Opinion: What do you Mean?

Carold Trujillo Hadley / Columnista de Bilingual Weekly

After listening to the President’s State of the Union address I am no more aware of what he wants than I was before the talk. But having said this, he did make some valid points.

We are losing valuable assets in some of our students who by no choice of their own are not here legally. From personal experience I can testify how sad this situation can be. Many years ago, we had a young Hmong who was a straight A student. It was not until she was a student at Bear Creek that we found out she was not here legally. She arrived with her mother as a 9-year old, but someone at the port of entrance stamped her mother’s “Green Card” and left her off.

She was an outstanding student and had been awarded a scholarship. Now, the sad thing is with her status she was not able to accept her scholarship for fear of being deported to either France or Laos, although she had no relatives who could take care of here in either country. All of her family was legally in the US.

She wanted to be a doctor and would have been an outstanding in that field. She married and after much hard work was able to obtain her “Green Card”. We wished there would be other students so lucky.

We are losing great amounts of talents in students who have been here the majority of their lives, but living secret lives of fear and fearing who they can go to for help.

The President stated many students come on visas to attend our schools and then leave with the knowledge they have gained. Some of those students choose to stay and depending on what they look like they get good jobs due to their college degrees. Yes, they entered under the right rules and regulations, but now look over their shoulders as they have not joined the ranks of undocumented.

We need to find solutions for outstanding students who don’t have “green cards” to be allowed to find a path to honest living. It is time we stop talking amnesty and begin talking honesty. We need to keep talent here and not to some other country. We need to encourage education without fear of being sent to a country they know nothing about nor hold allegiance too. Once we do this there will be less young people looking for illegal ways to be accepted.

What are we afraid of? No amnesty, but there has to be an answer. Let us look for answers and not finger pointing —then we can answer: “Yes, Mr President (who ever it is) we are stopping the flow of knowledge and talent from our shores.”