These kids come to school like any others. Here they are cooking vegetables from the school garden, and as with any other kids, they understand in their inchoate way that everything will be available to them.
For most of my life I never thought about the issue of immigration other than the Ivy League courses about the beginnings of America and the waves of immigrants coming from various places, finally making it to the Statue of Liberty and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. How naive I was!
Now I struggle to figure out how to make it happen for undocumented Mexican children to be able to go to camp. They don't have health insurance, a requirement even for camperships.
I wish that our elected representatives could know how it is to live in constant fear of deportation. I wish these elected officials could experience how it is to have dangerously crossed the border with the kids on your backs because you wanted a better life for your children and you couldn't see any other way to do it. You were willing to accept less than a second class deal because you wanted so much to be here where your kids would have a good chance at the brass ring.
My friend, Maria (not her real name), and her husband have two truly gifted kids, and their life is a struggle against fear from the deportation issue. Of course they do not have driver licenses, social security numbers, library cards. They are afraid to take vacations - one small lapse and they will be deported, separated from their kids. They have saved for their kids' college expenses but who knows if even this backward state of Florida will actually let undocumented students get into higher education?
We have such a huge group of Hispanics in the U.S. They drive our agriculture and they work everywhere. Their kids are our treasure.
Immigration reform must be at the top of our list of American priorities.
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