This article is written by Mimi Schiffman. A lot of high
school students think about senior prom, graduation, soaking up the summer sun
with old childhood buddies before heading off to college. “For one teenager
from Queens, that joy was clouded by growing anxiety as he attempted to save
enough money to pay for his first semester of college. I followed Frisly
Soberanis, and illegal immigrant from Guatemala, through his final weeks of
high school and the run up to what he hoped would be his first semester at
Brooklyn College.” (Schiffman, “Immigrant”). He is worried that he won’t find a
summer job because he said, “You don’t know if you’re going
to get a job next week or if you’re going to get paid for the job you just
finished because maybe they’re just going to be like ‘I’m not going pay you.’”
(Shiffman, “Immigrant”). “More than four million illegal immigrants under the
age of 25 are thought to be living in the United States according to 2009
census figures, yet statistics indicate that only around 65,000 graduate from
high school each year. The reason for the huge disparity between population and
attrition rates comes down to opportunity. There are many obstacles for those
who aspire to higher education, and in the schools that do accept illegal
immigrants, students do not have access to federal financial aid. Without the
opportunity to hold down steady, legal jobs, young illegal immigrants often do
not make it to college at all.” (Shiffman, “Immigrant”). Classes at Brooklyn College on August 27, but
he is not sure how the future is going to look for him. Frisly was brought into
the US when he was 7 and because he overstayed his tourist visa, he can’t
become a citizen without first going back to Guatemala for 10 years, then
reapplying for the US visa again. “At that point there is no guarantee that the
United States would welcome him back.”(Schiffman, “Immigrant”).
This article makes me straight up
mad honestly. What people don’t realize is that at one point, we were all
immigrants. My ancestors came from the Netherlands, so I am part Dutch. I mean,
immigrants want to come the US just for a better life. Why can’t we just let
them? Instead we force all of these ridiculous rules and regulations on them in
order for them to be legal residents, but to deny a high school student’s
education from him? That is just plain wrong. Where he comes from the education
rates are pretty bad. http://www.nationmaster.com/country/gt-guatemala/edu-education.
After look at those shocking statistics its no wonder he wants to continue his
education in the US. What the US government should do is issue him a 4-year
visa, and after that visa is done with, he goes back to Guatemala.
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