Benita Véliz must support the stifling summer heat of San Antonio, while he waits another three months to know how the rest of his life will be. It was his parents who put Benedictine in a difficult position when scarcely he was 8 years old. But now the future of this 23-year-old young woman is in hands of a federal judge of immigration who will decide in September if Benedictine can remain in the United States or if it is deported to Mexico.

This is not necessary the history of another undocumented immigrant. It is the history of a young woman who graduated like the best and the youngest of his class at the age of 16 years. Benedictine had the second highest puntaje in the test SAT in the secondary school Jefferson and she was selected like Hispanic National Finalist, what located it between 5 per cent of the best Hispanic students in the United States. Also she was the president of the "National Society of Honor", it was very active in his church and it gained a finished scholarship for the respected university St. Mary's. Also it obtained two qualifications advanced in biology and sociology.

For his years of university it found, somehow, time to act like volunteer in a children's hospital and in a program of the National Associations of Students, which helps needy persons. To achieve it it was employed 45 weekly hours of waitress at a Mexican restaurant. His "legal status" prevented him from going to the school of Right but Benedictine stayed busy developing his business of design and photo, teaching deprived of mathematics and sciences, and lessons deprived of piano. Although she did not have a number of social insurance she always paid his taxes across his Individual Number of Identification like taxpayer.

His nightmare began in January of this year when a police officer in the city of Helotes, near to San Antonio, stopped it supposedly for violating a sign of pare. When he asked him for his license of Benedictine handled he confessed that it did not have one and explained why. The police officer retained it and delivered it to agents of immigration who imprisoned it during the night.

The Benedictine's case has attracted a lot of attention in San Antonio as well as in the American congress, where conferee Demócrata Charlie González, of San Antonio, has promised to present a law project to stop the Benedictine's deportation. Also there emphasizes the importance of approving the law of Development, Mitigation and Education for Foreign Minors, known as the Law of the Sleep (DREAM Act), an initiative that thinks about how to provide those that were brought to the United States by his parents before they were 15 years, the possibility of obtaining permanent residence, fulfilling certain requisites.

Benedictine did not have to be driving without license. That is true. Nevertheless, they should have allowed him to have a license with the intention of being identified and to make sure that has the training adapted to handle and the necessary insurance. His case demonstrates the absurd of the movement against allowing to all the residents of this country, legal or not, having a driver's license.
Benedictine is a perfect example of why our migratory laws they need to be reformed. There are cases like of her that they have to be taken in consideration while the White House and the Congress discuss the best way of straightening our cracked migratory system up.

It is incredible that in 2009 the government of the United States punishes someone like Benita Véliz, who was brought without asking the United States for it and now it must fight to defy a law that will only extinguish his spirit and a brilliant future.

(c) 2008 by Maria Helen Salinas.