Illegal Immigrant Student Hopes Her Story Encourages Immigration Reform

Yesterday, May 14, Jessica Colotl a college student in Atlanta told reporters that she hopes her unfortunate ordeal encouraged political leaders to push for immigration reform or at least the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act, for those who do not know, is also known as the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors, would apply to illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16, have a high school diploma and have shown high moral character, among other requirements. Unfortunately the bill has not made it through congress despite being introduced several times. Anyway, this Friday marked Jessica's second release from detention after getting arrested for a minor traffic violation in her Atlanta college campus on March 30. The 21- year old Jessica came close to being deported after the traffic arrest when the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office turned her over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who sent her to a detention center in Alabama. Luckily for her after lobbying on her behalf by her sorority sisters and Kennesaw state officials, the ICE released Jessica last week and federal officials even deferred action on her case for a year which would give her enough time to complete her classes. However, on Wednesday the Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren obtained a new warrant for her arrest, he claimed that she saying she lied about her address when she was booked into jail following her first arrest (under Georgia law it is a felony to make a false statement to law enforcement). Colotl turned herself in Friday morning and was released on $2,500 bond. Whether or not she will be convicted of this infracture is still up to the courts but Jessica’s criminal defense lawyer is certain that there’s no merit to the accusations and that the Sheriff was just looking to complicate matters for Jessica. Already, though, representatives from civil liberties and immigrant rights groups have called for the ICE to revoke the Cobb County Sheriff's Office's participation in a program known as 287(g), which allows local law enforcement agents to help enforce federal immigration laws.

Source: http://kdka.com/national/Illegal.immigrant.student.2.1695583.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100514/ap_on_re_us/us_immigration_student_2