Snowball...

This past weekend we scheduled individual meetings with all 300 ACE students and their parents to discuss the end of the semester and see what grades they are currently earning.  Additionally we gauge any problems that the students may be facing, whether it is time management, personal life, academic, etc.  The students meet once a week for fourteen Saturdays for three hours.  In one particular instance we came across a female Hispanic student who is in danger of failing because she has missed several assignments and four class periods.  The explanation the student and her mother gave us was that she had to help her mom at work.  Now, just to understand the program, ACE is a scholarship based program, it pays for the tuition at South Mountain Community College; ultimately the program is investing real money in these students. If the students fail, not only does the grade affect their GPA and transcripts, but the program essentially loses the money it paid for in the tuition.  It’s interesting to note that all policies created for one purpose inevitable effect multiple areas of society. 

This student’s father was deported several months ago; having been pulled over for a minor traffic violation when the officers discovered he had no license and indeed no immigration documentation proving rightful citizenship.  ICE was called and within days the father found himself back in Mexico leaving behind his wife and three daughters who themselves are legal citizens.  After several months of hardship and no steady income, this student’s mother and the rest of her family were forced to abandon their house as it went into foreclosure.  Now the mother cleans houses as many days as possible to afford a small two-bedroom apartment, to pay bills, and put food on the table.  This student is the eldest child and at seventeen is now required to assist in the upbringing of her younger sisters, as well as help her mother clean houses during the week, including Saturdays, attend high school, and strive to achieve a higher education with the ACE Program.

It saddens me to know that this straight “A” student with a bright future has been relegated to working menial labor, when she is capable of becoming something so much more.  Since working with the ACE Program I understand the positive impact it has on students who normally would not attend college.  I have a hard time understanding how immigration policy enacted to defend our borders against terrorist ends in limiting the future of a family’s desire to educate their young.  The father owned their home, paid their property taxes, earned an honest comfortable living and above all believed in educating his daughters to the highest level possible.  Yet now, they have no home, are not paying property taxes, are not purchasing the goods and services they once used to, and their future is much bleaker today as a result of failed policy.  Where once the possibility existed that these students would achieve a higher education, a higher wage, and contribute to society, have we now done the exact opposite?  What if these students lose their will to continue on, drop out of high school, become pregnant and consequently burden the society?  Is this what this type of immigration reform had in mind???