San Francisco Chronicle (Opinion by Ruben Navarrette): Whenever I hear stories such as that of Daniela Pelaez, the illegal immigrant and valedictorian at a Miami high school who was set for deportation to Colombia by the Obama administration, I get depressed.
Not because a young person with a bright future was facing the threat of removal from the United States.
I'm pretty hard-nosed about deporting illegal immigrants - as long as it is done out in the open, according to the rules, without the help of local and state police, and not to serve a political objective by making a president appear tough on illegal immigration.
By the way, the Obama administration has failed all four tests.
I have even supported the deportation of other honor students. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to deport Arthur Mkoyan, an illegal immigrant from Armenia and valedictorian at a high school in Fresno. In 2002, the Immigration and Naturalization Service tried to remove Jesus Apodaca, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who graduated with near perfect grades from a high school in Aurora, Colo.
I called for the removal of both students. Ultimately, though, both of them got reprieves.
Here's my thinking: While having good grades is swell, it isn't the same as having a green card. Why should class valedictorians be given preferential treatment by immigration officials when student body presidents, star athletes and homecoming queens don't receive special dispensation?
And what about those kids who struggle in school and drop out? Should we deport them first? Valedictorians facing deportation might get more than their share of media attention. But this doesn't make them more deserving of leniency than anyone else in the same situation.
The real reason these stories are depressing is because they are so often politicized. Democrats respond by talking about the need to pass the Dream Act, which would offer legal status to undocumented students who go to college or join the military, without mentioning the inconvenient fact that the last time the bill came up for a vote, in December 2010, it was five Senate Democrats whose "no" votes killed it.
Meanwhile, most Republicans also oppose the Dream Act. Yet in high-profile cases such as Pelaez's, it's not unusual to see a few of them splinter off and support efforts to stop a valedictorian from being deported. What sense does this make? None, until you realize that what scares the GOP is volume - that hundreds of thousands of people could be legalized, become citizens, get the right to vote, and punish Republicans at election time for the next half-century.
I can do without the dishonesty and political games. Why not just tell the truth instead of pretending you really care what happens to these kids?
I can also do without the drama. When a judge ruled that 18-year-old Pelaez - whose family overstayed a tourist visa in 1998, and who was later denied a green card - had to return to Colombia, nearly all of her 2,600 high school classmates staged a walkout in protest. More than 11,000 people signed an online petition demanding that Pelaez be allowed to stay in the United States. Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho declared that the student would be sent back "over my dead body."
Now everyone can bring it down a notch. Pelaez was recently granted a two-year reprieve by ICE officials. By way of explanation, the feds released a statement that read: "ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators."
But not class valedictorians? Like most things that come out of the Obama administration regarding immigration, this statement is untrue. In the past three years, on their way to racking up record numbers of deportations, immigration officials have deported plenty of "non-criminals" - everyone from housekeepers to gardeners to college students.
Meanwhile, Daniela Pelaez doesn't seem very surprised by her reprieve.
"I'm American," she told NBC Miami last week. "I know the national anthem. I know the laws. I know what it is to be an American."
Pelaez also knows what she wants to do after graduating from high school. She intends to go to an Ivy League university and become a doctor.
Given what she has seen firsthand about how elected officials will manipulate tragic and desperate situations for their own benefit, it's not surprising that she doesn't want to be a politician. After all, better to save lives than play with them.
Not because a young person with a bright future was facing the threat of removal from the United States.
I'm pretty hard-nosed about deporting illegal immigrants - as long as it is done out in the open, according to the rules, without the help of local and state police, and not to serve a political objective by making a president appear tough on illegal immigration.
By the way, the Obama administration has failed all four tests.
I have even supported the deportation of other honor students. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement tried to deport Arthur Mkoyan, an illegal immigrant from Armenia and valedictorian at a high school in Fresno. In 2002, the Immigration and Naturalization Service tried to remove Jesus Apodaca, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who graduated with near perfect grades from a high school in Aurora, Colo.
I called for the removal of both students. Ultimately, though, both of them got reprieves.
Here's my thinking: While having good grades is swell, it isn't the same as having a green card. Why should class valedictorians be given preferential treatment by immigration officials when student body presidents, star athletes and homecoming queens don't receive special dispensation?
And what about those kids who struggle in school and drop out? Should we deport them first? Valedictorians facing deportation might get more than their share of media attention. But this doesn't make them more deserving of leniency than anyone else in the same situation.
The real reason these stories are depressing is because they are so often politicized. Democrats respond by talking about the need to pass the Dream Act, which would offer legal status to undocumented students who go to college or join the military, without mentioning the inconvenient fact that the last time the bill came up for a vote, in December 2010, it was five Senate Democrats whose "no" votes killed it.
Meanwhile, most Republicans also oppose the Dream Act. Yet in high-profile cases such as Pelaez's, it's not unusual to see a few of them splinter off and support efforts to stop a valedictorian from being deported. What sense does this make? None, until you realize that what scares the GOP is volume - that hundreds of thousands of people could be legalized, become citizens, get the right to vote, and punish Republicans at election time for the next half-century.
I can do without the dishonesty and political games. Why not just tell the truth instead of pretending you really care what happens to these kids?
I can also do without the drama. When a judge ruled that 18-year-old Pelaez - whose family overstayed a tourist visa in 1998, and who was later denied a green card - had to return to Colombia, nearly all of her 2,600 high school classmates staged a walkout in protest. More than 11,000 people signed an online petition demanding that Pelaez be allowed to stay in the United States. Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho declared that the student would be sent back "over my dead body."
Now everyone can bring it down a notch. Pelaez was recently granted a two-year reprieve by ICE officials. By way of explanation, the feds released a statement that read: "ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators."
But not class valedictorians? Like most things that come out of the Obama administration regarding immigration, this statement is untrue. In the past three years, on their way to racking up record numbers of deportations, immigration officials have deported plenty of "non-criminals" - everyone from housekeepers to gardeners to college students.
Meanwhile, Daniela Pelaez doesn't seem very surprised by her reprieve.
"I'm American," she told NBC Miami last week. "I know the national anthem. I know the laws. I know what it is to be an American."
Pelaez also knows what she wants to do after graduating from high school. She intends to go to an Ivy League university and become a doctor.
Given what she has seen firsthand about how elected officials will manipulate tragic and desperate situations for their own benefit, it's not surprising that she doesn't want to be a politician. After all, better to save lives than play with them.
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