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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...,2894389,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Boca Raton -- On paper, they were tourists from the Guatemalan highlands. But in the schools and neighborhoods of this South Florida city, Sonia Choz de Puac and her daughter Debora, 14, built a life around the temporary stays allowed by their visas.
They'd leave their Boca Raton apartment for Guatemala every six months, obtain visa renewals and return. For seven years, they planned their comings and goings around Debora's school schedule.
That life of serial visits underpinning permanent hopes ended April 30 at Miami International Airport. Federal officials arrested the Boca Raton High School freshman and her mother as they attempted to re-enter the United States, saying they violated the terms of their tourist visas.
Today, Debora, an honor student and cadet in her high school's Navy JROTC program, mops floors and cleans bathrooms in a Pennsylvania detention center where she's being held with her mother.
Her sudden uprooting from the world of homework, grades and bake sales has sent a shudder through her school, one of thousands across the country where undocumented immigrant children thrive on the margins of the law -- a consequence of their parents' difficult choices.
Debora's case also highlights the complexity of immigration law. Federal law requires public schools to provide an education to all regardless of legal status. But the family's lawyers admit the Puacs could not legally send Debora to school on a tourist visa.
"I wanted to get Debora the best education. And I wanted her close to me," said her father, Francisco Puac, 51, who lives here legally. "Sometimes I think we abused the system by putting her in school here. But then I remember how just two months ago, she was winning awards and waving an American flag and now she's in a detention center."
Educators estimate thousands of illegal immigrants are enrolled in Florida schools. Nationwide, about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from public schools each year, according to Melissa Lazarin, a senior policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C.
Federal officials say Debora and Sonia Puac, 51, did not have the proper documentation to re-enter the country on April 30, regardless of Debora's school attendance. They charged the pair with overstaying their visas on a previous visit, an allegation the family denies.
"If you come here as a tourist and you overstay your visa, you're violating the contract you made with the United States," said Zachary Mann, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protectionin Miami.
Francisco Puac lives here legally under political asylum. The former government administrator helped transcribe testimony for drug-trafficking cases in Guatemala. He fled his country in 1998 after he and his family received death threats. U.S. officials granted him asylum in 2001.
Sonia Puac chose not to apply for asylum because it would have restricted her travels to Guatemala, where the couple's two grown sons still live. The Puacs decided on a tourist visa for Debora as well, thinking that was the best option.
Francisco Puac says he was not aware his daughter could not attend school as a tourist.
He stared blankly around Debora's room in the family's apartment on a recent morning. Hello Kitty dolls crowded the bed and Britney Spears CDs sat on a night table. On the bathroom floor were the weights Debora used to train for JROTC.
"Everything we have here we got through hard work," said Puac, who works as a baker in West Palm Beach. "The only thing we didn't earn were the schools."
Thomas Lobasz, one of two Lake Worth attorneys representing the Puacs, argues Debora should have been released to her father. Lobasz is seeking political asylum for Debora and her mother. He's fighting to have them returned to Miami and released on humanitarian parole. Immigration officials have made no decision on the parole request. A court hearing is scheduled for June 15.
"It's been hard. We really didn't expect this to happen," Debora said in a telephone interview from the detention center in Leesport, Pa., where she and her mother were transferred in early May. "I really want to stay here [in the United States]. Whenever I get upset I think this is what I have to go through to reach my goal."
Among those goals: to join the Navy and become an astronaut.
Debora's arrest has shaken students and teachers at Boca Raton High. The retired naval officers who run the school's Navy JROTC program have written to federal officials asking for her release.
"Debora represents the very best in leadership and academic achievement," wrote Kenneth A. Bingham, a 21-year Navy veteran and one of Debora's JROTC instructors, in a letter to immigration authorities.
He and naval instructor Edwin A. Morales also honored her with the program's annual leadership award, which they are holding for her. They say Debora was instrumental in helping her unit win second place at a national JROTC contest in April.
Debora was also in the unit's flag detail, hoisting the stars and stripes at the school's entrance every day.
"If Debora had the opportunity, she would serve her country in a heartbeat. She's more patriotic than half the kids born here," said Morales, a 20-year Navy veteran.
South Florida school officials say they have no stake in the immigration status of students. All a student needs to enroll is proof of a local address and an immunization record, officials say.
"We do not act as immigration agents. We welcome all students as they present themselves and believe every child can learn at high levels. It's our calling," said Nat Harrington, spokesman for Palm Beach County schools.
Debora and her mother face deportation if they lose their asylum case. Meantime, they are roused from bed at 6 a.m., plod through assigned cleaning chores, and wait. Debora said she attends a detention center school with children of mixed abilities, but is learning nothing.
"We were depressed for the first few days. When I'm sad, my mother gives me support and when she's sad, I give her support," she said.
Still, she remains hopeful.
"I know I could have a good future here," she said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...,2894389,print.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Boca Raton -- On paper, they were tourists from the Guatemalan highlands. But in the schools and neighborhoods of this South Florida city, Sonia Choz de Puac and her daughter Debora, 14, built a life around the temporary stays allowed by their visas.
They'd leave their Boca Raton apartment for Guatemala every six months, obtain visa renewals and return. For seven years, they planned their comings and goings around Debora's school schedule.
That life of serial visits underpinning permanent hopes ended April 30 at Miami International Airport. Federal officials arrested the Boca Raton High School freshman and her mother as they attempted to re-enter the United States, saying they violated the terms of their tourist visas.
Today, Debora, an honor student and cadet in her high school's Navy JROTC program, mops floors and cleans bathrooms in a Pennsylvania detention center where she's being held with her mother.
Her sudden uprooting from the world of homework, grades and bake sales has sent a shudder through her school, one of thousands across the country where undocumented immigrant children thrive on the margins of the law -- a consequence of their parents' difficult choices.
Debora's case also highlights the complexity of immigration law. Federal law requires public schools to provide an education to all regardless of legal status. But the family's lawyers admit the Puacs could not legally send Debora to school on a tourist visa.
"I wanted to get Debora the best education. And I wanted her close to me," said her father, Francisco Puac, 51, who lives here legally. "Sometimes I think we abused the system by putting her in school here. But then I remember how just two months ago, she was winning awards and waving an American flag and now she's in a detention center."
Educators estimate thousands of illegal immigrants are enrolled in Florida schools. Nationwide, about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from public schools each year, according to Melissa Lazarin, a senior policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C.
Federal officials say Debora and Sonia Puac, 51, did not have the proper documentation to re-enter the country on April 30, regardless of Debora's school attendance. They charged the pair with overstaying their visas on a previous visit, an allegation the family denies.
"If you come here as a tourist and you overstay your visa, you're violating the contract you made with the United States," said Zachary Mann, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protectionin Miami.
Francisco Puac lives here legally under political asylum. The former government administrator helped transcribe testimony for drug-trafficking cases in Guatemala. He fled his country in 1998 after he and his family received death threats. U.S. officials granted him asylum in 2001.
Sonia Puac chose not to apply for asylum because it would have restricted her travels to Guatemala, where the couple's two grown sons still live. The Puacs decided on a tourist visa for Debora as well, thinking that was the best option.
Francisco Puac says he was not aware his daughter could not attend school as a tourist.
He stared blankly around Debora's room in the family's apartment on a recent morning. Hello Kitty dolls crowded the bed and Britney Spears CDs sat on a night table. On the bathroom floor were the weights Debora used to train for JROTC.
"Everything we have here we got through hard work," said Puac, who works as a baker in West Palm Beach. "The only thing we didn't earn were the schools."
Thomas Lobasz, one of two Lake Worth attorneys representing the Puacs, argues Debora should have been released to her father. Lobasz is seeking political asylum for Debora and her mother. He's fighting to have them returned to Miami and released on humanitarian parole. Immigration officials have made no decision on the parole request. A court hearing is scheduled for June 15.
"It's been hard. We really didn't expect this to happen," Debora said in a telephone interview from the detention center in Leesport, Pa., where she and her mother were transferred in early May. "I really want to stay here [in the United States]. Whenever I get upset I think this is what I have to go through to reach my goal."
Among those goals: to join the Navy and become an astronaut.
Debora's arrest has shaken students and teachers at Boca Raton High. The retired naval officers who run the school's Navy JROTC program have written to federal officials asking for her release.
"Debora represents the very best in leadership and academic achievement," wrote Kenneth A. Bingham, a 21-year Navy veteran and one of Debora's JROTC instructors, in a letter to immigration authorities.
He and naval instructor Edwin A. Morales also honored her with the program's annual leadership award, which they are holding for her. They say Debora was instrumental in helping her unit win second place at a national JROTC contest in April.
Debora was also in the unit's flag detail, hoisting the stars and stripes at the school's entrance every day.
"If Debora had the opportunity, she would serve her country in a heartbeat. She's more patriotic than half the kids born here," said Morales, a 20-year Navy veteran.
South Florida school officials say they have no stake in the immigration status of students. All a student needs to enroll is proof of a local address and an immunization record, officials say.
"We do not act as immigration agents. We welcome all students as they present themselves and believe every child can learn at high levels. It's our calling," said Nat Harrington, spokesman for Palm Beach County schools.
Debora and her mother face deportation if they lose their asylum case. Meantime, they are roused from bed at 6 a.m., plod through assigned cleaning chores, and wait. Debora said she attends a detention center school with children of mixed abilities, but is learning nothing.
"We were depressed for the first few days. When I'm sad, my mother gives me support and when she's sad, I give her support," she said.
Still, she remains hopeful.
"I know I could have a good future here," she said.