14-year-old Postville boy, whose mother was deported, fights for immigration reform in her name.
BY BEKAH PORTER
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
POSTVILLE, Iowa -- The sizzling of stuffed peppers in the fryer greets Pedro Lopez when he comes home from school, and the 14-year-old rushes to remove his backpack, dropping it beneath the tapestry tacked to the living room wall.
From her prominent position, the woven image of the Virgin Mary seems to serenely watch Pedro as he races to the kitchen to join his father and sister.
Now, more than ever, the Postville student appreciates the mother's nurturing gaze.
"Look at the table where we sit," he said. "There's an empty space that's not been filled."
A year and a day ago, Pedro looked across the table to see not a cloth image of a mother, but his own.
One year ago today, an immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant left the eighth-grader wondering if his mother would ever again greet him after school.
"I miss my mother very much. So very much," he said. "She was the backbone of this family."
On May 12, 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers apprehended Pedro's mother, Consuelo Vega -- an illegal immigrant.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye," said Pedro. "She told me on the phone to keep studying in school and to keep trying hard. And then that was it. And now she is in Mexico."
In that tearful conversation, Pedro made a promise to help. He said he's kept it.
In the months following his mother's deportation, Pedro has told her story to congressmen, signed petitions, and he has sent a letter to Barack Obama, telling the president he would like his mother to attend his eighth-grade graduation.
Today, Pedro will speak before an estimated 500 people, asking them to help his mother's cause. He even has a speech planned -- a revised version of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
"Instead of talking about black rights, I have switched it to immigration rights," he said.
The student dreams of being a lawyer, already speaking of appeals, the Supreme Court and such phrases as aggravated misdemeanors -- terms he uses when discussing his mother's plight.
He faces dilemmas of his own. For a week after his mother's capture, he hid in the basement of his house. Now, a "For Sale" sign rises from the yard, and Pedro awaits word on his student visa application. Since he came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 3, he cannot claim citizenship.
"Sometimes I think I am an illegal immigrant, but honestly, I think of myself more as an American," he said. "I am here to look for a better life and to prosper."
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