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A Florida high school valedictorian who was on the brink of deportation has received some good news: She won't be forced to leave the country - for two years, anyway.
Daniela Pelaez, 18, came here when she was four, when her parents entered the U.S. illegally, according to local news reports. And on Monday of last week, a judge ordered her, and her older sister, out of the country.
Daniela "texted me that afternoon, 'Life sucks, I can't believe this. I have to get out by March 28th,'" Emily Sell, Pelaez's best friend, told msnbc.com over the phone on Wednesday. "And I said, 'That's not going to happen. I'm not going to let that happen.'"
Sell started a petition for Pelaez, which she said collected more than 15,000 signatures, and organized a protest at North Miami High School, where nearly all of Pelaez's 2,600 classmates joined in a walk-out last Friday in solidarity, according to The Miami Herald.
"Over my dead body will this child be deported," Miami-Dade Superintendent of Schools Alberto Carvalho, holding Pelaez's hand, said on Friday, reported NBCMiami.com.
High school students fight valedictorian's deportation order
But it wasn't until Tuesday of this week that Pelaez's attorney heard from Homeland Security thatdeportation order had been deferred.
"Two years is good, but it's not the goal," Pelaez's attorney, Nera Shefer, told the Miami Herald Wednesday, adding that Pelaez is "very happy she’s going to be able to finish high school and go into finals with a clear mind."
Superintendent Carvalho echoed those sentiments on Thursday.
"I'm elated over what I believe is a temporary win," he told msnbc.com. "I hope this incites a national dialogue that will address the sentiments of students and young people who find themselves in no man's land. It's time for the nation to take on this issue in a non-partisan way."
The Pelaez family -- both parents, as well as Daniela, her brother, Johan, and her sister, Dayana -- came to the U.S. in 1998. The Miami office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not tell msnbc.com why it chose to defer, and not dismiss or uphold, the deportation decision, saying it had “exercised prosecutorial discretion in Daniela and Dayana Pelaez’s case and will defer action for two years."
ICE uses "prosecutorial discretion," in which an agency decides what charges to bring and how to pursue legal action, on a case-by-case basis, the agency said.
"ICE is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States and returned,” Nestor Yglesias, a public affairs officer, said in a statement.
Repeated calls to Shafer, Pelaez's lawyer, were not returned on Wednesday.
Not everyone agreed Pelaez should stay.
"She should be deported," Linda Simmons, who has a son in ninth grade at North Miami High, told NBCMiami.com last week. "Her parents broke the law."
Read Pelaez's story on NBCMiami.com
Sell, Pelaez's best friend, told msnbc.com she received a lot of hate mail while she was campaigning for Pelaez.
"But I've gotten more positive emails, and I deal with a lot of the hate emails. It's worth it in the end," she said. "She would do this for anyone."
Best friend: 'She helped me through the foreclosure'
Sell told msnbc.com that she met Pelaez two years ago when Sell transferred to North Miami High School.
"I actually transferred to the school sophomore year because our house got foreclosed," she said. "Daniela and I always clicked. We were always close academically. We became friends very quickly. She helped me through the foreclosure. That was a very hard time for me. I like repaying her for that."
The two girls are in an international baccalaureate program, which Sell says has just 80 students, at their large high school.
"In our senior class, there are 30 [students]. We're very close. For Daniela to get deported, it's like a family member to get deported," she said.
Pelaez was invited to meet Sen. Mark Rubio, R-Fla., on Wednesday.
Before boarding her flight to Washington on Wednesday to meet with Rubio, Pelaez told NBCMiami.com, "I'm excited because I've never been to Washington ... I'm very happy and relieved that there's gonna be some help."
Rubio, as well as several other Florida representatives, had publicly supported her staying in the U.S. Pelaez's school superintendent told msnbc.com he reached out to his state lawmakers as soon as he heard about her predicament.
"From the very first day that I learned about this, which is the day that the judge issued the deportation order, I called a number of politicians, and the result has been pretty obvious," Carvalho said. "I'm pleased that people of good minds and good intentions have been able to find common ground."
Pelaez told NBCMiami.com last Thursday that she has no memory of Colombia and loves her friends and this country.
"I've been asked the question before: 'Do I feel American?' or 'Do I believe I am?'" she said. "And I don't think it's a question. I'm American. I know the national anthem. I know the laws. I know what it is to be an American."
Her older sister, Dayana, is 26, and couldn't go to college because she's not a citizen, Sell told msnbc.com. She works to help support the family.
Pelaez's older brother is in the Army and is a citizen; her father obtained citizenship through her brother, NBCMiami.com reported. Their mother had divorced their father and returned to Colombia for health reasons shortly after moving to the U.S., said the station.
Pelaez has a near-perfect GPA and has applied to numerous Ivy League schools, and she dreams of being a cardiac surgeon, Sell told msnbc.com.
“She's the best in bio," Sell said. "She did a medical program with the University of Miami, and she was literally salivating at it! She was like, 'I looked at cadavers today!' She wouldn't get to do that in Colombia."
Pelaez has been overwhelmed by all the attention her case has garnered, Sell said, but hopes it brings change for other kids like her -- whether they're class valedictorians or not.
"Immigration is extremely controversial," Sell said. "A lot of people have polar feelings on it. Immigrants can make it in society. Daniela is destined for so much greatness. There are so many other kids and adults that aren't exactly like Daniela, but they deserve to stay here just as much."
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I understand the emotional aspects of this situation but the fact remains, both of the girls and their mother are in criminal status. This is a case of the sins of the parent being visited upon the child...but illegal immigration is unfair to all the people who want to immigrate and stand in line to do so. One exception leads to another and that is why the US has such a mess on its hands. It has to stop somewhere...the huge number of illegal immigrants has overly stressed the US medical services and social services, all on the backs of legal tax paying citizens who often watch their own go without while illegal aliens are given immense numbers of dollars of care and support. We can no longer justify such a heinous use of our hard earned tax dollars which support these people who pay no taxes and gobble up our resources.
My belief in the rule of law suggests that this girl shouldn't be given special treatment. Our laws aren't written to say, "you are exempt from them if you are smart enough or pretty enough.". our best course of action would be to send her back to Colombia, where she evidently has family, and then allow her to reapply for a green card to come to the US. Her father should be able facilitate that, and she'll be back here within a year or two..
It's not like leaving her in two years of Federal limbo is going to help her. Even if she gets into an Ivy, as she says she wants to, she can't just matriculate without some sort of status. Even Ivies ask to see your papers, both when you apply and when you register. And she'd be ineligible for financial aid and Pell grants. She could even apply for a student visa from Colombia, to come back to study next Fall, while she's waiting for her dad to work things out. Frankly, my guess is that deporting her would be doing her a favor at this point. Deporting her would probably be the most compassionate thing we could do.
By the way, the anti-Obama lies on this thread are ridiculously ignorant. Obama has more than quintupled deportations since he took office. He has deported more illegals than the last three presidents put together. This girl would've slipped through the cracks until his presidency began.
Common sense has prevailed.
Here is an infrequently touted fact: the IRS and GAO recently completed their second analyses, which showed that illegal aliens who work in this country as undocumented laborers, pay in and do not receive back any tax refunds that amount to approximately $100B annually. Individuals who use false, faulty, or even completely fake social security numbers have their auto-deductions for FICA, tax, etc., go into a giant "dump account" and basically government reutilizes it from there.
The other financial ramifications from undocumented laborers leaving en masse include our fields withering on the vine with no one to pick them; our massive masonry projects abandoned; and many, many construction jobs unfilled.
This can already be seen in Alabama, whose law took effect last year.
How do they pay in if they do not have social security numbers? How is their pay taxed when most of them are paid under the table? How do they pay tax on property when 30 of them live in a 1 bedroom apartment or in some basement? Mexico alone makes billions every year from illegals sending money back home, money the is supposed to be recirculated in the U.S economy. Walk into any emergency room or clinic and you will find it to be mostly populated by people who cannot speak a word of english and have no form of identification aka illegals and they are bleeding dry the federal funds that are given to those places to treat people without insurance because by law they are unable to turn people away. They aren't paying into taxes to support those places nor are they paying taxes into public education,transport etc etc....They get a free ride on the dime of actual citizens.