DREAM Act Would Be Too Late for Hector Lopez

Julianne Hing writes for Colorlines:

Hector Lopez was a blissfully unencumbered college student before this all began. The second year undergrad wanted to study marketing, and worked at a Nike store. His dream was to move to New York after he finished school to move up the ladder at Nike’s headquarters. Lopez coached Little League and played football and basketball. He spent his Friday nights with his girlfriend checking out new places to eat, and on weekends they’d train for 10k races together. Life was busy, but easy. He had no reason to think it wouldn’t continue that way forever.

And then on Aug. 23 this year Lopez was arrested as he was coming out of his house at 7:30 in the morning. ICE agents had been staked outside his home since 5 a.m. waiting for him. “Once I was handcuffed and in their car, the officer said, ‘I have an 11-year-old warrant for your deportation.’ And I said, ‘Well I was nine then so I don’t think that’s possible.’ “

Lopez would later find out that it was indeed possible, and that unbeknownst to him, he was undocumented. Lopez was six months old when his parents immigrated to Portland, Ore., from Mexico. His parents were swindled by someone who promised to file immigration papers for them then but scammed the family, according to his lawyer, and a judge ordered his family deported when Lopez was nine.

“We didn’t know about the deportation order, none of us knew about it,” Lopez said. “I had a work permit, I had Social Security cards, I was going to school, I worked, I had my driver’s license.”

Under the current language of the DREAM Act, Lopez would have been eligible to stay in the country. Like the hundreds of thousands of other undocumented youth set to benefit from the DREAM Act, Lopez was American in every sense, except for his immigration status. But whenever the bill passes, should it ever do so, it will be too late for Lopez and many other DREAM Act-eligible youth the country has already deported. Read more…

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