Family awaits avenue for lawful residency

By Devona Walker

Published: November 4, 2007

Lora appears American: from her blue eyes to the sound of her voice, which hasn't even the hint of a Spanish accent. She and her husband own a home. They work. They pay taxes. But they are not legal.

"This is our home. We work hard for it, really hard,” said Lora, 23. "We are going to stick around and we are going to follow the law. We are not going to speed. We don't drink. We just want to be good citizens.”

On Friday, her extended family congregated in the living room of her south Oklahoma City home. Everyone there, with the exception of her 2-year-old daughter Lupe, is an illegal immigrant: Her mother Maria, a housekeeper; her father, a construction worker; her aunt Bertha, a housewife; cousin Jackie, a college student; and her other cousin Lorena, a senior at the University of Oklahoma who is majoring in accounting with a minor in finance.

Also present was a close family friend, Jose, also a senior at OU, who will graduate this year with a degree in engineering.

"There is no way for us to become legal U.S. residents unless we go back to Mexico for 10 years. If there was, we would have done it,” Lora said. "I am not a criminal. I did not even come here under my own will. My parents brought me here.”

On one day, Maria was sitting in her car outside a client's home, afraid to approach because the owner of the house had dogs.

Shortly after she left the home, a police officer pulled her over. Before she was able to remove her driver's license from her purse, he was upon her, yelling at her. He told her to get out of the car.

"I asked why he had stopped me, he said it was because I looked suspicious,” Maria said.

House Bill 1804 has caused panic in the Hispanic community. Some illegal immigrants have signed over all of their property to family members and friends who have papers. Others have just walked away, leaving behind everything they worked for in this country. And still others, like Lora's family, will remain and live in the shadows, fearing detection and hoping for comprehensive immigration reform that will give them an avenue toward becoming a legal resident.

"I didn't even know I was not an American citizen until ninth grade,” Jose said. "Everyone was getting their licenses and I couldn't get one.”

None of his classmates or even close friends know he is an illegal immigrant.

"I feel like I'm telling them a lie. I can't be truthful to myself or them,” he said.

HB 1804 did not prevent him from attending college. It will not prevent him from graduating, either. But it may very well stop him from getting a job.

"I want to be an American citizen, but people don't want me to be an American. I'm from Mexico, but I don't know Mexico. I don't think of myself as a Mexican,” Jose said. "I don't know what I am. I guess I am somewhere in the middle.”

"The main question for Hispanics is, ‘Why do the American people want to blame us for what happened on 9/11?'” said Maria. "It hurt us, too, when it happened, because we were living and working in this country. Some of us, we give everything for this country.”

At age 9, Lora, with her family, crossed over to the U.S. by way of the river.

"All I want is for the American public to know is that we would like to come out of the shadows,” Lora said.

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