• Miami teen who got reprieve from deportation graduates high school

    AP

    Daniela Pelaez works on a school assignment at her home in Miami, March 13, 2012.

    By NBC News and msnbc.com staff

     
    MIAMI – Daniela Peláez, the North Miami Senior High School valedictorian who garnered national attention after nearly being deported, is graduating on Friday.


    Peláez is scheduled to deliver her school's commencement speech at 2:50 p.m. ET at Florida International University.

    Peláez's story blasted onto international headlines after her request for a green card had been denied by a judge, sparking a national debate on the Dream Act.

    More than 1,000 students at North Miami Senior High School in Miami walked out of classes and took to the streets on March 2, protesting the immigration judge’s order to deport the 18-year-old honors student.

    View NBCMiami.com's story on Daniela Peláez's big day

    Peláez was later granted a two-year reprieve in March after facing imminent deportation.

    Peláez boasts a 6.7 GPA and plans to attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the fall to study biology and history. Her career goal is to attend medical school and become a heart surgeon.

    Peláez left Colombia with her parents in 1998. Her family overstayed a tourist visa in the U.S. when she was 4 years old. Her father eventually became a permanent resident through her brother, who serves in the U.S. Army and achieved U.S. citizenship. But her mother is stuck in Colombia, after she returned there in 2006 for medical reasons.

    Peláez worked with Florida lawmakers to raise awareness about young undocumented students like herself, backing The Studying Towards Adjusted Residency Status Act, or STARS, which allows students to remain the U.S. if they get a college degree.

    The STARS Act would allow illegal immigrants who are 19 years old and younger, arrived in the United States before age 16, and have lived here for at least the previous five years the opportunity to stay for another five years and eventually get legal status if they earn a college degree and meet certain other criteria. 

    Peláez and her sister also started their own foundation, We Are Here Foundation, Inc., to raise money and provide scholarships, grants and support to student immigrants in the U.S.

    NBCMiami.com contributed to this report.

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  • Almost-deported valedictorian Daniela Pelaez helps introduce immigration reform bill

    Rep. David Rivera's office

    Daniela Peleaz, a graduating senior at a Miami high school, speaks in favor of the STARS Act, outside Capitol Hill on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. With her from left are Christina Caicedo (assistant to Nera Shefer), immigration attorney Nera Shefer, Dayana Pelaez (Daniela's sister) and Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla.

    
    By James Eng, NBC News

    A little more than two months after she came close to being deported, high school valedictorian Daniela Pelaez joined a Florida congressman on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as he introduced a bill to allow undocumented students to remain in the U.S. if they get a college degree.

    The Studying Towards Adjusted Residency Status Act, or STARS, would help students like Pelaez, whose parents are illegal immigrants and who has been in the U.S. since she was a young child.


    “It would be amazing. It’s the only concrete solution people like myself and other kids (in my situation) have to stay in the U.S.,” she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview on Wednesday before heading to Capitol Hill.

    U.S. Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., worked with Pelaez, who lives in Rivera’s 25th District, and her attorney, Nera Shefer, in drafting the bill.

    The STARS Act would allow illegal immigrants who are 19 years old and younger, arrived in the United States before age 16, and have lived here for at least the previous five years the opportunity to stay for another five years and eventually get legal status if they earn a college degree and meet certain other criteria. 

    “This legislation can make the American dream a reality for young people like Daniela, who through no fault of their own, are prevented from realizing their full potential in this land of opportunity," Rivera said on the House floor.

    Wilfredo Lee / AP

    Daniela Pelaez, valedictorian at North Miami Senior High School, works on a school assignment at her home in Miami in March.

     “I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation to help Daniela and others like her who are as American as anyone born in the United States, and who simply need a chance to continue being productive Americans.”

    Pelaez, 18, is valedictorian of her class at North Miami Senior High School and boasts a 6.7 GPA. She graduates next Friday and plans to attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the fall to study biology and history. Her career goal is to attend medical school and become a heart surgeon.

    Pelaez has become a sort of cause celebre for immigration reform and now is a poster child for STARS, which is a narrower, refined version of the DREAM Act.

    More than 1,000 students at North Miami Senior High School in Miami protest the deportation order for 18-year-old Daniela Pelaez, the school's valedictorian. WTVJ-TV's Jeff Burnside reports.

    The Dream Act, which would open a path for citizenship for children of illegal aliens, has been stalled in Congress since it was introduced nearly 11 years ago, the victim of partisan political bickering over immigration reform. Under the act, undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before they were 15 must complete two years of higher education or two years of military service. It is not required that they graduate.

    Shefer said the STARS Act targets a much narrower population and could affect about 2 million teen students who don’t have legal status.

    “These are people that came here very young, most before the age of 16, and they have been raised here. They don’t know any other culture,” Shefer said. “This law will be targeting that population -- those kids who went to high school and graduated and wish to continue their education by going to college.”

    Rivera said Pelaez’s plight inspired him to develop STARS. "Many young immigrants have found themselves stuck in limbo due to our failure to address immigration reform," he said.

    Pelaez was 4 when she and her parents came to the U.S. from Colombia in 1988 and stayed after their visas expired. Her father eventually became a permanent resident through her brother, who serves in the U.S. Army and achieved U.S. citizenship. But her mother is stuck in Colombia, after she returned there in 2006 for medical reasons.

    Pelaez says she has few memories of Colombia and doesn’t want to go back.

    Pelaez’s life was nearly upended in late February when a judge denied her request for a green card and issued an order for her to leave the country. National and international media picked up the story, and soon Pelaez found herself surrounded by supporters at school, in Congress and in the federal government.

    At North Miami High Senior School, Daniela’s classmates walked out of class and took to the streets on March 2 to protest the immigration judge’s order. "Over my dead body will this child be deported," Miami-Dade County Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

    The public outcry had an effect: The Obama administration decided to defer action on the case for two years -- meaning Pelaez and her older sister Dayana will be able to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation for that period.

    It’s in keeping with the administration’s decision, announced last summer, to focus its deportation policy on illegal immigrants with criminal records and no longer actively seek to deport non-criminals.

    Pelaez has since started the We Are Here Foundation, which according to its website is seeking donations “to support every bright young undocumented immigrant who has lived here his/her entire life, who have every right to pursue the American Dream and wants to call this nation HOME.”

    "The foundation is recognizing that we are here -- these students are undocumented and want to have the American dream,” Palaez said.

    America, she said, is where her roots are.

    “It has everything to offer -- my future, the future for my family, my education, my career. It’s my home. It’s the only thing I know.”

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  • Miami valedictorian who faced deportation gets to stay - for now

    View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    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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