This year, she is seeing something new: some of her most ambitious and talented undocumented students, after graduating, are leaving on their own for Mexico. Aspiring doctors and lawyers — ROTC cadets who want nothing more than to serve in the military — are electing to return to a country they barely know to pursue their aspirations there.
Like Mari. At 12, she nearly died crossing the desert with her mother to enter the United States. Now she is about to graduate high school. Her English is improving, and her grades are good. She wants to be a lawyer. If she could, she would do it here. But she is unwilling to put her life on hold to wait for a DREAM Act that might never pass. In May, after she graduates, she plans to return to Mexico to pursue an advanced degree there. It is a big decision for a 17-year-old. Her entire family is in Phoenix — her mother, father, and most of her cousins. Mari knows the danger of the desert. Once she crosses back into Nogales, she is not coming back.
Malia Politzer
The road leading into Oscar Vasquez's new home in Mexico.
Allan Cameron
Oscar Vasquez's house in Magdalena, Mexico.
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This is the first article this year of
New Times' occasional series
"Are Your Papers in Order?" in which we examine the treatment of undocumented aliens, brown-skinned U.S. citizens, and legal residents at the hands of local and U.S. law enforcement.
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"It's hard," she says. "But I have to make a choice — my family or my future."
Some college graduates are also electing to leave for other countries to put their degrees to use. Dulce — another Carl Hayden Robotics whiz kid — is one of those. She graduated last year from ASU with an electrical engineering degree and the aspiration of getting a job inventing life-changing medical equipment for people with disabilities. If the DREAM Act does not pass this year, she intends to move to Canada and do it there.
It is such stories that frustrate immigration lawyer Delia Salvatierra, who is often the one to break the news to undocumented students that there is little hope of legitimizing their immigration status.
"Most of these kids have aspirations of going to school here, of having a life here. It just seems so absurd to educate them in American schools and then say that they don't belong here," she says. "You're draining potential. These are people who could live productive lives in the United States. [Most] are extremely loyal and talented. It's absurd to say, 'Okay, you're not from here, so pack up your bags and go.'"
As for Dr. Quinones, he says he knows he probably should not have entered the country illegally. But he also strongly believes that it is the United States that is losing out by keeping people like him from putting their talents to use.
"This country was formed by immigrants. By 2050, one quarter will be of Hispanic descent — mostly Mexican-American — yet we are the group with the lowest education and income. If we are to sustain this country as the most wonderful and powerful, we can't do it if one quarter of the population is in this situation," he says. "Some kids are truly hungry to succeed. They come from humble backgrounds, but they're talented and capable and we need to identify them and open the doors to them so they can make a contribution. It isn't rocket science — it isn't neurosurgery. It's plain and simple."
