Dream Act Advocate Turns Failure Into Hope

[Derechos]

NYT article on VA Dream Activist Isabel Castillo who came to the U.S. as a young child and faces an uncertain future now that the Dream Act has been defeated.

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Her parents came here to the Shenandoah Valley to pick apples and stayed to work in a poultry plant. In 1991, she was smuggled across the border. The family lived in a trailer park, and Ms. Castillo’s first job as a girl was helping her parents sell tacos out of their home.

She attended Pleasant Valley Elementary, Wilbur S. Pence Middle School and in 2003 graduated from Turner Ashby High School with an A average and perfect attendance record.

To save money for college, she spent a year working seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. at a local restaurant. When she still didn’t have enough, she went to local business owners. “I’d say, ‘Do you have any scholarships or donations?’ ” she recalled. “One man gave me $1,000.”

By the time she had finished college, she had no money left, and her prospects were no better than they’d been in high school. So she moved back to the trailer park, sharing a bedroom with her older sister and her sister’s son.

Snip - below her exchange with Gov. McDonnell -


“My name is Isabel Castillo,” she began.

“Hi, Isabel,” the governor said.

“I went to the elementary school here, middle school and graduated with a 4.0 G.P.A.”

“Wow,” the governor said, and the audience clapped for Ms. Castillo’s 4.0.

The governor joked that in college, he got a 4.0, too — 2.0 the first semester and 2.0 the second.

Ms. Castillo told the governor that she had graduated from college in three and a half years with a degree in social work.

“Wow,” he said. “We need more people like this.”

“But I’m undocumented,” she said, and the room went silent.

When she asked the governor if he would support the Dream Act, his tone was kind, but he wasn’t swayed. “What we can’t do as Americans is to turn a blind eye and not enforce the law,” he said, adding, “People who come here illegally need to be detained, prosecuted and deported.”

His comments received much louder applause than Ms. Castillo’s 4.0 G.P.A. had.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/education/21winerip.html?pagewanted=1&ref=us&adxnnlx=1298293224-dp0qm10KWUuyuayFKgGRVw
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Ms. Castillo and thousands of young people like her came the the U.S. as young children through no fault of their own and only want a chance at a decent future in the county they consider to be their home. It is unconscionable to deny them this.