Blog Archive

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

College student's hopes ride on DREAM Act; He's facing deportation as an illegal immigrant

By SUSAN CARROLL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Dec. 13, 2010

NACOGDOCHES — Mario Perez, a mathematics and statistics major at Stephen F. Austin State University, sent out a mass text message to all of his fraternity brothers after being stopped by a police officer for rolling through a stop sign near campus.

"Hey Bruhs," the 22-year-old typed with his thumbs as the red-and-and blue lights of a police car whirled behind him on a spring night. "I just got pulled over."

If Perez were any other member of Alpha Phi Alpha, a predominantly African-American fraternity with the highest cumulative GPA on campus, the traffic stop and text message wouldn't have been cause for alarm.

But Perez's fraternity brothers knew his secret, the one he hadn't even shared with his girlfriend of four years, a nursing student at SFA whom he'd proposed to on bended knee. Perez, a gregarious student leader and talented tuba player who scored 1640 on his SATs, is an illegal immigrant.

After the officer told Perez he had two unpaid traffic tickets and asked him to step out of the car that night on April 12, his world started to collapse. Perez was transferred from the local jail to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Houston and put into deportation proceedings.

Frat brothers helping

Laterrious Starks, then the fraternity president, made phone call after phone call trying to find out what happened to Perez, and how they could help stop his deportation. They used their alumni network to find a Houston immigration attorney to take Perez's case pro bono, going en masse to the law offices of attorney Jacob Monty to ask him to take the case. Monty said he was moved by their devotion.

"I've never seen friends act like brothers like that before," Monty said.

They paid Perez's $1,500 immigration bond, and wrote and called the mayor, state lawmakers and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. This spring, Starks, Perez and his girlfriend attended a rally for the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant legal status to illegal immigrants like Perez who came to the U.S. as children or teenagers and stayed in school and out of trouble. The legislation recently passed the House, but it is unclear if sponsors have enough votes to get it through the Senate.

Perez, whose parents brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 5 years old, graduated from Thurgood Marshall High School in Missouri City. When applying for colleges he learned he had no Social Security number and was in the country illegally.

"A lot of people really don't understand what undocumented students go through, and what they might go through if they were deported," Starks said. "You're changing their lives. They're already socialized into American culture. At least for students who went to high school here, you could at least give these individuals a chance to make it in our society."

But critics say the legislation is a form of amnesty because it offers legal status to illegal immigrants. U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith from Texas has called it a "nightmare for the American people."

High-level support

With prospects for the legislation unsure, Monty said he is hoping federal prosecutors will exercise discretion and allow Perez to stay in the U.S. He has letters of support for his upcoming court hearing from the president of the university, the dean of student affairs, teachers, advisors and mentors.

"From what I have seen he's a very lovable person," wrote Dr. Baker Patillo, the university president. "He is in good academic standing and has never been in trouble with the university."

Marcell Owens, a 23-year-old graduate student in communications and fellow fraternity member, said he was shocked to learn Perez was in the country illegally when he joined the fraternity, mainly because Perez didn't fit with the stereotypical image of an illegal immigrant portrayed by the media.

"It didn't change my opinion of him. I know the situation was beyond his control. The foundation of our fraternity is brotherhood. I have a twin brother, and there is nothing I would do for my brother that I wouldn't do for Mario. I wouldn't judge him or belittle him in any form."

Friends and family members said Perez, in his third year at the university, seems to be in denial about his situation and the possibility he could be ordered to leave the country in March.

"I try to avoid thinking about it, because every time I do it brings me down. I just try to focus on my schoolwork."

Starks said he struggles with the idea that Perez could be deported. "We probably would never see him again," he said. "It would be like losing a brother."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/7336418.html