Undocumented student from Harvard University was detained at a Texas airport last week and is facing deportation to Mexico.
Eric Balderas was brought to the US by his parents when he was 4 years old. Balderas said he had lost his Mexican passport and tried to board the flight using his Matricula consular (consular card) from the Mexican government and his student identification. "I'd made it through before so I thought this time wouldn't be any different," Balderas said Friday in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "But once ICE picked me up I really didn't know what to think." Balderas was handcuffed, fingerprinted and detained for five hours before being let go, and taking a flight back to Boston. He has used his Mexican passport in the past but said he recently lost it.
Balderas had the fear, that many students across the nation live with, stare him in the face. Balderas like many undocumented youth considers the US his home country and doesn't even remember living in Mexico.
A year ago Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard president, urged Congress to support the Dream Act, federal legislation that would allow immigrant youths to apply for legal residency, under certain conditions. Faust recently met with US Senator Scott Brown, in part to urge him to support the measure.
Read the full story:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/12/us_may_deport_harvard_student/
http://www.newser.com/tag/53094/1/eric-balderas.html
Recommendation to undocumented youth:
-Make sure you get your passport
