Cincinnati Inquirer: The primary concern today for Bernard Pastor, a Xavier University freshman, is his English composition paper due next month.
His topic: "Is the Dream Act necessary to achieve comprehensive immigration reform?"
In class recently his professor asked what research he had done. Pastor typed his name on his laptop screen.
"Oh, I guess you've done quite a bit," said the professor, looking over his shoulder.
One year ago Thursday, Springdale police arrested Pastor - then 18 - following a minor car accident that wasn't his fault. He couldn't produce legal documents identifying him as a resident or citizen, and federal immigration officials placed him in a holding cell at the Butler County Jail in Hamilton. He was on the deportation fast track.
After the Enquirer interviewed Pastor in jail and broke his story Nov. 23, his friends and community rallied around the 2010 Reading High School graduate - an honor student, soccer star and homecoming king. Immigration reform advocates locally and nationally - including David Leopold, Cleveland-based president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who took his case for free and still represents him pro bono - rushed to Pastor's defense.
Leopold is writing a request for a two-year deferred action status that he will file with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the Detroit office before Pastor's deadline of Dec. 17, the one-year anniversary of his release from federal custody in Morrow County north of Columbus.
"Last year we argued that Bernard had been in the country a long time and was an example of the kind of young person we want in this country: someone who excelled in school, a varsity soccer player, a young man of great character," Leopold said. "I'd be remiss not to mention the (John) Morton directives."
Morton is national director of ICE who this past summer, with support of the White House, directed his agency to prioritize deportation cases and concentrate resources on removing undocumented people who had criminal records and were a threat to national security. Honor students who attend college and volunteer in a church youth group are not a priority, Leopold said.
Pastor became a national figure in the debate over Dream Act legislation and was at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 18, the day after his release, viewing from the balcony of the Senate chamber as senators voted against the proposed law. Reintroduced earlier this year in the Senate, the Dream Act would provide a narrow path to naturalization for the estimated 65,000 students who graduate from U.S. high schools each year who were brought to this country as children illegally by their parents.
"The attention is not what I would have wanted," Pastor said earlier this month over lunch at Xavier's Gallagher Student Center. "I mean, I'm a teenager. It was awkward. It's humbling that people cared. But if I could be a little piece of a bigger societal change, that would be good."
Pastor has met the requirements of his status by checking in with federal immigration officials every three months in Columbus.
With his status, Pastor gained some legal footing - the right to get a driver's license and to apply for a work permit, which came the following spring. He also got the chance to go to college, earning acceptance and a significant scholarship to Xavier. He started in the fall term as a business management student, a major now switched to undecided.
"He lives his life with the hope of making this world a better place for others," Leopold said. "After the media died down last year Bernard went back to being an ordinary young man from Cincinnati. The limelight did not change the way he saw himself. I think it is his faith that has helped him through this entire ordeal. He really believes that things happen for a reason and there is an important lesson in everything. In my opinion, we all could learn a few lessons from Bernard."
Pastor, now 19, is understandably relieved these days. Though he said at the time his faith kept him strong through his month-long incarceration, the suddenness of his arrest and uncertain future of a life in Guatemala strained him.
Now he's a lot like other students, juggling a fast-food job, classes and life at home with his parents, brother and sister. Pastor's father, a Christian minister who is not documented, said his son has changed in a significant way.
"I see him as much more secure and happy and excited to continue his studies," said his father, whom the Enquirer will not identify by name because of his status. "I am grateful to God for all he has done. I am so proud to be (Bernard's) father for the capacity he has to do something very important for this society."
College always was Pastor's dream. With his status and the possibility it will be renewed, he can focus on his studies and his future. Rabbi Abie Ingber, founding director Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier and one of the local religious leaders who called for Pastor's release from incarceration, advocated for Pastor to attend the Jesuit campus in Evanston and helped him land a spot among two dozen students on a leadership council.
"He's a kid now," Ingber said of Pastor. "Whatever a child has suffered, and he did - traumatized beyond belief - you just hope that when he could breathe a breath of freedom that he would again find all the things that he experienced in high school. These days, it's not about what Xavier did for Bernard; it's about what Bernard is doing for Xavier, class after class and day after day. Our students touch the real world through Bernard."
Pastor said he can't believe a year has passed since his arrest. He stays in touch with his high school friends, many of whom play soccer at Wilmington College. They rallied for his release in events in Reading, Hamilton and Morrow County while Pastor was imprisoned.
"The support amazed me," he said. "My friends were there. So were a lot of other people from a lot of different backgrounds: white Americans, African-Americans, Native Americans and Hispanic-Americans obviously."
There are those, of course, Americans who oppose the Dream Act and all attempts at immigration reform. One Enquirer reader objected last year to the "legitimacy" the newspaper's coverage gave to Pastor and the "platform for illegal immigration" at a time when millions of Americans are out of work.
The experience has taught him that "change is going to come. It's inevitable," Pastor said. "The Dreamers are coming out into public and saying who they are and what they want - the opportunity to live the American dream and give back to the only country they've even known."
Just like Pastor.
His topic: "Is the Dream Act necessary to achieve comprehensive immigration reform?"
In class recently his professor asked what research he had done. Pastor typed his name on his laptop screen.
"Oh, I guess you've done quite a bit," said the professor, looking over his shoulder.
One year ago Thursday, Springdale police arrested Pastor - then 18 - following a minor car accident that wasn't his fault. He couldn't produce legal documents identifying him as a resident or citizen, and federal immigration officials placed him in a holding cell at the Butler County Jail in Hamilton. He was on the deportation fast track.
After the Enquirer interviewed Pastor in jail and broke his story Nov. 23, his friends and community rallied around the 2010 Reading High School graduate - an honor student, soccer star and homecoming king. Immigration reform advocates locally and nationally - including David Leopold, Cleveland-based president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who took his case for free and still represents him pro bono - rushed to Pastor's defense.
Leopold is writing a request for a two-year deferred action status that he will file with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the Detroit office before Pastor's deadline of Dec. 17, the one-year anniversary of his release from federal custody in Morrow County north of Columbus.
"Last year we argued that Bernard had been in the country a long time and was an example of the kind of young person we want in this country: someone who excelled in school, a varsity soccer player, a young man of great character," Leopold said. "I'd be remiss not to mention the (John) Morton directives."
Morton is national director of ICE who this past summer, with support of the White House, directed his agency to prioritize deportation cases and concentrate resources on removing undocumented people who had criminal records and were a threat to national security. Honor students who attend college and volunteer in a church youth group are not a priority, Leopold said.
Pastor became a national figure in the debate over Dream Act legislation and was at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 18, the day after his release, viewing from the balcony of the Senate chamber as senators voted against the proposed law. Reintroduced earlier this year in the Senate, the Dream Act would provide a narrow path to naturalization for the estimated 65,000 students who graduate from U.S. high schools each year who were brought to this country as children illegally by their parents.
"The attention is not what I would have wanted," Pastor said earlier this month over lunch at Xavier's Gallagher Student Center. "I mean, I'm a teenager. It was awkward. It's humbling that people cared. But if I could be a little piece of a bigger societal change, that would be good."
Pastor has met the requirements of his status by checking in with federal immigration officials every three months in Columbus.
With his status, Pastor gained some legal footing - the right to get a driver's license and to apply for a work permit, which came the following spring. He also got the chance to go to college, earning acceptance and a significant scholarship to Xavier. He started in the fall term as a business management student, a major now switched to undecided.
"He lives his life with the hope of making this world a better place for others," Leopold said. "After the media died down last year Bernard went back to being an ordinary young man from Cincinnati. The limelight did not change the way he saw himself. I think it is his faith that has helped him through this entire ordeal. He really believes that things happen for a reason and there is an important lesson in everything. In my opinion, we all could learn a few lessons from Bernard."
Pastor, now 19, is understandably relieved these days. Though he said at the time his faith kept him strong through his month-long incarceration, the suddenness of his arrest and uncertain future of a life in Guatemala strained him.
Now he's a lot like other students, juggling a fast-food job, classes and life at home with his parents, brother and sister. Pastor's father, a Christian minister who is not documented, said his son has changed in a significant way.
"I see him as much more secure and happy and excited to continue his studies," said his father, whom the Enquirer will not identify by name because of his status. "I am grateful to God for all he has done. I am so proud to be (Bernard's) father for the capacity he has to do something very important for this society."
College always was Pastor's dream. With his status and the possibility it will be renewed, he can focus on his studies and his future. Rabbi Abie Ingber, founding director Interfaith Community Engagement at Xavier and one of the local religious leaders who called for Pastor's release from incarceration, advocated for Pastor to attend the Jesuit campus in Evanston and helped him land a spot among two dozen students on a leadership council.
"He's a kid now," Ingber said of Pastor. "Whatever a child has suffered, and he did - traumatized beyond belief - you just hope that when he could breathe a breath of freedom that he would again find all the things that he experienced in high school. These days, it's not about what Xavier did for Bernard; it's about what Bernard is doing for Xavier, class after class and day after day. Our students touch the real world through Bernard."
Pastor said he can't believe a year has passed since his arrest. He stays in touch with his high school friends, many of whom play soccer at Wilmington College. They rallied for his release in events in Reading, Hamilton and Morrow County while Pastor was imprisoned.
"The support amazed me," he said. "My friends were there. So were a lot of other people from a lot of different backgrounds: white Americans, African-Americans, Native Americans and Hispanic-Americans obviously."
There are those, of course, Americans who oppose the Dream Act and all attempts at immigration reform. One Enquirer reader objected last year to the "legitimacy" the newspaper's coverage gave to Pastor and the "platform for illegal immigration" at a time when millions of Americans are out of work.
The experience has taught him that "change is going to come. It's inevitable," Pastor said. "The Dreamers are coming out into public and saying who they are and what they want - the opportunity to live the American dream and give back to the only country they've even known."
Just like Pastor.
No comments:
Post a Comment