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Liane Membis

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Life After Yale: Undocumented

Posted: 08/27/2011 10:56 am

Editor's Note: This piece was removed from the Huffington Post following an independent investigation by Huffington Post editors. Sources in the original piece denied having made statements attributed to them by the author; other attributed statements in the piece could not be independently confirmed.

 
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02:00 PM on 09/01/2011
Sorry, no sympathy here.

Teresa Serrano has been an adult for four years, and every day for those four years she has told America that its laws don't apply to her.

There is no right to live in the U.S. illegally. Send her home.
04:22 PM on 08/30/2011
One day I'll return to school and become an immigration lawyer. There's so many people like her in this situation. I am not saying it's right for anyone to willfully break laws but at some point, we all have to understand that certain circumstances are beyond people's control. Unless you've lived in a third world country, you can never understand what it is like to be dirt poor and suffering. America offers so many people the opportunity to improve their lives and it is really the land of milk and honey...This girl is obviously smart and her talents are being wasted...
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voyager48
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
11:56 AM on 08/31/2011
Broke is fixable - poor is not because it is an attitude and culture.

There is no shortage of 3rd world countries with abundant mineral wealth, rich soil and abundant cheap labor - all of them dismally poor, yet those that put their mind to it live extremely well.

This is just a peek through the door of what we are fast becoming since we see nothing wrong with importing poverty, systematically eroding standards and rabidly defaulting to the lowest common denominator in the name of social justice and civil rights. 3rd world countries hold a great lesson for us - stark and undeniably the crippling divide between the very wealthy and abjectly poor!

We are now a nation of investors and ever poorer servants. Bringing in more poor people serves only to make the rest of us feel better by comparison, while increasing the divide¬. This human Ponzi scheme needs to end.

We have to raise the bar on our leaders and get the US back on track. Absent any other viable agenda, the Tea Party will not only survive but must flourish if we as a nation are to continue to prosper.

Before we get all the mindless demonizing, vitriol and nastiness, I am not a Tea Party member and probably will never be since by default there are factions there that I am highly uncomfortable with. My Point? That does not mean that in the big picture what they are trying to do is wrong.
02:01 PM on 09/01/2011
She has a Yale degree... I'm pretty sure she can find a decent job in Honduras.
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ms schatzi
04:03 PM on 08/29/2011
So her parents ignored immigration laws and are now criminals , she gets a free ride at Yale, and is depressed because she can't fly on a plane.

This is a good reason why foreigners should obey immigration laws.

I suggest she look for work in her country.
09:51 PM on 08/30/2011
From the 1950s to the 1990s the U.S destabilized Central American governments in its war against communism. Consequently, a good portion of Central American immigration was prompted by these wars. But I guess that's just an irrelevant detail..
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voyager48
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
11:08 AM on 08/31/2011
If that is your logic then the US has destabilized many countries around the globe so stand in line!

There are hundreds of millions of poor and struggling people in this world - many of whom "deserve" a chance. Given that we cannot help them all, the one thing we can and I believe are morally bound to do is to make our immigration policy as balanced and rational as possible, not set up to favor any particular region.

The EU has proven that open borders do not work for the reason that it gets abused to the great detriment of citizens. Systems get overwhelmed by freeloaders so many EU countries are reintroducing border controls to combat this.

Equally as we have seen over the last 30 years, any such system can and will only work if we are able to regulate effectively. Without the will and means to regulate we will simply exacerbate the mess we have now.
02:01 PM on 09/01/2011
You're absolutely right. It is a completely irrelevant detail.
02:30 PM on 08/29/2011
Not surprised by the ignorant comments I've read. My neighbor who has lived across the street from me for 10 yrs and recently graduated from high school in May 2011, found out 3 years ago that he was undocumented. This bright, ambitious young man is left without many options. He can't get a driver's license or a job. He so badly wants to go to work & school. However because of his status he cannot. He can attend community college at out-of-state rates, which at a community college is expensive, especially for someone without a job. So in some of the ignorant comments I have read he it is suggested to return to his "native" country. Well he is in his "native" country, he has been here since the age of 2. He is as American as I am! So here he sits at home wasting his time and talent. What a shame!! The Dream Act doesn't give anyone a FREE RIDE. He would be granted in-state tuition and the opportunity to go to school, w/o fear of being deported, from the place he considers home. He's willing to work hard and pay for school himself. Yes it is his parents "fault" for not doing the right thing. But now he is paying the price dearly. I see all of his hopes and dreams going by the way-side. Please don't judge those unless you've walked in their shoes.
02:03 PM on 09/01/2011
What has he done for the last three years? Has he respected America enough to comply with our laws? Or has he just said, "Screw the law, I'm stayin'"? My guess is it's the latter.
04:38 PM on 09/01/2011
Again he was 15 year old high school student when he found out. What would you expect him and others to do?
09:15 AM on 08/29/2011
One of the reasons for Yale admitting international students is to give other students a broader view of the world and to give foreign students a good understanding of the US when they return to their home countries. If she were concerned about anything other than her own needs and desires, she would gladly return to her native country and contribute her talents to making that land a better place. I guess all she learned at Yale was how to cheat, lie and steal for her own benefit. Those are good Republican virtues, and I KNOW we don't need more of that in the US.
02:52 AM on 08/29/2011
As a Yale grad, she would have no trouble at all getting a job in the country she came from.
10:57 AM on 08/29/2011
She "came from" the United States. Unless you count the time she spent in Honduras before she was 13 months old, during which there was significant civil unrest fomented by folks who were trained at US military institutions.
But, then, your reading comprehension can't be all that good, considering that part of her concern is her ability to stay near her family (mother, father and brother), who all live in the US.
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ms schatzi
04:06 PM on 08/29/2011
They all should be in Honduras not hiding out in the US.
12:31 AM on 08/29/2011
Poor, poor pitiful me.

Actually, I think it's a crying shame that Yale is contributing to this whole debacle.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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Viper1st
multi quasi faceted
09:31 AM on 08/29/2011
Just like auto insurance companies selling auto insurance to illegals w/o driver's licenses in the USA

It's for the money
10:58 AM on 08/29/2011
She got a full ride. What money?
08:51 PM on 08/29/2011
Yale is private, they can do whatever they want with their money. I couldn't care less if they seem to be "wasting" it or not.
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Chris1962
NYC
06:24 PM on 08/28/2011
>>>"I try not to think about the future. I just live life day by day," Serrano said, adding, "To live as an undocumented person in the U.S. is to grapple with daily exploitation, injustice, and broken promises.">>>

So get documented. Or is that asking too much?
10:49 PM on 08/28/2011
Can't you not understand there is no way for her to be documented since the Immigration Law is broken as many Law makers and even Mr Obama said a couple of times? The immigration law is inhumane and draconian
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voyager48
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
11:46 AM on 08/29/2011
i guess like every other country on the planet that has immigration laws?

Try Denmark, which is part of the EU but has reinstated border controls and who charges illegals, their family and employers the cost of their deportation. Or the UK that has voted to deport illegals to the country of entry into the EU, or France that has deported Romanian Gypsy's en mass for illegal immigration.
02:05 PM on 09/01/2011
Heaven forbid that a sovereign nation should be able to control who enters its borders. How inhumane and draconian.
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iuriggs6
Sure thing. Shoot, Timmy.
03:44 PM on 08/28/2011
Will the sob stories ever stop?
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MsLizabeth
Flaming liberal, burned out attorney
04:25 PM on 08/28/2011
Do you know nothing of humanity?
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iuriggs6
Sure thing. Shoot, Timmy.
04:37 PM on 08/28/2011
Of course I do. I also believe in following the law. I am tired of illegals ranting and raving wanting everything done for them. There is a right and a wrong way to do things. For the record, a few of my best friends are latino legal immigrants and they agree with me. We were just talking about it last night.
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jsgaetano
Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus
12:21 AM on 08/29/2011
Are you quoting Jesus?
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iuriggs6
Sure thing. Shoot, Timmy.
09:04 AM on 08/29/2011
Nope.
Freedom Lives
Do you wonder, watch, or make it happen?
03:30 PM on 08/28/2011
So basically a person who is in the country illegally-

took a Yale University enrollment position and opportunity away-

from another United States student and citizen.

What a remarkably wrong-headed policy.
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MsLizabeth
Flaming liberal, burned out attorney
04:27 PM on 08/28/2011
If you read carefully, you will see that no US American student lost an opportunity to attend Yale. She was admitted as an international student, so if she had not gone, another international student would have gotten her spot.

But that would not fit your prejudiced model, would it?
BlueGirlRedState
C'est la vie
05:20 PM on 08/28/2011
She was not an international student. She had to have falsified her paperwork to get in under that program.
Freedom Lives
Do you wonder, watch, or make it happen?
09:17 PM on 08/28/2011
You assume an infinite pool of international students-

if NOT her-

perhaps her opening WOULD have gone to an American citizen.

You ASSUME that which you cannot know to be true.
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CrestedSparrow
02:46 PM on 08/28/2011
A beautiful and poignant story.
11:29 PM on 08/29/2011
An insipid and maudlin plea for sympathy.
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CrestedSparrow
12:16 AM on 08/30/2011
Works for me!
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Alwayspissedoffatsomeone
Liberalism = Stultification of the Brain
02:23 PM on 08/28/2011
If liberals had any sense at all...any, they would cease to showcase those illegal immigrants who continue to reap the advantages of this nation's generous and horrendously flawed security procedures. It only furthers to piss people off how upside-down our policies are regarding our security. When illegal immigrants can gain federal assistance for college grants, yes grants...not loans, in Calif. and those who ARE citizens cannot, something is drastically wrong.
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RUKidding0
Freedom is Fundamental
02:43 PM on 08/28/2011
F & F for uncommon sense.
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chevyliddle
what's a micro-bayou?
05:12 PM on 08/28/2011
X 2.
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MsLizabeth
Flaming liberal, burned out attorney
04:29 PM on 08/28/2011
You assumed that her financial aid was from the government. The article does not say where the money came from. Yale is a private college, with lots of endowments.
11:42 AM on 08/28/2011
With a degree from Yale you can apply and interview for positions with big corporations in Toronto, Vancouver, and other cities.

You can then hire an immigration attorney when you get an offer of employment. This will lead to residency. After that, three years later you can apply for citizenship.

I'f I were young and had an Ivy League college degree I would be looking to get out of the US. The American Century is over.
12:39 PM on 08/28/2011
I am afraid it's not so simple like you said: First, without proper ID no one will hire you. Secondly, since she has already "violated the immigration law" (when she was 1 year old), the answer from the authority would be to deport her and ban her from re-entry for at least 10 years . That is the sad reality of our broken system.
01:10 PM on 08/28/2011
She was born in Honduras. She can get a birth certificate, and with this she can apply for a passport. It's not like she is stateless.
BlueGirlRedState
C'est la vie
05:25 PM on 08/28/2011
She worked in a fast food restaurant and a laundromat, so it's not true that no one will hire her.
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CrestedSparrow
03:03 PM on 08/28/2011
It's sure sounds like your suggestion is worth a try; better than her wasting away. I hope she and others consider your suggestion.
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Tuigim
The perils of benefactors...
11:39 AM on 08/28/2011
America glorfies wealth and disrespects people.

1. How people love to talk about money here: in restaurants discussing stocks, on the radio, on TV... reporting the Dow Jones but not famines. Having a social conscience is an unpatriotic mortal sin.

2. Kids are told they must give something back as if they are in debt to someone;
it's a throwback to indentured servants.
Slavery is supposed to be dead but a lot of people in the south still ain't too happy about that.

3. Any nation's greatest national resource is its people
but here in the US they are abused instead of respected and valued.
In education the must pay until they are in debt they cannot pay back. And who cares?
Education and health care are not seen as a government's resposability but taxes pay for wars?!!
Workers' rights are not considered, people fired on a whim
and anyone who complains is called a commie or unAmerican.

Ignoring the rights of millions of people because they look different or speak differently
even as we exploit them in low wages, dehumanize and demonize them
is the old 'slavery is ok' mentality dressed up in " It'sa complicated immigration issue" excuse for making millions of our neighbors live in fear and misery.

This is America. Don't be too quick to be proud of it.
Freedom Lives
Do you wonder, watch, or make it happen?
03:34 PM on 08/28/2011
What a remarkably blighted post.

Your glass must always be half empty, never half full.

The irony of your post is that this family CAME to America-

no one forced them to come here.

If America is SUCH a land of misery and fear-as you state-

than WHY would they come here at all?

You sound very young.

When you are young you learn things-

when you are older, you will understand things.
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MsLizabeth
Flaming liberal, burned out attorney
04:42 PM on 08/28/2011
I am too young to be called, but claiming middle age is disingenuous.

The first line of the post was astounding to me. It is dead on accurate. "America glorfies wealth and disrespect­s people."

One thing the right wing and left wing can agree on, is that the USA has peaked economically. We just disagree on who gets the scraps. The right wants a few people to get all the scraps, in the hop that some crumbs will come their way. The left (me) want to take a bite out of the rich's lobster and make sure everyone gets a decent meal.

If you want to know why I came here, it is because I was conceived here. My family goes back to 1640 at the earliest and 1888 at the most recent. With each generation we advanced in education. Now I have two well educated offspring, but I wonder what will become of them in this idiocracy.
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MsLizabeth
Flaming liberal, burned out attorney
04:43 PM on 08/28/2011
Correction: I am too young to be called old.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
frank day
Obama cares about all of U.S.
04:04 PM on 08/28/2011
Your rambling post attempts to conflate many issues.

It is classic Logical Fallacy of False Equivalencies.

She is NOT American nor are her parents.

She has been given many advantages by our kind hearted system.

She should "give back" to her native country.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Tuigim
The perils of benefactors...
11:37 PM on 09/01/2011
Health care is a human right; so is education.
Everyone is from somewhere else apart from the indigenous people of this country.
This "kind hearted system" is more than a fallacy, it is a delusion.
Young men are sent to kill people in foreign lands so oil tycoons can get richer.
Over 1,000,000 Iraqis died because of a "pre-emtive" strike of a nation that was no threat to us.
Kind system as in government????
Stop reading propaganda!
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RUKidding0
Freedom is Fundamental
10:50 AM on 08/28/2011
"In the United States, my parents were alone and on their own, whereas in Honduras they had the support of their family and loved ones," expresses the entire point of illegal aliens perfectly.

Illegals are not only entirely legal and at home with friends and family in their countries of origin, they also have full rights in them.

Moreover, people like “Serrano” and her brother are astoundingly blessed to have had an education at American expense, which they can now use to help themselves, their families, and their own country, reducing the need to send still more illegals to America.

Worse, providing amnesty to people in “Serrano”’s circumstances not only encourages an ever increasing tide of illegal immigration, but robs the poor countries of their most educated and ambitious citizens, furthering the poverty that exacerbates the cycle of immigration.

The fact that her parents chose to be illegals was their choice.

They and their families should live with the consequences of that choice rather than whine about them. Moreover, after selling their home in America, they will have what amounts to a fortune in their own country, in addition to bringing two highly educated new citizens home with them.

In the meantime, universities, like Yale, should be required to ascertain the nationality of ALL of its students to help in the effort to dissuade illegal immigration, with jail time for those who fail or refuse to do so.
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RUKidding0
Freedom is Fundamental
01:56 PM on 08/28/2011
To knapstellar

Agreed !!!

Severely fine employers who hire illegal aliens, send those responsible within the company to prison, send responsible officials in sanctuary cities to prison, send responsible university officials to prison, send all who create the magnets that attract illegals to prison
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MsLizabeth
Flaming liberal, burned out attorney
04:49 PM on 08/28/2011
That was the attitude of opponents of the amnesty which happened during the Reagan administration. That was twenty-five years ago.

Has that been accomplished? What makes you believe it can be accomplished? Ranting at the government is not accomplishing anything except making thoughtful compromise impossible.

The illegals from south of the border are not leaving. Telling them to leave is like Archie Bunker telling a lesbian to quit it.