He and his family first came to the United States in 1993, when his mother fled her abusive marriage.
"Back home, we had a car, house and she had a stable job, but the cops said there was nothing they could to do help," he says.
So the family applied and received tourist visas and arrived in San Jose.
Juarez went to Meyer Elementary School near Reed-Hillview Airport, then Ocala Middle School, where he mastered English, and then moved on to Mt. Pleasant High School.
It was when he was in high school that Juarez was forced to face his reality — the same realities thousands of teenagers are facing today.
"Kids like me don't go on to college because of the lack of money or because of the thought, `Why [bother] if you can't exercise your degree afterward?' "
And because of beaurocratic backlogs, these students are also left in limbo while they wait an average of 15 years (up to 25 years if from the Philipines) for their initial interview to begin the legalization process.
The thought, however, was a fleeting one for him.
"Reading makes you think," he says. "It compels you to work for the people, serve the people and change the law. Millions of people want immigration reform. So do we, but the next generation doesn't have to fight the same fight. We have to change the law and be active participants."
It was while attending high school that Juarez listened to a speech by Assemblyman Joe Coto, then East Side Union High School District superintendent, and realized what his life calling was.
"I knew there was something different about me," he said, "especially in sophomore and junior year. It's a traditional time. Kids work during the summer, get their driver's licenses, but I couldn't. It influenced me that I was denied these traditional teen expectations."
They have a DREAM
The bleak outlook on attaining legal status can be disheartening for all immigrants, but especially for students whose status and situation are unaccounted for in the current immigration system.
"For minors as well as anyone else, especially those from Mexico and Central America, 90 percent have no way of obtaining legal status, an example of why our system doesn't work," says Mark Silverman, director of immigration policy at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center of San Francisco.
Currently, undocumented people, including minors, can become legal either through an application filed by their employer, a family member with legal status — parents, siblings and spouses — or through the foster system, but Silverman points out that these people cannot work legally.
"These students don't have the route," he says. "That's the basic, current situation."
An estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high schools in the United States every year. Without a route toward legal status, they are left with few options
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnews...nclick_check=1
Boo freakin' hoo. American children have dreams too. Yet these whiney criminals never think about the fact that they are stealing scholarship money and seats in the classrooms that belong to American children.
These delusional, self absorbed, 2nd generation criminals make me want to hurl.
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