Quote:
As a Greyhound bus prepared to leave a small town near Atlanta, 19-year-old Azucena headed to the window seat on the last row , on her way to Miami to start school and a new life.
She propped a pillow against the glass and drifted off to sleep as the bus glided down the highway toward South Florida.
Around 5 a.m., Azucena, who does not want her last name used, woke up when the bus driver pulled up to the Pompano Beach bus station—one stop before her final destination.
Three U.S. Border Patrol agents boarded, announcing they would be checking IDs. She lifted her head to see one agent walking directly toward her.
|
Quote:
|
Azucena spent the next 76 days in a federal immigration center, Broward Transitional Center.
|
Quote:
|
“I am definitely seeing a large number of people stopped by Greyhound,” said attorney Sara Van Hofwegen, who worked with Azucena to get her deportation order deferred under the proposed DREAM Act, which will provides a path to citizenship for some.
|
Quote:
Azucena arrived in the United States at age 9, hiding at the feet of passengers in a truck smuggling her family into a Texas border town.
Now, 10 years later, agents were placing her and her two large suitcases in the back of their patrol truck.
|
Quote:
On that particular day, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, Azucena began crying hysterically on the bus after she handed Border Patrol agents her Mexican passport.
“They were just trying to calm me down. They didn’t even handcuff me… they were just like, “Calm down. Calm down. It’s OK. It’s OK.”
Agents drove Azucena to the BTC, a detention facility reserved for undocumented persons with no criminal convictions.
|
Quote:
|
Though she’s out with the help of Van Hofwegen, from the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), Azucena, now 20, is still nervous about the status of her family and herself.
|
Quote:
When she was in 10th grade, she was confronted with her illegal status after landing her first job at a Georgia Wendy’s. She never showed because she did not have a social security number.
“I was qualified to get the job and just because I had no social, I couldn’t go,’’ she said. “I felt like I was out of place.”
|
Quote:
|
As for Azucena, she’s slowly getting her confidence back after five months in school. Following her February release from detention, she was granted a social security number and a two year-work permit.
|
Could this be the good news Senator Dick Durbin is talking about, if you get caught chances are you will get a deportation order deferred and get a social and a work permit...?
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/1...ce-checks.html
__________________
APPLICATION RECEIVED:
9-19-2012
I-797C RECEIVED:
9-26-2012
BIOMETRICS LETTER RECEIVED:
9-27-2012 for
10-16-2012
Walk-In Done:
10-2-2012
EAD/DACA Approve:
12-7-2012