylum since 1992.

But, rest assured, ICE shows its nice side once in a while (and if it’s
not clear, I’m being sarcastic here). As a sort of consolation prize,
ICE decided to let Arthur stick around for graduation. According to
the article, "A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
says they were given an extension until June 20 so Mkoyan could attend
his graduation ceremony."

This past October, the Senate tried to help out students like Arthur,
but to no avail. Legislation called the Development, Relief, and
Education for Alien Minors Act — better know as the DREAM Act — was
introduced in the Senate, but failed a procedural vote. The legislation
would have allowed Arthur and approximately 65,000 other undocumented
students a path to citizenship and the opportunity for a college
education. But unfortunately for Arthur, the legislation failed.

Arthur’s story and that of the DREAM Act are just two examples of what
amounts to an utterly inconsistent immigration policy. Whether ICE
wants to admit it or not, undocumented immigrants are here to stay,
and an enforcement-only policy that consists of random deportations
just isn’t going to cut it. According to a recently-released report
by the Public Policy Institute of California, Immigrant Pathways to
Legal Permanent Residence: Now and Under a Merit-Based System, more
than half of the immigrants in California who have legal permanent
resident status were at some point undocumented. This number is
42% for the U.S. as a whole. These immigrants — both documented
and undocumented — are a vital part of the nation’s economy and
the fabric of our nation. Deporting smart students like Arthur —
especially considering that such a huge percentage of immigrants
eventually receive legal status — is not only bad for the immigrant
community, but for the nation as a whole.

For a slightly happier immigration story, check out this video of
DMI scholar and Mexican immigrant Samantha Contreras. Samantha was
undocumented when she graduated from high school, and soon realized
the hardships associated with being undocumented.. "I learned the
reality of my immigration status," she said. "I couldn’t work,
I couldn’t go to college, I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t even get a
Blockbuster membership card." Unlike Arthur’s story, Samantha’s has
a happy ending — an immigrant rights group helped her to enroll in
college, and now she strives for a career in public policy.