One year ago, Juan Gomez, the Killian High School grad who was saved from deportation, traveled to the nation’s capital to advocate for undocumented students.

Gomez headed for Washington again Thursday, but for a different reason: Next week he starts at Georgetown University.

And if being accepted to one of the nation’s top colleges wasn’t enough, Gomez also won a competitive partial scholarship for international students.

”It’s been really exciting,” Gomez said Wednesday night as got ready to leave Miami.

Juan, 19, his brother Alex, 20, and their parents were arrested by immigration agents last July. Their parents had overstayed their visas for more than a decade, and the family was going to be deported to Colombia.

The brothers were toddlers when they arrived in the United States.

But when the family was put into immigration detention, the young men’s friends launched a grass-roots campaign to save Juan and Alex.

Later, U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart joined in the effort, introducing a private bill to keep the brothers in the country.

Immigration officials granted the young men a stay of deportation while Congress considers the bill. But their parents and grandmother were deported to Colombia in late October.

The young men became local celebrities — and the faces of undocumented students nationwide.

They traveled to Washington with their friends to advocate for the DREAM Act, legislation that would give undocumented students like themselves a chance to remain in the country.

For now, the brothers are allowed to stay in the country until March. But Juan Gomez said he hasn’t given up hope of staying longer.
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This is a transcript of an interview on NPR.

Student Facing Deportation Fights for DREAM

ANCHORS: MADELEINE BRAND, ROBERT SMITH

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

This is DAY TO DAY. I’m Madeleine Brand.

ROBERT SMITH, host:

And I’m Robert Smith.

Congress has been in session for less than a week. And while talk of Iraq dominates, immigration reform seems to have slipped off the radar.

BRAND: But one Miami teenager is trying to keep that immigration debate afloat. His name is Juan Gomez. Juan is 18 years old. He came to the U.S. from Columbia with his mother, his father, and his older brother Alex when he was just one years old. They arrived on a travel visa and they immediately applied for political asylum.

SMITH: The Gomez family lived in the United States legally while their case was being decided; then they lost. In 2003 they received their final deportation order, but the family didn’t return to Columbia.

BRAND: I spoke earlier with Juan Gomez and Cheryl Little. She’s a lawyer with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

Juan, you had your final deportation order in December of 2003, and just a couple of months ago your family was arrested.

Mr. JUAN GOMEZ (College Student): It was 5:30 in the morning and I wake up and I see my dad running around, saying immigration’s here. And right there is when it hit me. I realized, wow, this could be our last day in this country. This country - I’ve been here for so long. They came into our house and they asked for ID, and they told us we have final orders, and we’d be leaving that day. My father was taken to Krome. We were all handcuffed. My father was taken to Krome. My brother and I were taken to the men’s section of the Broward Transitional Detention Center, while my mom was taken to the women’s wing. So they had just completely separated the family. I know my brother and I were the youngest detainees.

BRAND: And what was it like in there?

Mr. GOMEZ: You have to put on orange jumpsuits, and that, in fact, is the hardest part. They’re sort of treating you the same way they would treat a common criminal.

BRAND: And so you were released in a week…

Mr. GOMEZ: Yeah.

BRAND: …which I guess from what I’ve read is a pretty fast…

Mr. GOMEZ: We had met people that were there for nine months, a year.

BRAND: And then why do you think you were released so quickly?

Mr. GOMEZ: We have great friends at first. They started a publicity campaign.

BRAND: So this from press accounts that I’ve read and heard, this was a 2,000 student-strong movement on the Web and it really…

Mr. GOMEZ: Well, yeah, they started a Facebook group, which is usually, you know, just a social networking tool. But they used it for, you know, our campaign. And right now, there is a good 3,000 members. But I know within the first week there was 2,000. They all - all my friends wrote letters to congressmen and women. I was well-entrenched in the, you know, upper echelons of, you know, the students and the AP kids, and all of them understood what needed to be done.

BRAND: There are, from what I understand, and correct me if I’m wrong, Cheryl, there is some 65,000 young people in a similar situation?

Ms. CHERYL LITTLE (Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center): That’s right. And one of the things that has so impressed me about Juan and Alex is that they’re really far more focused on garnering support for the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act would enable students like Juan and Alex, who have lived here for at least five years, who haven’t gotten in trouble with the law, to go to college or join the military and obtain, initially, temporary legal residency and hopefully eventually permanent residency in the United States.

BRAND: So the DREAM Act would let students like Juan and Alex, in fact Juan and Alex themselves, stay in the United States and eventually gain permanent residency.

Ms. LITTLE: That’s right. But if Juan and Alex were deported tomorrow or next week, before the DREAM Act passes or before the private bill passed on their behalf, well, they would have lose whatever opportunity they might have had to remain in the United States.

BRAND: Now, Juan, you have been granted a stay until the middle of October?

Mr. GOMEZ: Yes. October 14th.

BRAND: October 14th, and that’s when - what will happen on October 14th?

Ms. LITTLE: Well, if we don’t get an extension of a stay of removal or if the private bill that Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart introduced in the House Immigration Subcommittee isn’t put in the agenda, then they’re going to have to report for deportation and they will be sent back to Columbia.

BRAND: And that private bill would apply only to Juan and Alex and let them stay here?

Ms. LITTLE: That private bill would apply only to Juan and Alex. Now, it takes a long, long, long time before a final decision is made in a private bill. But in the House Immigration Subcommittee, once it’s put in the agenda, then their deportation in all likelihood would be stayed until sometime in March 2009, which, you know, would give people time to try to gain support for the DREAM Act and hopefully it would pass.

BRAND: President Bush supported the DREAM Act, yet it still failed to gain traction in Congress. There’s a lot of opposition to granting illegal immigrants any kind of reprieve at all at this moment. So you know, what are your chances that the DREAM Act will actually get passed?

Ms. LITTLE: Well, there’s no question we’re dealing with a hostile environment when we’re talking about immigration issues. But you know, it makes no sense for U.S. taxpayers to throw away the investment we’ve already made in educating bright young students like Juan and Alex. I mean, we should be reaping the benefits of our investment rather than deporting these people and stopping, you know, the drain of American talent. I mean, we are wasting precious resources.

BRAND: But I’m sure people on the other side would say, that’s all very well and good. And yes, I’m sure that Juan and Alex, they’re both outstanding citizens, but it’s a matter of fairness. They simply broke the law and they can’t be rewarded for it.

Ms. LITTLE: Juan and Alex didn’t break the law.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. LITTLE: Juan and Alex…

BRAND: Well, the parents did and these are - this is, you know, you’ve got to live with the consequences.

Mr. GOMEZ: And we should be held accountable for it? I mean, where are the instances in the law is there a case where the kids are held accountable for what their parents do?

BRAND: Is there something a bit unfair that you are getting all this attention and a private bill is being drafted for you when there are thousands and thousands of other children who are not receiving, getting the similar accommodation?

Mr. GOMEZ: Well, we were on the verge of being deported. Now, a private bill was necessary in order to, you know, somehow stay our deportation. But since I’ve been out of the detention center, I haven’t put any effort into the private bill. I’ve gone - I went to Washington, D.C. and lobbied for the DREAM Act. I understand it’s un uphill battle that, you know, we’re just going to have to push to stay in this country. But if I am deported in the worse case scenario, I just want to leave with knowing the fact that no other student goes through what I did, no other student who’s excelled in school is feeling so persecuted within the borders of a nation that he’s called home for so many years; he or she.

BRAND: That’s Juan Gomez. He’s a college student. He and his brother Alex are facing deportation back to his home country, Columbia. And we spoke also with Cheryl Little. She’s a lawyer and executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. The group is representing Juan and Alex.

The Miami Herald (Florida)

September 5, 2007 Wednesday

Teen takes Dream to D.C.: Facing a deportation deadline of Sept. 14, Juan Gomez pushes for a bill that would grant thousands of undocumented immigrant children like him a chance

BYLINE: Lesley Clark, The Miami Herald

Sep. 5–WASHINGTON — Juan Gomez’s plight has sparked a national youth movement, of sorts.

When the Kendall teenager who was temporarily spared deportation to Colombia posted online that he’d be traveling to the nation’s capital Tuesday, nearly a dozen students in similar circumstances joined in.

They pulled together enough cash for flights from California and a train ride from New York to lobby for legislation that would give undocumented immigrant children like themselves a chance to stay in the United States.

“These guys completely dropped their lives and came to Washington to assist us,” said Gomez, 18, dubbing himself the “unintentional spokesman” for the cause. “I’ve never met any of them before and they gave up their time.”

Like Gomez and his brother Alex, 17 — who both face deportation deadlines of Sept. 14 — most of the students were brought to the United States as infants or toddlers and fear getting deported to countries they say they don’t consider home.

“In my mind, I’m an American, I just don’t have the status,” said a 20-year-old woman who asked that her name not be used because she’s not in the United States legally. A community college student in California, she said she was brought from Mexico as a preschooler. “To me, we had to come [to Washington]. It’s an opportunity to represent thousands of others who are just like us.”

The group made the rounds — meeting with House and Senate staffers to push for passage of the Dream Act, which would grant permanent residency to undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school, maintain a clean record and complete at least two years of college or military service.

To qualify, students must have been brought to the United States before they were 15 and must be able to demonstrate “good moral character.”

Supporters say it’s unfair to hold the children responsible for their parents’ decisions. But immigration remains a deeply contentious issue and even the chief sponsor of the legislation in the Senate acknowledged in a meeting with the students that the bill faces a tough slog.

“We’re trying to figure out how to get this bill passed,” Democratic Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Gomez’s lobbying crew. “It may not be easy, but I’m certainly going to try.”

Durbin said he’s hoping to include the bill in a defense spending bill — “the Department of Defense likes the bill,” — but Senate staffers noted the chamber is running out of time to take up the matter this year.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” said Durbin, who keeps his Lithuanian mother’s U.S. naturalization certificate close by his desk in his Senate office. ‘I can’t understand how we can say ‘We need more [business] visas for more talented people’ and on the other hand we’re saying to talented students, ‘We need you to go.’ ”

The bill needs as many as a dozen Republicans to support the measure — in addition to 45 or so Democrats who are likely to back it. Then there’s the House, which has a vocal anti-illegal immigration coalition that says it opposes making any changes in immigration law until the border is secure.

But stories like the Gomezes are increasing support for the measure, said Josh Bernstein, director of federal policy at the National Immigration Law Center.

“We’ve got a secret weapon — Juan,” he said at a press conference, noting that in recent years “an unprecedented” number of campus-based groups have emerged to back the Dream Act.

Those lobbyists include Luke, 25, who would not give his last name because of his illegal status. He arrived in the United States as a 10-year-old with his parents from Poland. A recent college graduate, he said he’s afraid he can’t get a decent job without legal status.

Luke has turned advocacy for the Dream Act into a nearly full-time occupation.

He read about Gomez’s trip on the Internet and joined up with him. Walking down the hallway to brief Senate staffers, the New Yorker recognized Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New Mexico.

“I watch C-Span all the time,” Luke said. “Bingaman’s on the energy committee. He’s been a co-sponsor.”

One of the meetings was near Montana Democratic Sen. Max Baucus’ office. Baucus, Luke noted, hasn’t supported the Dream Act.

Luke drew a deep laugh out of Durbin when, as Durbin was about to launch into a story about his mother, Luke said he had heard it before on C-Span.

“I watch it so much,” he told Durbin, “because I pray that I’ll see you introduce the Dream Act.”

To see more of The Miami Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald.com. Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.