Pass the DREAM Act - Ideas for Change in America: Halt the Deportation of Students Like Walter Lara

Halt the Deportation of Students Like Walter Lara

Published June 29, 2009 @ 09:47AM PT

Walter Lara, age 23, came to the United States from Argentina 20 years ago. Unless Congress or the Department of Homeland Security intervenes in his case, he will be required to leave the U.S. by July 6th.

Walter, having lived in the U.S. since he was three, speaks English without any trace of an accent. Miami is the only home he remembers. Walter graduated from Miami Central Senior High School in 2004 with a 4.7 grade point average, fourth in his class. He dedicated over 1,000 hours of service to his community.

After high school, Walter attended the Honors College of Miami Dade Wolfson Campus. He earned an Associates of Arts degree in Computer Animation having maintained a 3.7 cumulative grade point average and used this education to do freelance web design. On the side, he has found time to be involved in sports and teach himself many aspects of computing. Walter Lara has never broken the law and continues to be an active and important member of his community. He aspires to work for Pixar as a graphic designer, but without a Social Security number or visa, and therefore unable to attend a 4-year college, he has worked instead as a cable installer for Direct-TV.

On February 17, 2009, he was on his way to Fisher Island for an install when he was stopped by I.C.E. officials. When he admitted to them that he is undocumented, Walter was arrested and jailed for 20 days. He now faces deportation within days to a country he has never known.

Walter can probably get his case re-opened on that grounds that he never received proper counsel. In the meantime, please take the following actions to keep Walter Lara in this country:

1. Sign the online petition

2. Join the support group on Facebook

3. Sign and send this letter to my members of Congress demanding that they do something!!

4. Send a letter of support to mjlacayo@aol.com

In some good news, Senator Bill Nelson is showing his support for Walter Lara and may introduce a private bill on his behalf. But the real solution for students like Walter is the DREAM Act.

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Author

Prerna Lal: San Francisco, CA; Dream ACTivist is a law-school bound queer undocumented student and blogger. Her family came to the United States legally but due to the massive USCIS backlog, she aged out on their visa petition at the age of 21. Despite not being able to drive, work, get financial aid or even instate-tuition for college, she graduated with a Masters degree at the age of 22 and since then, has been volunteering with organizations in the community and working on pro-migrant reforms such as the DREAM Act