KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY, APRIL 29. 2010 / NEWS
5A
Photo contributed by Juan Izaquirre
brated his membership to the Hispanic American Leadership Organization with Gordillo and Bay Gallagos at the district banquet in this photo taken in 2006.
Photo contributed by Raul
Raul uses skills from his psychology degree every day in his work for CAMISE school, a school in one of the poorest areas of Mexico City for children with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. He helps develop individual education plans for the children, but he struggles with the challenges of a lack of resources.
Photo contributed by Raul
Raul had the date of his godson's birth tattooed on his right forearm. Adrian, also called 'Nano', the son of Raul's friend, was born when Raul was a senior in college. When Nano's father abandoned the family, Raul took over parenting responsibilities and brought mother and child to live with his own family. Raul was arrested shortly before Nano's first birthday.
ation in All's bravery. Javier is a dedicated soccer player and fan; The pseudonym he chose, Javier.
Photo by Jon Goerinc
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PART TWO: RAUL
Paul is disoriented as he stands next to the bus. It's September 2008, and he is miles away from anyone or anything he knows, staring at the bridge before him.
It begins to rain.
The 75 deportees pass through border check-in points — small structures that resemble tollbooths — and then onto Del Rio-Ciudad Acuna International Bridge. It crosses over the Rio Grande and connects, yet divides, two countries, two worlds.
Raul tries to move quickly. He doesn't want to get wet, and he doesn't want to get left behind. Gang members are lurking across the border, waiting to rob any stragglers. It's hard to keep up — the guards took his shoelaces and his belt.
For a minute, Raul pauses. One chapter of his life is over. As the rain pels his back and he walks back into Mexico, he thinks, I have to change my plan completely.
--those who didn't know Raul now did. Yeah, he was quiet, but he had flair. He was the kid who went to a U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute Conference wearing a sherbet green suit. He had a leather jacket decorated with fake $100 bills. He wore sparkling earrings he insisted were diamonds. Friends called him "Flash" or "Speed Racer". Even people who didn't know him personally knew his hair — shaved in intricate designs.
Raul, now 26, graduated from the University in 2007 with high hopes and frequent worries. He wanted to get a master's degree, but he was worried about finding a good job, about caring for his family. One day, he wanted to take his godson to visit his homeland of Mexico.
Not so long before, Raul's plan had been different.
He never dreamed his arrival back in Mexico would be like this; dropped at the border after being arrested at his workplace in Olathe and deported five months later.
These days, it is hard for Raul to remember his life in Lawrence.
--those who didn't know Raul now did. Yeah, he was quiet, but he had flair. He was the kid who went to a U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute Conference wearing a sherbet green suit. He had a leather jacket decorated with fake $100 bills. He wore sparkling earrings he insisted were diamonds. Friends called him "Flash" or "Speed Racer". Even people who didn't know him personally knew his hair — shaved in intricate designs.
But people here remember him.
His mentor, Juan Izaguirre, assistant director of the Multicultural Resource Center, remembers Raul as the first to volunteer for activities — even if it meant moving around shifts at work.
Friends remember him as "always on the go" as he balanced responsibilities and his academics, his job, his family, his friends and his fraternity.
After the Provost's speech praising him;
But few knew his whole story.
--he was enrolled in regular English classes. He graduated with a 3.98 GPA and went on to Johnson County Community College for the 2001-2002 school year. There, he first learned how fragile his dream was.
In 1999, when Raul was 16, his parents started talking about making the journey North.
His father had worked as a salesman for the Sabritas potato chip plant in Tijuana, a rough industrial border town in northern Mexico close to San Diego, but he lost the benefits that would help him pay for Raul's higher education.
Education had almost mythical qualities for the Raul's family. His parents finished only middle school and were sure they struggled in life because they were uneducated. More than anything, they wanted a better life for their children.
Raul didn't want to move to a foreign land where he was sure people would look down on him because he couldn't speak English.
He didn't know his parents were serious about the move until they started selling the family's belongings.
Then, he asked his mother: "Why are we going?"
"Because we are a family," she said, "and families stick together."
Raul started studying English.
The family crossed using tourist visas. His parents decided on Kansas and moved to Kansas City, Kan., with their four children: Raul, his younger brothers Hugo and Sergio, and his sister Claudette.
Raul learned English quickly at a rough urban school in an industrial area of Kansas City, Kan. His first quarter, he enrolled in every English as a Second Language class he could. By the beginning of the second quarter
For a minute, Raul pauses. One chapter of his life is over. As the rain pelts his back and he walks back into Mexico, he thinks, I have to change my plan completely.
--coyote, a guide who transports undocumented migrants, to lead him across the desert that spans the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Raul was shocked. It hadn't been a problem on the way down. He had spent two weeks on a service trip to Jalisco, Mexico, through Johnson County Community College. The students volunteered at a community of low-income families called Las Pintas. They needed an interpreter, and Raul, eager to help, had signed up.
"It's expired," the customs agent at the Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport stated, holding Raul's passport and staring at him.
On the way down, his passport and tourist visa were no problem.
Authorities separated Raul from the other students and took him into custody. There, he signed a voluntary deportation form and was placed on the next flight back to jalisco.
But during the trip, his passport had expired, and Raul could no longer legally enter the United States.
Frustrated, alone and 19 years old, he cried the entire flight.
Trapped in Mexico, Raul had only two thoughts on his mind: his family and his education. He worried about his brothers. His parents worked more than 80 hours a week at two jobs, and Raul had acted as a father figure to Hugo and Sergio. He knew the family was hurting without his income and guidance.
He decided to make the journey back. He tried to go legally first by applying for a visa, but it was denied.
The only other option was crossing ilegally. Desperate to go home, Raul paid a
Raul remembers the desert as dark and cold. They traveled at night, and he wasn't able to sleep for almost a week. In the middle of his journey, he was robbed of the only money he was carrying — 20 pesos, roughly equivalent to $2. Border Patrol officials, la migra, arrested some members of his group, but Raul ran without looking back and escaped capture.
Raul kept thinking about his family, knowing that his mom would suffer if he didn't make it. He thought about his education. He had visited the University during high school and thought he was destined to go there.
---
Raul made it back and enrolled in fall 2003. Then, in the spring of 2004, his father was deported. Raul dropped out of school and worked 75 hours a week to support his family.
He returned to the University in spring 2005, when his father re-entered the United States. Raul thrived in the classroom, yet he continued to work two jobs. He slept as little as two hours a night.
"I was born and raised to work physically until I drop dead tired," Raul said. "That's how my mom and dad work."
Even though he was juggling family, academic and job responsibilities, he was active in Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity, the International Student Association and the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. He practiced step dancing, a vibrant form of dance traditional to many Hispanic and black fraternities and performed in the University step show for three years.
He was an inspiration to his friends.
"He helped us, whether he knew it or not, in that way that we looked at him and said — if he can do it, so can we," said Eloy Gallegos, a KU alumnus and a 2008 graduate and Raul's friend. "He helped us indirectly with his attitude and his character. Hed make us laugh all the time. I don't ever remember him saying, 'No, this cannot be done.'"
Raul's family came to his graduation in May 2007. Raul felt happy, proud, successful — everything a graduate should feel. He also felt a huge responsibility as a Latino with a college degree and the first member of his family to get a degree. He had a future but not the one he expected.
---
It was 10 a.m. on April 17, 2008, almost a year after Raul's graduation. Raul was eating lunch in his cubicle at an Oatlhe car dealership where he worked as a salesman, when a detective arrived.
The detective said he was looking for Raul.
He began to question him
When Raul truthfully answered all of his questions, the officer put him in handcuts and took him to jail.
---
Raul's mother was at home, cleaning the house on her day off.
The phone rang.
It was Raul. He had been arrested.
Pain washed over her. All of his accomplishments are useless now, she thought.
---
The family sought help at Raul's alma mater.
The message on Juan Izaguirre's phone was from someone named Claudette. Izaguirre, in the Multicultural Center, didn't recognize the name, but the caller introduced herself as Raul's sister.
She told Izagurre something he couldn't believe. The talented student he had known for four years was in trouble. He had been arrested. He would be deported.
She wanted to know if Izaguirre — who had coached him, been part of his fraternity, had hired him for HawkLLink — could help him.
Izaguirre had no idea Raul was undocumented.
His first thought: Oh my god. Why didn't I know?
SEE LIMBO ON PAGE 6A
WHAT IS THE DREAM ACT?
Introduced in 2001, it stalled in Congress in 2003 and again in 2007. In March 2009, it was reintroduced.
DREAM is an acronym for the Development, Relief and Education Act for Alien Minors. The DREAM Act is bipartisan legislation that would allow young people who entered the U.S. without papers when they were 15 or younger and have been here for at least five years to attend college and pursue American citizenship.
Several local public figures recently offered public support of the bill, including Rep. Dennis Moore and Terry Calaway, the president of Johnson Country Community College.
Chancellor Bernadette Grey-Little also publicly supported the DREAM Act on Wednesday. In a letter, the chancellor urged legislators to co-sponsor the bill, writing:
"... Not only will these young legal immigrants become Americans, they will benefit Kansas and the nation's economy ... The best investment local, state, and the federal government can make is in education. American and legal immigrants' incomes increase with their education, bringing with them their contributions to a strong and safe community..."
"... Everyday, legal immigrants who are not legalized citizens enlist in the Marines, Army, Air Force, and Navy. I hope you see that if it is acceptable for a young legal immigrant man or woman to enlist in the armed services, then they should also have the same ability to get a higher education degree..."
WHAT IS THE KANSAS DREAM ACT?
In 2004, Kansas legislators passed HB 2145, informally known as the Kansas Dream Act. This law grants in-state tuition to undocumented students who attended high school in Kansas.Kansas is one of only 11 states to grant in-state tuition to undocumented students.
Though opponents voiced fears that colleges in Kansas would be inundated with undocumented students, an average of only 251 students per year have received in-state tuition because of this bill since 2005, according to the Kansas Board of Regents.
In 2005, Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and former counsel to Attorney General John Ashcroft, brought a lawsuit against the Kansas Board of Regents, stating that this law was a hindrance to out-of-state students who are U.S. citizens.
A federal judge in Kansas dismissed the case, as did the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The Supreme Court refused to consider the case.
He is also the writer behind Arizona SB 1070, the controversial new immigration law that allows police to stop anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally and demand proof of citizenship. While some say the bill makes the state safer, opponents including civil rights activists, President Obama and some Republican politicians say it is a form of racial profiling that targets people because of their skin color or language.
Kobach, who the New York Times described as on a "dogged campaign to fight illegal immigration at the local level"has since filed the same case against undocumented students in California and Nebraska.
KANSAN.COM
Your Personal Guide to Kansas City
Listen to an audio slideshow of Raul speaking about his life on the KU campus and his new life in Mexico.
See an interactive timeline of Javier's and Raul's lives interspersed with key pieces of immigration legislation in recent years.
View a graphic of the number of undocumented students who attend public universities in Kansas.