HS valedictorian bound for Yale reveals shes an illegal immigrant in her grad speech

[ls-]

But this wasn't her message, was it? She said that illegal immigrants are still humans and deserve compassion and humane treatment; she never said that illegal immigrants are a good thing and that illegal immigration should be encouraged.

Besides, I'm pretty sure she and her family are doing everything they can to get themselves legal: it is a dream of every illegal immigrant to legalize themselves. But it is also extremely hard, as there are no guaranteed working procedures to do so. Unlike, say, people on student visas that can apply for permanent residence with a help of their employer (university), illegal immigrants don't even have the necessary documentation to be able to apply for anything like this. I don't even know how they get legalized, aside from rare mass amnesties.

They are humans and deserve compassion, yeah. But why should it matter? They should be forced to (re)do things legally after being deported, like any other legal immigrant.

USA already treats illegals quite nicely and gives them a lot of second chances. People who break laws shouldn't be getting even more benefits, than they already have.

[Flurryfang]

Quite the contrary. Laws that leave no room for nuance or extenuating circumstances are terrible laws and are to be avoided.

Matter of opnion here. I would say, that simple laws leave little room for holes and avoidance. Leaving too many exceptions and everybody will try to define themselfs after those exceptions, if they are caught breaking the law.

[dextersmith]

Here they just look at your parents' income for student benefits.

But we have other fucked up rules.
I happened to inherit a house with my brother, that makes us equal to a married couple with the 'IRS'.
And since he happens to have a decent job the government expects him to pay for my healthcare.

</3 you made it too easy

I'd watch your reality show.

[May90]

I don't care about her message. I don't disagree with her on her points, but her message has nothing to do with the fact, that she is illigal inside the country.

If it is really impossible to get legal, then i can understand her and her families actions. Again, i don't know how the system works in most American states, but if there is just 1 single way of getting legal, then that should have been her and her family's first priority when they arrived in the country. What they have done, is live on the good of others everyday, without thinking of maybe getting into the system.

That's the problem: there is no way that makes you legal through official channels. As soon as you try to apply for anything, your status becomes registered everywhere in the systems, and then you are essentially blocking from trying anything. You can't apply for a visa, for a permanent residence, for anything while being in the US without legal status. You can leave the US, go back to Mexico and try to apply from there - but if they had the ability to hope for success in the first place, then they wouldn't even need to become illegal immigrants. Most likely, her parents didn't have profession valuable for the US, and playing DV Lottery forever hoping for success is not something one should hope for - so they had to move in illegally, otherwise their future would be set in Mexico.

I do not approve of the act of illegal immigration; I think there is always a way to do it legally, if a person really-really wants it. But as it stands, they have done it already, and now they cannot do anything to legalize themselves, short of trying something on the black market (I'm not even sure if it is an option, since black market doesn't interact with the government, and the government won't recognize the documentation bought there), going back to Mexico (not an option either) or hope for another amnesty (which might not come in the nearest 50 years, for all we know).

I actually think that her act was very smart. Now that she has made it public, she can hope for getting legalized as a special case (there is some kind of system which allows especially talented individuals to obtain permanent residence, and who knows, perhaps she qualifies for that). And she definitely won't get deported, after all this time.

What if she still speeds everyday and bragged about it? One of the harms being a drain on society?

As long as there is no evidence, she can even brag about eating children every day. Unless she gets actually caught, it won't affect anything.

They are humans and deserve compassion, yeah. But why should it matter? They should be forced to (re)do things legally after being deported, like any other legal immigrant.

USA already treats illegals quite nicely and gives them a lot of second chances. People who break laws shouldn't be getting even more benefits, than they already have.

The girl has lived her entire life in the US, she likely doesn't even speak Spanish well. She has no relation whatsoever to Mexico. If you deport her now, you can be sure that her life is going to be totally ruined. She can't do things legally, since she probably doesn't even have a legal status in Mexico, and even if she does, she has no place to go there.

I agree that her parents is a trickier case... But her herself? I can't see why anyone would want to deport her. Her parents broke the law when moving to the US, but she was a kid back then, and kids are treated differently by the system of justice; deporting her for something her parents got her to do over a decade ago isn't something I would like to see done.

[dextersmith]

But this wasn't her message, was it? She said that illegal immigrants are still humans and deserve compassion and humane treatment; she never said that illegal immigrants are a good thing and that illegal immigration should be encouraged.

Besides, I'm pretty sure she and her family are doing everything they can to get themselves legal: it is a dream of every illegal immigrant to legalize themselves.

Maybe someone so smart and selfless should be making changes back home so that it's every Mexican's dream to be a Mexican citizen.

[feellucky]

Still committed and is actively committing a crime by being here, no matter how smart she is.

Best or worst of what they may have to offer, they're still criminals...

So a group of immigrants come to a foreign land and establish a law making it illegal for others to do the same... Ya what a crime...

[May90]

Maybe someone so smart and selfless should be making changes back home so that it's every Mexican's dream to be a Mexican citizen.

Or maybe it is not up to you to decide what other people should be doing.

[dextersmith]

As long as there is no evidence, she can even brag about eating children every day. Unless she gets actually caught, it won't affect anything.

Her evidence was her confession and harm.

[May90]

Her evidence was her confession and harm.

Confession is not evidence.

[kail]

Her evidence was her confession and harm.

What harm? Who got hurt?

[dextersmith]

Confession is not evidence.

That's why it's never used in court?

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What harm? Who got hurt?

Read my other post.

[May90]

That's why it's never used in court?

What I'm saying is, confession without evidence is merely a noise. As long as there is a compelling evidence confirming the claims made in confession, it can be used as a supportive argument, yes.

In this case, it won't be hard for the officials to make some background checks and confirm that she is an undocumented immigrant. In case of her claiming that she speeds up every day or eats children every day, the evidence supporting her claims won't be found, so it won't lead to any action against her.

[dextersmith]

That's the problem: there is no way that makes you legal through official channels.

There are legal means. She just has to wait her turn because everyone else also have dire needs. The US isn't solely there for Mexico and other countries take refugees too.

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What I'm saying is, confession without evidence is merely a noise. As long as there is a compelling evidence confirming the claims made in confession, it can be used as a supportive argument, yes.

In this case, it won't be hard for the officials to make some background checks and confirm that she is an undocumented immigrant. In case of her claiming that she speeds up every day or eats children every day, the evidence supporting her claims won't be found, so it won't lead to any action against her.

We're not discussing cannibalism so why post "Confession is not evidence. "?

[kail]

Read my other post.

Being a drain on the society isn't really a "harm" per say. She is no different from other students that used the same educational systems, except for her citizenship status.

[Rasulis]

Nothing will happen to the girls. Again Federal law does not prohibit states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented students. At least 17 states, including Texas, have legislation allowing undocumented graduates of state high schools to pay in-state tuition for colleges and universities. Texas, specifically, grants two-semester tuition waiver to valedictorians of Texas public high schools, without regard to their residency status.

Texas is as red a state as you can get, and they realized that when you have a 27% high school drop out rate, it would be dumb to deport your top performers to Mexico. If we want to deport people, we are better of deporting the guy that run over those 9 cyclists or the guy with 9 DUIs which currently serving a life sentence. Put parachutes on them, no spare, and drop them off in the middle of the south American jungle. Not valedictorians.

[dextersmith]

Being a drain on the society isn't really a "harm" per say. She is no different from other students that used the same educational systems, except for her citizenship status.

If her mother paid full taxes without a work visa.

[Blur4stuff]

isn't she exactly the kind of non-citizen you're suppose to want? everytime i've heard republicans, even trump, talk about immigration they make an exception for other country's "best and brightest".

[Hammerfest]

If you were emperor (and I freely admit it's definitely a good thing you're not), would you make the path to citizenship more efficient so it doesn't take years for the process to complete? Or just leave it as as and expect everyone to follow such unreasonable requirements?

Emperor Hammerfest would improve the vetting process for legal immigration candidates to ensure decent, law-abiding people get in while simultaineously having a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal immigration. This would probably mean a lot more of what you would call "unreasonable" requirements and militarizing our borders. (Yep, Canada too).

[Cthulhu 2020]

I don't think you are being very accurate as the vast majority of immigrants do come here illegally,

About half come here on visas while they await to hear back from immigration (as in, yes you can become a citizen or no you can't) and their 5 year visas expire before they hear back one way or another.

Our immigration system is broken, and yet the right seems to claim it isn't.

[THE Bigzoman]

That was a different girl. That girl was accepted to Texas U, not Yale.

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Federal law does not prohibit states from providing in-state tuition to undocumented students. At least 17 states, including Texas, have legislation allowing undocumented graduates of state high schools to pay in-state tuition for colleges and universities. Texas, specifically,grants two-semester tuition waiver to valedictorians of Texas public high schools, without regard to their residency status. Yale is not even a state university.

No. It was Yale.

She mentioned it inher tweet.

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@Rasulis

You're right.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/06/08/illegal-immigrant-brags-about-free-ride-u-t/


Wow. That was veryyyy coincidental. Honest mistake.