Eric Balderas, Undocumented Harvard University Student, Faces Deportation After Trying to Board Flight in TX

Eric Balderas, undocumented Harvard University student, faces deportation after being detained while attempting to board flight from San Antonio to Boston.

Another undocumented college student is facing deportation. Eric Balderas, who just completed his freshman year at Harvard University, is facing deportation to Mexico after being detained by immigration authorities. He  was detained after he tried to board a flight from San Antonio to Boston using his university identification.

He has been released last Monday, pending a July 6 immigration hearing. This is very similar to the incident involving Jessica Colotl, an undocumented student attending Kennesaw State University, who will pulled over for impeding traffic and was later discovered to be an illegal immigrant.

There is no law that says illegal immigrants can't go to school, but they should be made to pay out-of-state tuition and not allowed to get scholarships and other financial aid to attend any institution of higher learning. I don't know if Eric Balderas is getting financial aid, but I do know that it is time universities and colleges across the United States screen all students for residency as part of the acceptance process. I recall when I applied for college, I had to specifically document that I was a legal immigrant with a green card number. So, I just don't understand how these people manage to game the system for so long. There are many others just like Eric Balderas and Jessica Colotl. How long will this be allowed to continue?

Balderas' family came to America illegally when he was four years old. Clearly he can't be held responsible for his parents' actions, but that doesn't mean mechanisms shouldn't be put in place to determine the legal status of incoming and transfer students. The reality is that if he didn't know his immigration status was illegal, which I am sure he did, his parents were only too happy to perpetrate this fraud. I abhor illegal immigration, no matter which country they come from. My family and I migrated to America legally eons ago and Eric Balderas, Jessica Colotl and their families need to take their rightful places at the end of the line and wait their turn like millions of legal immigrants to America have done.