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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Students may leave, not be deported Students may leave, not be deported Daniel Gonzalez Four Phoenix students who were apprehended by immigration authorities during a field trip to Niagara Falls three years ago will likely volunteer to leave the country rather than be deported, their attorney said Wednesday. The students will request voluntary departure during a July 21 hearing to avoid stiffer consequences of being deported, which would prevent them from coming back for at least five years. "It's typically better to have a voluntary departure than an order of deportation, but the bottom line is these kids are going to have to leave the country," said Judy Flanagan, their lawyer. The students will probably need to depart within four months, Flanagan said. The students were part of a winning solar-powered boat team from Wilson Charter School that traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., in June 2002 for an international competition. They were detained and questioned by immigration authorities after their teacher took them to Niagara Falls on the U.S.-Canada border. All four students, now in college, had lived in the United States since they were young children. At least one student wasn't sure what his legal status was. If U.S. Immigration Judge John W. Richardson grants them voluntary departure, the students would still have the opportunity of applying for visas to come back to the United States legally at some later point, Flanagan said. After postponing the case several times, Richardson has indicated he could have no choice but to send the students back to Mexico during their next hearing. One of the students, Luis Nava, 21, has been cramming to finish his studies at Arizona State University in three years, said Marianne Gonko, another lawyer representing the students. He will complete a management degree in August. If granted voluntary departure, he hopes to apply for a work visa to return to the United States, Gonko said. "I'm terrified," said another one of the students, Jaime Damian. "It's like throwing me onto the street." The 20-year-old, who has lived in the United States since he was 5, doesn't know the relatives he would be sent to if he has to go back to Mexico. The other students who may be forced to leave the country are Yuliana Huicochea, 20 and Oscar Corona, 20. Flanagan said the only hope for the students to avoid deportation to Mexico is congressional action. They and others have been pushing for passage of a bill that would give them and thousands of other undocumented students a reprieve. The bill, which has been introduced several times but never passed, would allow students to apply for permanent legal residency if they entered the country before they were 16, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school. Under current law, they cannot apply for any type of U.S. residency because they entered the country illegally and they don't have any close relatives who are legal U.S. residents, Flanagan said. Flanagan has also asked U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., to introduce a bill that would give legal status to the four students specifically. Pastor's office said Wednesday that he is talking about the possibility of drafting legislation but hasn't committed to it. The students hope that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials will defer action on their cases to allow more time for Congress to act, but so far, ICE officials have not responded to a request for a delay, Flanagan said. Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for the agency, said officials have received the request and were reviewing it.
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#1. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut (#0)
They'll be back. To be honest, IMO, for those who have lived here their entire childhood, it doesn't seem right to throw them back "home". This happened a few years ago to a Polish family; none of the teenagers even spoke Polish. The place to stop them is at the border, before they ever enter for the 1st time.
War is just a racket. Major General Smedley Butler, USMC; 1933
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