THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2008
NEWS
5A
"They were going to build this park and then they didn't because they wanted to keep the Mexican kids out," Alejandra said.
Ed Hayes, director of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps Heart of America Chapter in Kansas City and surrounding areas, testified for the immigration reform bill. He said Kansas had "magnets" that drew undocumented immigrants, and that employers and landlords should be fined or arrested if they continued to break immigration laws.
He said one of the sponsors of the original legislation was a member of the Minutemen, but he refused to identify that Kansas legislator.
Hayes said some of the cost associated with undocumented immigrants included social services and education. He also said undocumented immigrants were killing Americans by bringing in diseases and by drunk driving.
"At least the American (drunk driver) is supposed to be here," Hayes said. "The illegal is not supposed be here. If the illegals weren't here, it wouldn't happen; these people would all be alive and their families would still have them."
THE DREAM
Alejandra's family started the immigration process soon after her father was granted amnesty. They were almost completely through the process when Alejandra was in high school, but the paperwork was lost in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services system. The family had to start the process again from scratch. Alejandra finally got her green card in December, 1998, just six months before she was to graduate high school.
Alejandra told her guidance counselor that she wanted to go to the University of Kansas after graduation. She said she had dreamed of going to the University since she moved to Kansas in fourth grade and saw the Jayhawk
mascot. The counselor discouraged her — and other Hispanic students — from going to the University, Alejandra said. He told them they were better off going to community college or getting a job at the local meatpacking plant.
Alejandra didn't take his advice. She enrolled at the University anyway. But she had a hard time once she arrived in Lawrence. She was eligible for financial aid, but she wasn't aware at the time that it was available. She took out loans and maxed out credit cards. Her parents ate only beans and rice for months to save enough money to help her pay for school. Her mother took a job teaching English as a second language.
"Coming up here, a primarily white school — it was a great experience but it was very, very, very hard for me," Alejandra said.
She uses her experience as an example for the students she recruits to Harvest of Hope.
"I just want to show them that it's never OK to quit," Alejandra said. "Even if you do go to an American college and you can't work after that here in the United States, well, you can go back to Mexico or whatever country; you can work in another location."
Alejandra has kept the blue plaid blanket her grandmother wrapped her in before she crossed the border. It sits on a mostly empty bookshelf when she is in her office. When she travels around Kansas to recruit kids for camp, she carries it in the backseat of her car. When she is home, the blanket rests on her bed. The blanket make her feel at home, reminds her of the long road she traveled to get where she is today.
Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
"It's a long journey," Alejandra said. "I don't think people really understand what you have to give up."
Estimated number of undocumented migrants in 2005 by state Source: The Pew Hispanic Center and the 2005 Current Population Survey
Level of education attained by foreign born Hispanics.
Source: The Pew Hispanic Centerw
All photos contributed by Yolanda Hernandez
Above from left to right:
Above from left to right:
Alejandra said she became accustomed to the American lifestyle at a young age.
Alejandra said her family lived in poverty in Chihuahua, Mexico. They lived in a one-room house with no heat and running water.
Alejandra plays with her cousins at a park in Hugonot. She said she experienced a lot of racism as a child in a small, mostly white town.
Alejandra with her aunt at her grandmother's house in Chihuahua, Mexico. Alejandra said she misses her grandmother and the family she had to leave behind.
Below from left to right:
Alejandra's parents and two younger brothers joined her at Memorial stadium for her 2004 graduation.
Alejandra with her mom and younger brother soon after they moved to Corona, N.M. She said her parents wanted them to have the opportunity to get an education.
Alejandra with her favorite doll at her house in Corona, N.M. She said the language of the immigration debate was hurtful to kids who weren't old enough to understand.
Alejandra helped her father, a migrant ranch-hand, when she wasn't at school. She said she helped feed and care for animals.