Teenager Tearfully Confesses Undocumented Status To Hillary Clinton

dreamy14 · 04-19-2014, 01:03 AM

Quote:

A young woman who tearfully and publicly confessed to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that she was an undocumented immigrant was praised by Clinton for being "incredibly brave."

Actress America Ferrera moderated the event Thursday at the Lower East Side Girls Club in New York City, billed as the first in a series of the Clinton Foundation's "No Ceilings" conversations aimed at bringing together women and girls from around the world to discuss female empowerment and growth.

Ferrera turned to the group of women in attendance for questions to ask the hosts, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. Among the women who raised their hands, one in particular stood out.

"You seem like you have something you want to say," Ferrera said, pointing at a young woman in the audience.

As she stood up, no one expected the life-changing statement she was about to make.

"My name is Nova. I'm 19-years-old…and I have a very different glass ceiling than some of the girls are exhibiting here," she said.

Nova paused, took a deep breath, and then revealed her secret.

"For the first time publicly. I want to say that I am an undocumented immigrant."

As the gravity of what she had just said sunk in, the young woman's eyes swelled with tears.

But she continued to tell her story.

"And I want to say that it's extremely difficult for me to empower myself in America," she said, tears streaming down her face. "It's been very hard because I don't have the documentation I need to get a job…to vote…to buy an apartment. To take out a loan to go to college…so I couldn't even go to my dream college because of that."

Nova, who said she came to the United States when she was 5 years old from Split, Croatia, then turned the question to Hillary Clinton.

"I wanted to ask, what in your stance is essential for immigration reform? I can just only imagine how many girls there are who can't fully empower themselves, especially in America, because we immigrated here."

"So I wanted to ask," she said earnestly. "What do we need to do to put this in priority when it comes to Congress, because this is an extreme glass ceiling for me that I can't even control. Not even as a woman, but not even as a human."

Hillary Clinton responded with praise and admiration for the young woman's bravery.

"Oh Nova," she said, pausing for the crowd's applause to wane. "Wow. That was incredibly brave. And I thank you for doing that."

"I believe strongly we are missing a great opportunity by not welcoming people like you and 11 million others who have made contributions to our country into a legal status," Mrs. Clinton said.

Clinton went on to criticize the House of Representatives for not taking the immigration reform bill up after the Senate, describing it as a "big missed opportunity for our country."

Clinton stressed her continuing devotion to the cause.

"I'm a huge supporter of immigration reform and a path to citizenship, and will continue to advocate for that," she said.

Chelsea Clinton echoed her mother's sentiment and urged the young woman to continue making her voice heard.

"There's nothing really worse than being dis-empowered and feeling invisible and you started to change that here today," Clinton said. "Thank you for making yourself less invisible and more visible today."

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs...-politics.html

vivace · 04-19-2014, 03:28 AM

I applaud Nova for her bravery. The furthest I ever did was write about it in a paper in my Asian American Studies class. My professor turned out to be an advocate, but that's as far as I dare to go.

I'm so glad she spoke up.

zone2oo0 · 04-19-2014, 06:12 AM

NOva, NOVAaaaaaaaa

come on.

IamAman · 04-19-2014, 12:14 PM

I always get a chuckle when a good looking, white, US American woman talks about how tough it is to deal with the glass ceiling in the US because she has no idea what a real glass ceiling is.

Cloudless · 04-20-2014, 05:07 AM

There are so many ignorant white Americans who think that their skin color doesn't contribute one bit to their success. I truly think as a non-white you have to work harder and be smarter just to get to the same position. If there are two identically skilled and experienced candidates for a job but one of them is white and the other is not, you're naive if you think they have equal chance.

As for Nova, I bet she wasn't the only one with teary eyes in that room.

Jelly Bean Lover · 04-20-2014, 06:49 AM

Is it just me, or am I the only one who is disgusted that Hillary Clinton has the gall to play immigration advocate here. It was her husband, after all, who signed the 1996 Immigration Control and Reform Act which created the 3-year/10-year bar and is the source of all original evil when it comes to the question of immigration reform. This event almost sounds staged the way it is narrated here--and a little preposterous.

IamAman · 04-20-2014, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jelly Bean Lover

Is it just me, or am I the only one who is disgusted that Hillary Clinton has the gall to play immigration advocate here. It was her husband, after all, who signed the 1996 Immigration Control and Reform Act which created the 3-year/10-year bar and is the source of all original evil when it comes to the question of immigration reform. This event almost sounds staged the way it is narrated here--and a little preposterous.

You're not alone. I remember very clearly in 1996 when went to a lawyer to see whether the new law could help us in any way and the lawyer pretty much laughed at us and said "Oh no, this makes things MUCH worse. You have to choose between self deportation or being banned from coming back here for 10 years if you ever leave after that. " Not to mention the other stuff that the law added like making a false claim to citizenship a life-term offense without any room for interpretation or circumstance.

Pianoswithoutfaith · 04-20-2014, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jelly Bean Lover

Is it just me, or am I the only one who is disgusted that Hillary Clinton has the gall to play immigration advocate here. It was her husband, after all, who signed the 1996 Immigration Control and Reform Act which created the 3-year/10-year bar and is the source of all original evil when it comes to the question of immigration reform. This event almost sounds staged the way it is narrated here--and a little preposterous.

Exactly!

Cloudless · 04-21-2014, 12:10 PM

Political positions change all the time. It was Reagan (a Republican) who signed off on the last amnesty, but today the party wouldn't even get near the subject.

nydreamer · 04-24-2014, 03:13 PM

She goes to my school. We are part of the same Honor Society. Proud of her!

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Teenager Tearfully Confesses Undocumented Status To Hillary Clinton