<p>I read this today on Yahoo. I feel very sad for this young man and my heart goes out to him and his mother.</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/harvard-junior-took-dying-mom-mexico-now-stuck-180131320.html”>http://news.yahoo.com/harvard-junior-took-dying-mom-mexico-now-stuck-180131320.html</a></p>
<p>He’s been allowed back…</p>
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<p>Sad for the young man and his family. Also enlightening that his illegal immigrant mother was able to get expensive medical treatment in the US.</p>
<p>Also sad that he impregnated a woman and basically denied his fatherhood responsibility until recently. It must have been hard on the young woman.</p>
<p>His “illegal immigrant mother” was the wife of a contractor in the US who was presumably paying taxes. Perhaps they also purchased health insurance. For doG’s sake.</p>
<p>The young woman he impregnated presumably had some say in the matter, unless he raped her. They are BOTH responsible. </p>
<p>He’s a kid. And he sounds like a god one.</p>
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<p>That is a strange statement. No one is suggesting that the woman isn’t responsible. Very likely, from day the child was born, she has been actively responsible. </p>
<p>Sure his mom might have purchased insurance, but if so, it is not typical from what I have read. It is also very expensive to buy insurance in the private market with good coverage, which is what she would have had with all her cancer treatments. Our family plan here in CA (where she lives also) is $1,700 per month. I think it is interesting and notable that she was able to have all her expensive care paid for, because that is not the story you generally hear from illegal immigrant rights advocates. </p>
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<p>If she was married to a citizen for all these years, why couldn’t she get legal status? that seems weird.</p>
<p>Anyway…it is ugly that he denied his baby for awhile. In my book, scummy men do that. I’m not going to sing his praises just cuz he’s an illegal who made it to H. =; </p>
<p>If an undocumented immigrant marries a US citizen, they have to return to their country of citizenship to apply for a green card. And they’re not allowed to legally return to the US for three or ten years. As you can imagine, many undocumented spouses of American citizens don’t want to go through that process.</p>
<p>His father is not a US citizen. The article says,
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<p>“And they’re not allowed to legally return to the US for three or ten years. As you can imagine, many undocumented spouses of American citizens don’t want to go through that process.”</p>
<p>That is cold comfort for the tens of thousands of visa applicants who do just that; wait in line. Meticulously following an arduous procedure and waiting almost endlessly for a positive outcome.</p>
<p>Incidentally, it seems to me that the family of this Harvard fellow has the benefit of solidly middle class status, both here in and in Mexico. Why wasn’t his visa situation resolved years earlier? What held them back? Many visa seekers from Mexico do not have the income advantage that this family apparently had when they immigrated, and presently as well. </p>
<p>Cardinal Fang I beleive you are wrong, unless the laws have changed in the past 5 years. We had a live-in nanny, who was a grad student at a local university. She married her boyfriend of 4 years, who was undocumented from Colombia, and he applied and received his green card shortly after they married. A few months after he received the green card they went back to Colombia , as he hadn’t been back in 10 years. (I believe he got his citizenship in the past year). She now works at the UN and has undergone an extensive background check, as she travels internationally for them, so I doubt she would have passed the check if what you say is true. </p>
<p><a href=“Can an Illegal Immigrant Get a Green Card Based on Marriage to a U.S. Citizen? | Nolo”>http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-illegal-immigrant-get-green-card-based-marriage-us-citizen.html</a></p>
<p>It makes a difference whether the spouse seeking the green card came to the US legally and overstayed their visa, or came to the US illegally. People who came legally, then overstayed, have an easier time getting citizenship after marrying a US citizen. It may be that the boyfriend from Columbia came to the US legally and then stayed.</p>
<p>njmom, CF is correct - that is the general rule. However, there are exceptions that someone with a good immigration lawyer can use to their advantage. Without knowing precisely the details of your nanny’s H situation, it is hard to say what exactly he and his wife did to legalize his status.</p>
<p>People like to talk about visa applicants who “stand in line” to get citizenship to the US. It’s not like there is a line, and an unskilled Mexican jumped ahead of the queue by sneaking in. There is no line for that person, except in special circumstances. </p>
<p>We can debate whether we ought to accept unskilled immigrants from Latin America-- maybe we should, maybe we shouldn’t. That’s probably not a discussion for this thread. But we need to understand the facts, and realize that at present THERE IS NO LINE for them to wait in.</p>
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<p>The baby had not been born yet. I think it is very understandable that a young man in his position would find it difficult to deal with an unexpected pregnancy. (One also has no idea what went on between the couple in terms of birth control, discussion about abortion, and so on.) Of course it would be nice if he had stepped up earlier. But he seems to be prepared to be a stand-up guy, as they say.</p>
<p>I did not say the father was a legal immigrant or a citizen: he isn’t. (Guerrero’s two younger siblings are citizens, having been born here.)</p>
<p>A family member of mine married a European who overstayed his visa. It took several years for him to get his green card: they had had their first child by then. He was unable to leave the country during that period, because he wouldn’t have been allowed back in. He did NOT have to return to his native land to get the green card.</p>
<p>I find it appalling that the first reaction of some to this story is to begrudge a woman medical care intended to try to save her life. From this and other threads, it is clear that some of simply do not share certain values.</p>
<p>Didn’t we just have a similar thread on this subject and the same stuff was discussed.</p>
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<p>I think it is appalling that some think a young man stepping up to his parenthood from the get-to is simply a “nice” gesture.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>I know, but because he’s an illegal who made it to H, he gets a hall pass.</p>
<p>Have to agree with M2CK.</p>
<p>There are people in all of our communities working hard, striving and trying to stay under the radar of immigration authorities. They’ve been here for years. These unskilled laborers can’t risk going home to tend to ill relatives. They don’t have a Harvard pedigree.</p>