The case of Jessica Colotl…illegal immigrant college student has been indicted on felony charges.
Colotl...surrounded by her legal team
I have been following this case since it started last May. This is the story of a college student named Jessica Colotl, who also happens to be an illegal immigrant. Her parents brought her into the United States from southern Mexico almost 10 years ago (when she was 11 years old). They have lived here illegally ever since. She has attended public schools in Georgia and after graduating from Westlake High School, she went on to attend Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. She has been paying the reduced in-state tuition rate.
Back in May 2010, Jessica was stopped by campus police for “impeding the flow of traffic”. She was arrested when she could not produce a drivers license (she only had an outdated Mexican passport). That’s when her gig was up. The police turned her over to ICE….and the national media circus began.
(from the Atlanta Journal Constitution)
A Kennesaw State University student on Friday criticized the national immigration system that brought her to the brink of deportation and remains a looming threat to the future of students like her who are illegally in America.
“I just hope for the best,” said Jessica Colotl, a 21-year-old who entered the country illegally when she was 10. “I hope something positive comes out of this because we really need reform for this messed-up system.”
The Mexico native gained national attention in March when she was arrested in Cobb County for a minor traffic violation on the KSU campus and narrowly avoided being deported. Colotl addressed about 50 supporters and reporters at a rally just hours after being released from jail on $2,500 bond on a second charge accusing her of lying about her address.
The young student is being held up as an example of what’s wrong with the nation’s immigration system by both pro-immigrant groups and opponents of illegal immigration
Colotl’s case has prompted pro-immigrant and human rights organizations to renew calls for the termination of the 287(g) program, an agreement local law enforcement agencies, such as the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, have with immigration officials to check the status of everyone taken into custody. Opponents say the program promotes racial profiling and tears apart families.
Colotl was handed over to immigration authorities following her first arrest under the 287(g) program. At the urging of KSU, Colotl’s friends and advocacy groups, ICE agreed to defer her case for a year until she completed her degree. She was then released from a federal detention center in Alabama.
Colotl was released from jail about 11:40 a.m. Friday. Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren secured a warrant Wednesday night to arrest Colotl, 21, on a felony charge alleging she made a false statement about her address on a jail booking form. A KSU officer had arrested Colotl in March on a charge of driving without a license.
A spokeswoman for Warren said he would be unavailable to comment about the rally for Colotl on Friday. She referred a reporter to a written statement Warren issued Thursday that said “it is sad that Ms. Colotl’s parents chose to enter the United States illegally and ultimately put her in this position.”
Warren said that his investigation revealed that she had never lived at the address listed on her booking records.
Taylor, Colotl’s attorney, said that she had lived at the Duluth address as recently as November 2009 and her motor vehicle insurance and car registration paperwork were still being mailed there.
Colotl gave deputies her old address, Taylor said, because it matched her car insurance paperwork. On the same day, she also gave immigration enforcement officers her current address in Norcross. Sheriff’s deputies should have known where to find her, Taylor said.
An ICE spokesman said Friday that the agency chose not to detain Colotl again following her second arrest. Her case will be reviewed again on its merits at the conclusion of the deferment period.
Colotl was accepted to KSU in 2006 as an in-state student, which was in keeping with the policy of the Board of Regents at the time. The following year, the rules were changed so that undocumented students could no longer receive in-state tuition, which costs about a quarter of out-of-state tuition.
Colotl was still paying in-state tuition up until her March arrest. That’s when university officials learned she was an illegal immigrant, according to a statement KSU issued Friday. The university’s administration said from now on she will be charged out-of-state tuition rates.
Well…she is now a senior at Kennesaw State University and is expected to graduate this May. On Friday, a Cobb County grand jury indicted her on charges of making a false statement. Her parents are…of course…nowhere to be found. They have vanished into thin air….although I seriously doubt they are back in Mexico…leaving their daughter to fend for herself. I do feel sorry for Jessica (just a tiny bit). Her parents brought her here illegally and did nothing to try to become legal. She’d be a US citizen now if they had applied for it when they first got here 10 years ago. She is supposed to be deported after her graduation in May but the pro-amnesty organizations are doing everything they can to stop that.
How many more Jessica Colotl’s are there out there who are illegally receiving benefits that are meant for American citizens?
Thousands?
What do you guys think?
© 2011, Bridget. All rights reserved.
If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
So she knew she was illegal and did nothing about it. She continued to take advantage of benefits that she was not entitled to. Deport her and all those like her.
Agree. She should be grateful for the education Americans subsidized for her, now she can take that back to Mexico and help her own country. There are no jobs for her here anyway. Adios.
You know, you make a great point! She should now go back to Mexico and start a business or figure out some other way to stimulate the economy down there so the Mexican people can find jobs in their own country and stop invading ours.
Of course, she probably majored in something ultimately useless like social work…
Exactly the same thought I had, DG. But, really, such useless degrees will probably be the vogue in government jobs.
.
Good point about her not taking responsibility for her situation after becoming an adult. She accepted the benefits of her false status.
She’s the perfect victim for the open borders crowd. Yes, it’s a shame she has to suffer for her parents’ crime, but all kids of criminals suffer. Did we cry over the children of the Enron execs when they (no doubt) could no longer afford to attend private school?
It was only her parents’ crime until she turned 18. Then it became her crime. An out-of-state student that fraudulently claimed in-state status to get the lower tuition can be charged with theft and fraud. My husband served in the Navy for 6 years, and when he returned home, the local college tried to charge him foreign student fees because his address for the last six years was Japan. How’s that for justice?
Are you kidding me? Our system is screwed up!
Tell your husband thansk for serving. He is a great American…
Living in GA, I have definitely followed this case.
It is all that is wrong with our immigration policies.
We are allowing all of this to happen by not actually enforcing our laws. Then people don’t think the laws exist, or think they don’t apply to them or whatever, but people coming here illegally see nothing being done, and their lives are probably better than they would be back home, so why not stay?
The thing about it is – I know someone who was here for two years as an au pair. Then she got a student visa. So she has been living in GA that whole time (she’s married now and on her way to citizenship, etc).
BUT SHE HAD TO PAY OUT OF STATE TUITION!!! Not only that, but then there were fees because she was from another country!!!!! So she was paying MORE THAN an out of state student would.
And we think it’s okay for this girl to pay *in state* tuition?
It’s absurd.
The thing is, I know plenty of people here legally, and we treat *them* like criminals (like my friend, who when she got her environmental engineering degree, and married an american, still had to go back to mexico for three years, or any number of people from other countries – with advanced degrees, who we don’t let get green cards, or who we don’t even allow to get visas (like, spouses of people who have visas) – or my classmate from grad school, who went back to India because he didn’t have a job the day he graduated).
We seem to want to kick people who are highly educated out, but turn a blind eye to people racing across the border.
Now, don’t get me wrong, she was trying to get an education and do better here. And I do agree that she was taken here as a kid. She doesn’t really call Mexico home (others REALLY don’t call Mexico home, when they came as toddlers) – so sending her back…what does that do to her life? It’s sad, but we have to start enforcing the law at some point (without amnesty darn it! I’m so tired of that, Reagan said: oh, don’t worry – and we didn’t do a darn thing after all those aliens were given citizenship…).
We have no one to blame but ourselves. Well, maybe the politicians who allow this to happen, while they discuss funding for NPR.
I’d say there are lots.
IIRC, Massachusetts tried to arrest and deport one of them, before there were such widespread (and potentially embarassing) protests from Harvard students that they backed down.
What sanctuary states – cities, universities, etc. – have in common is:
(1) They are far enough away from the Mexican border that they don’t have to worry. Arizona has more to worry about illegals than Massachusetts does.
And/or:
(2) Like Northern Caliofornia, they have deliberately made housing, employment etc., so expensive that no illegals, poor people or minorities would want to live there.
You think it’s an accident that San Francisco’s black population has halved in the last 20 years?
There are no illegals in S.F.? I guess I should just keep my eyes peeled a little tighter next time. Of course there are. They flock to overcrowded housing in the Mission and Excelsior districts.
But SF does a lot to restrict housing and opportunities for low wage jobs, out of fear of turning into L.A. It’s the only way that it can afford to be so far to the left.
It’s like New York using rent control, environmental restrictions, manipluating the minimum wage, etc., to price out the poor.
I don’t think it was an accident that NY’s blacks were forced into New Jersey in the 1990s.
I wish I could agree with you but SF is full of illegals. The people who have been forced out of SF are the middle class. It’s an impossible city for people with children. You either have to be poor and get subsidized housing, or be very wealthy. San Francisco is a classic Liberal city. The rich white folks feel guilty so they won’t do anything about the homeless problem, which of course doesn’t affect them, because there aren’t any homeless in their neighborhoods. The rich Liberals in SF are the most hypocritical in the country, they live in a snug little cocoon where they pat each other on the back while the rest of the city suffers from their progressive policies. When they have their Ballet and Opera Galas the police clear the Civic Center of the homeless. You can be rich and live in SF and avoid them completely.
Huh – I suppose I’m guilty of listening too much to the wealthy leftists.
Look at the gentrification in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Midwest Hipsters have displaced Hispanic and other ethnic families through rent increases.
Deport her and her family. They broke the law.
On a personal level, it is hard not to empathize with Ms. Colotl’s plight. It’s a shame such a minor scrape with the law would cause one to get deported.
But the danger of using small sample sizes to address a larger problem is still valid. Most illegal immigrants from Mexico are not well-spoken college students. Most are not encouraged to assimilate, instead they are told to maintain their native cultures to contribute to the “melange” of America – much to the detriment of the host nation and its legal citizens.
The solution to this problem isn’t easy, but is necessary – border fence/moat and then enforcement of our nation’s law to protect our citizenry. Finally, a comprehensive review of the entire legal immigration system – why we are importing 1M immigrants a year legally in the face of crippling U/E is beyond moronic.
But I expect that from an elite class that has done everything it can to sell out this nation’s citizenry – on the petard of cheap labor and damning cultural “diversity”.
I can’t wrap my head around her being driven enough to make it through college, but lacking the initiative to become a US citizen. Send her home.
yes, what is wrong with this is that law enforcement cannot do their jobs without a bunch of people protesting.
what’s wrong is why she didn’t try to be legal when she came of age.
i know there is a lot to these stories about the parents and the bureaucracy and poverty, but that is too bad. there are plenty of actual americans who are going without because we have a system that seems to work hard to give to everyone else.
she was stopped and couldn’t produce a license. you need a license to drive a car. that being said, going from there, they found out she was illegal. when i get stopped by a cop, i need to produce my license. if i don’t have one, i can either get arrested, or get a fix-it ticket in which i can come back and prove i have a license, depending on the cop’s mood, or be told to be careful and carry my license with me at all times.
but these people screaming RAAAACISM over valid ID- WTF?! i don’t understand. if you don’t have valid ID, it doesn’t mean someone is a racist trying to deport people left and right. it just means they are doing their job. and how many times has jessica slipped thru the system already, because a cop was feeling generous and gave a pass if she didn’t have ID, and just issued a warning?
Another thought–that picture of her surrounded by lawyers reminds me of the illegal maid with her bogus claims about Meg Whitman. The media and the left make illegals look like poor victims of an oppressive right wing, selfish system. They want to shame and silence taxpayers who resent paying for illegals’ education while they struggle to pay their own kids’. I’m so tired of this crap.
This isn’t the first nor will it be the last ‘sob story’ meant to pull at our heart strings. The want us to overlook the breaking of our laws. If we adopt the attitude that the laws should be inforced some of the time and not all of the time, it just weakens our system of laws.
Let the girl get her degree, as one of the posters has said, and go back to Mexico and try to better her own country. She needs to take her parents with her.
No. She has been caught breaking the law. Deport her NOW. Not in 4 months after she gets her degree.
She can have her degree when she repays this difference between in-state and out-of state tuition!
Amen…
Gets deported first.. comes back in the right way, pay the difference, then get diploma.
Meanwhile hundreds of middle to lower income American boys, the best and brightest in our country enlist in the military in order to get assistance with college tuition after they serve–they risk their lives.
Bingo…
Listing…you made me wonder. Would the left wing whackos be satisfied if instead of deportation we offered this type of illegal the option of 6 years of military service to avoid deportation and then the opportunity to apply for naturalization through normal channels if they wish to stay in the US?
That is absolutely true! I have two nephews who have done just that.
Just follow the law. Politics is there to clutter up things. Period. How many of these so-called advocates would be willing to give up their freedom if the choice is ever between them and someone who had conducted an illegal act? My guess is that when it isn’t their rights being trampled upon, then it is OK to carry on and demand that the law be broken occasionally.
That’s why they call a conservative “a liberal who has been mugged.” It’s easy to speak out in favor of people you’ll never come into contact with – except maybe when they park your car at a fancy restaurant, or come in to clean your house. When the liberal’s rights get trampled on, they scream the loudest – and sound amazingly like conservatives.
In answer to Bridget’s question, I suspect there are TENS of thousands of illegal immigrants taking advantage of in-state tuition at public colleges and universities all over the country. My evidence of this? The number of states, like California and Georgia where the legislatures are actually debating LAWS to ALLOW illegals to get in-state tuition. This wouldn’t be such a hot political issue if there weren’t MILLIONS of votes out there to be had, legally or illegally.
This isn’t even a gray area. She became responsible for herself at 18, when she could have sought citizenship herself.
Now that she has knowingly gamed the system for the last three years, she should be overwhelmingly grateful that they are even allowing her to finish her degree.
Cheers, Blake
The Univ of California turns away thousands of qualified LEGAL applications — how many admitted illegals are taking spots from legals? and receiving financial aid — from a state treasury that is bankrupt?
Just deport her. She could have come forward and obtained a green card way back when it dawned on her she was here illegally. No sympathy.
Deport her back to Mexico and let her get a job as a community organizer or something.
Best idea I’ve heard so far!
Absolutely no sympathy. Get her out of the country.
Sucks to be her, but I just can not get my give a damn working. Her family flew under the radar for years with out paying taxes but getting all the benefits of being here. What gets me is when I put in for classes I have to give everything but my DNA so they can be sure I am not scamming the system.
I plan on emigrating to New Zealand in the next couple of years and woe betide me if I don’t toe the line. They don’t play with immigrates like we do. Marriage, ha! Anhcor babies, forgetaboutit. If you have a kid there, they might be able to sponsor you when they are 17. If you want to come, you have to have a in demand skill, a job offer in hand, and a sponsor. And no you don’t have all the rights they do until they let be a resident after a few years. Oh, and you MUST speak english and not have any medical conditions ( they even require chest x rays ). If this girl were there, she would have been on a plane back to Mexico in a heart beat.
Bet you a buck the Mexicans I saw there had all their paper work in order.
California puh’leeeease– it’s the entitlement game. Everyone involved is making money on these illegals and their “free money” for Education.
This happens daily. We must never allow other state’s to become Ca. Until someone with the “backbone” to close our Southern Boarder, this will continue. These illegals come here because everything is handed to them. They do not want to simulate to our way of life.
They use false doc’s. Borrowing other’s ID cards, driver Licence’s, Well-Fare, housing and stolen SSN: you name-it! They’re also told it’s the Dem’s who keep them safe.
Had it not have been for the “illegal voter fraud” Reid, Boxer, and Brown would have never “WON” back their seat’s– it wasn’t only the Union vote! “FACT”
Above all else, Americans must “not allow Amnesty” to this carnage and decay they have brought to our nation. These invader’s have no respect for America, and do not want to become citizens.
This is a scam for “D” votes and it’s also the gate way to socialism: I don’t feel sorry for liar’s and scammers and the game illegals play.
BTW:
Didn’t Michelle recently mention to the illegal community, to push for their Dream Act: because Obama is ready to sign-it’ if it comes to his desk. Has anyone heard or read that info?
The real criminals here are the parents who dragged her here as a child and never helped her legalize her status. I think it’s a bit much to expect a child of that circumstance to be as assertive and self-initiating as all the posters here no doubt believe themselves to be. Especially with all the voices of popular media and the victim culture shouting at her through the liberal media, the college culture, etc. I remember being a college student at that age — naive ain’t the word for it.
In addition, I’m familiar with what it takes to get legal residency in the US, thanks to my wonderful brother-in-law who was sworn in as a bonafide American citizen just last November (Yay for Ed!). It is a maze of red tape, bribes, delays, and obfuscations — a system devised by lawyers for the benefit of lawyers. My BIL would not have made it without the help of good law-respecting people in Catholic Charities who guided him through the criminally Purgatorial process.
That said, it’s said that hard cases make bad law. Here we have a poster child for that. We need to have a fast-track to legalization/citizenship for kids like this girl — who have lived here for so long, been immersed in American culture via the government schools, and aspire to the American way of life. The kids like that are the ones we need to hold onto, regardless of their parents’ crimes. When oh when will the elected officials of Clowngress give us something workable and rational for good people who want to be Americans to follow?
No sympathy at all. Deport her.
this might sound alittle redundant, but the bottomline is —we have to vote and vote for the people who will standup to the liberals who ambush the laws of this country and allow situations like this to be swept under the rug for years…..
like the Arizona law ( which was always there—BY THE FEDERAL GOVT….) only got attention when the state decided to enforce it…..and who came to fight it?….our own pres…so pathetic…
Heh…..
*cue whiny Mexi-Valley girl voice*
“….the systems like, so messed up….”
What? Never learned about the meaning of illegal? BTW, when do you start Harvard Law?
I just typed out a “long RANT” about this big problem of illegals here in Cali~
I guess it’s stuck in the “wait and see” filter?
BTW: My sympathies have left me year’s ago!
Absolutely no sympathy. The “giveaways” provided to illegals by state/Federal government is but another method of extracting reparations from white taxpayers-who are being discriminated against daily, especially white males.
Round every illegal up, send them back to their country of origin and be done with it…it doesn’t matter how “innocent/pitiful” they are. Send them back, now.
PS WE are paying her attorney fees-talk about another poke in the eye.
@caligal: i had a response, too! and it’s not here…maybe later. :/
Agree with all the above comments. When she became an adult and realized she was breaking the law, she could/should have come forward. At that point, she could/should have gone through the process of becoming a legal citizen of the United States. If she had become a citizen, the university could’ve then made an informed decision whether to charge her the necessary back tuition as she continued to complete her degree. As it stands, she knowingly continued to break the law. As a clearly premeditated law violator, she deserves no special consideration, except to be deported as the law requires. Perhaps she can graduate/complete her degree in Mexico City, and as others have noted, help her native country with its many, complex problems. As Ann Coulter pointed out in her CPAC speech, there IS a ‘path to citizenship’ for illegal immigrants; it’s called ‘legal immigration’! Footing the bill for illegal immigrants (from many countries, not just Mexico) who continue to illegally/knowingly take advantage of tax-funded services paid for with American citizens’ hard-earned tax dollars is costing states and this country billions of dollars every year. It is a huge factor in our virtual nationwide bankruptcy.
Obama dreams to break the Constitution and give these illegals free US Citizenship so they can vote Democrat “Per Secula Seculorum”
There is a path to citizenship in this country. It’s called “legal immigration” (H/T Ann Coulter). This path was available to this young woman when she became an adult. Before entering the university, she could have become a citizen. Yet, she continued to knowingly break the same law her parents broke and to illegally take advantage of a tuition rate for which she knew she did not qualify. She deserves no special consideration, and, IMO, not even the degree/graduation ceremony. If any American were to go to any other country in the world under like circumstances and try to ‘get away with’ this kind of behavior, what would happen? Or, would the situation even have been allowed to get this far?
We have the same situation in Fresno, CA. When the Dems were pushing the DREAM Act, they trotted out Fresno State University Student Body President, Pedro Ramirez. He wanted to “come out” to garner support for amnesty…an upstanding, hard working, pillar of the community…yeah, well not so fast. Within months, he held a press conference (bandaged and bruised) claiming that he was contemplating stepping down after the hassle from his detractors about his recent accident where he was-wait for it-driving with no licsence. There is still many questions concerning the cover-up of the accident (alcohol-related, maybe) many in the community think has happened.
My thought is, once you lie and break laws, you tend to minimalize the need for the truth. Of course in ‘flaming liberal land’ it’s all the fault of those who won’t let the ‘undocumented democrats’ come out of the shadows…pitiful!
Watch the video below:
http://www.cbs47.tv/news/local/story/CSUF-Student-Body-President-Injured-in-Crash/n7TSP6AkUUqDDx-qyNu7Cg.cspx?rss=153
I like that: Undocumented Democrats. I think I’ll use that from now on. Hope you don’t mind.
Zero sympathy, she broke the law and now has the deal with the consequences. It sucks to be her but she is an adult now and has to live with the decisions she has made. She took advantage of in-state tuition and likely kept a legal resident from enrolling in the same school.
She is not a victim, she is a criminal and should be deported.
We The People are running out of sympathy for people like her and the enablers in the media/academia/political class. Sovereign nations have borders and laws, when illegal immigrants don’t respect these the result is chaos and bankruptcy. The Elites benefit by having cheap labor they can exploit while the rest of us fund the illegal’s education, babies, imprisonment, and burden on the legal system.
Live in AZ for two decades and you will see this for yourself, its out of control!
…and the Elites are surprised when Middle American says “basta” on this issue? I say take away all their benefits so that most of them self-deport back to their homelands. We have enough criminals in the USA already without an additional few million FELONS who don’t respect our laws. Hopefully another 10-12 million will be joining Jessica soon.
FYI, my great-grandparents were LEGAL immigrants from Eastern Europe who had to wait in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany before coming to the USA. They followed the process and adhered to the laws of their new homeland. Imagine that!
Illegal is illegal. Unfortunately for her. So she and her parents scammed the system for years. Illegal is illegal. And where are those parents now? Not our problem.
“both pro-immigrant groups and opponents of illegal immigration”
Why aren’t the “pro-immigrant groups” called what they really are? Pro-illegal immigration. It really irks me when people speak about people that are against immigration, without stating that they are against “illegal” immigration not legal immigration.
Anyway, I do not understand this car insurance thing. I have to give my insurance company a copy of my driver’s license or the number of my driver’s license before they will issue me a policy, yet it seemed that she was able to be insured without a driver’s license.
I know this posting doesn’t directly speak about this illegal story, but I feel it’s important to share this:
Honestly,,,I believe before summer arrives, there will be a fight or gun battle with the Arizona PIMA County Sheriff’s division and our Boarder Patrol agents “AGAINST” Mexico’s Drug cartel’s. The “DRUG CARTELS” are pushing for-it, and homeland security has been warned.
I saw-this posted on FOX News website recently, and Greta had an interview with the Sheriff’s division spokesman. I don’t recall his name, but will try to find the link.
FYI:
Greta on FOX has been staying on top of all report’s regarding our boarder security.
Are you sure it was Pima County Sheriff or Pinal??? Pima County Sheriff is Clarence Dupnik, who is the same guy who blamed Sarah Palin for Giffords’ shooting. He is not a big advocate of following the law concerning illegal immigration and has spoken against Az laws.
I think you might be referring to Paul Babeu, Pinal County Sheriff, also lately named the Sheriff of the Year by National Sheriff’s Association. He is frequently on the news with this topic, and has spoken out loudly about the border security problem. For that, his life has been threatened.
And even though I haven’t followed everything on the news, I agree with you. The drug cartels know they have a lot of power right now, and they keep pushing. The rancher from Douglas who stopped some illegals from crossing his property was just fined $87,000 for “emotional distress”, even though he called authorities for help as soon as he saw they were unarmed.
It’s crazy in the border states right now.
Thanks michelel, that’s who I was referring too” oh’ My Bad,,,” I got my county’s wrong on this one! “Pinal” County is the one, Gees and anyways– it’s still so disturbing and it’s only a matter of time I’m afraid! “Thanks again”
BTW: sadly the illegals have brought much “decay” to the Southern state’s. California is dying a slow death because of the year’s of “illegal invasion”, which it is!
After reading some more articles, it does appear that the Georgia Board of Regents passed some tougher laws against illegals in state universities (after this fiasco). They will now require applicants to prove their citizenship both as a state resident (for in-state tuition) and as a US citizen. South Carolina already has a law prohibiting illegals from attending state schools. Good old South Carolina!
Geez, welcome to America girl. (Jessica – the girl in the story). I need a photo ID here to vote, register at a temp agency, even to see a doctor! How the heck did she get an education at a reduced rate, driver license, etc.??? And I was born here! What’s wrong with this picture?
She gets no sympathy from me. She’s just another illegal alien invader bleeding this country dry.
She’s a criminal and will always have a criminal mindset. Kick her ass out.
She had a good run, but now its time to say GoodBye!
She should be sent “home” immediately. Hopefully her credits transfer.
I also wonder if she has any siblings and where they are now. Not one thing has been said about her family….it’s like they’ve vanished into thin air. I bet they are being hidden and protected by Latino activist groups.
No tears for her whatsoever. She knew what she was doing and took advantage of it. Ship her back to Mexico immediately and make her pay for the tuition she stole from rightful American students.
I guess if she feels she is being unfairly treated, she can go back to Mexico.
I’m sick and tired of illegal immigrants complaining about how horrible this country is. If it’s so horrible – then why do they choose to be here. No one forced them. How about they go back to Mexica and complain there?
Amen to that!!!!
They can always go back home to Mexico and community organize there see how far that gets them with the Cartels.
Isn’t the underground backstory on Obama
that he may have attended college on US
foreign aid? Another way of scamming the
system.
I must say I was quite pleased to read the
comments and not one liberal, “oh, let her stay I feel so bad” one amongst them.
Congrats!
Reading about this case in the Marietta Daily Journal (the local paper for Cobb County) it appears she had a MEXICAN driver’s license and passport. So, she pretends that she wasn’t clear that she was illegal and doing anything wrong but she has a MEXICAN driver’s license? When exactly did she go back to Mexico to get it, and then got BACK into the U.S. afterward? Give me a break! Close the borders!!! And KSU didn’t know she was illegal when the only ID she could give was a MEXICAN driver’s license? The article in the MDJ said they have a Latin Sorority on the KSU campus. I think somebody (like the INS) should go check some ID over there.
“Although Colotl explained the situation to Kimsey and presented him with a Mexican driver’s license and an expired Mexican Passport, the officer still arrested her for failure to present a valid driver’s license and took her to Cobb County Jail where she was eventually released to Immigrations Customs Enforcement in Atlanta.”
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Traffic stop puts KSU student in jail as an illegal immigrant.
One minor quibble with the article – I don’t like the fact that people’s views are broken down into anti-illegal-immigration and pro-immigration. I happen to be both – immigration through proper channels is a good thing, and illegal immigration is illegal for a reason and we shouldn’t have to put up with it. Most of us are descended from immigrants – and most of our ancestors did it the right way.
She broke the law. Her parents are partially the ones at fault for bringing her here illegally as a child, which was unfair at the time, but at 21 she’s responsible for herself. Honestly, I think they’re doing the right thing, letting her finish the semester to graduate and then dealing with the case. That’s compassionate without being stupid or letting her get away with crimes – she’s given the opportunity to finish her education which is a few months away from being finished (and the costs of it are already pretty much paid for and can’t be recovered), but she’ll still have to face the consequences of choosing to break the law.
Wonder if that legal eagle team of hers is willing to pay back the citizens of Georgia the costs she has expended for 11 years of education +?
First thought, get yer creds then leave. Second thought, git out now! Go fix yer brokin country!
I do feel a little sorry for her. It is one thing to say when she hit 18 she should have told authorities she was illegal, but that means selling out her parents and family with no promise that she will still be able to stay… I honestly could not say that I would take that chance!
To just deport her after spending all that cash seems to me like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Would it not be better to add the amount of money she would have owed the state from the years she was illegal and offer her a deal where she meets the requirements for legal immigration (for her ONLY, no current family members) and tell here that she can stay as long as she allows her pay to be docked a certain amount every week to pay off her debt.
This deal cannot be anything stupid like “5 dollars a week… you’ll be paid off by the year 3000″, it has to be reasonable for both sides… otherwise you just lose the money that good people paid to cover her education
Look, I don’t have much sympathy for her, and have no problem with her being deported back to Mexico, but this statement is ignorant:
“Her parents brought her here illegally and did nothing to try to become legal. She’d be a US citizen now if they had applied for it when they first got here 10 years ago.”
There is no mechanism by which an illegal immigrant of any kind applies for and becomes a legal immigrant. If you are known to the INS by name to have entered the country illegally, you are actually banned from the country for a period of ten years. There are no exceptions, not even marriage.
Incidentally, that’s why the whole thing is so appalling to me. For those who try to do things legally, the rules are incredibly strict and difficult. The INS doesn’t play around. But if you’re willing to live your life in shadows, well, then it’s a lot easier all the way around. That’s the problem that needs to be solved. It should be nearly impossible to live her illegally, but maybe a bit easier to come legally.
Once again the left is trying to bring back Selma. Will they stop at nothing??
Its called ‘illegal’ for a reason.
She knowingly broke the law and probably is getting her lawyers paid for by the state as well. Only in America! I came to this country 20 years ago legally. I don’t like to see these illegals come here and squat. I paid a lot of money to become legal and have been a productive citizen and taxpayer. When I first came over here I had to sign a document that I would never cost the government money and prove I had a sponsor.
There are millions of illegal alien children here in similar situations and they want their DREAM Act amnesty. You can follow this crowd here, and see what they really think of Americans and this country:
http://dreamact.info/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=23
One of the best and brightest students I have ever worked with her in Arizona is currently working at a fast food restaurant rather than going to college because she is an illegal. Much like the girl in the news, she has been in the US for over 10 years, and has had ample time to take care of business. The fact that Mexico allows dual citizenship adds to the “no excuse” factors that many of us are already frustrated with; they don’t even have to give up citizenship in their home country!
As much as I would like to see my former student attend college, I have no sympathy for her, as she could have taken care of things a long time ago. Yes, her parents are also at fault, but ultimately, she should know by now what to do.
Finally, please remember that the laws just changed about 2 years ago regarding the citizenship requirement for college students. So, it’s not the colleges’ fault per se, as there were probably many students already enrolled when the law changed.
First of all the term is illegal alien, there are no illegal immigrants. Immigration is a lawful process, when you jump a border as a way of entry you are an illegal alien, please do not try and soften the import or cheapen the value of our citizenship. It makes no difference if your parents carry you across, you inherit the status of your parents at birth per natural law.
Here are a few tidbits of that are usually not considered in this equation. We like to think of our country as offering opportunity for all, a big welcoming nation. And while that very well may benefit the individual on a conceptual basis it is problematic. What right do we have to systematically drain the talent from other nations by offering an opportunity to other nation’s best and brightest, or most motivated workers? We are depriving those nations of the very agents of change they need to transform internally.
Next, the kindest thing we can do for the general populace of Mexico is mass deportations. The longer people have dwelled in the United States, such as the illegal alien above, the greater the effect of introducing agents of change into Mexico. The wealthy in Mexico give very, very little back to their country and the nation has no infrastructure to speak of socially or economically.
When we repatriate to México’s it citizens who have lived in the U.S. we introduce a powerful collection of agents of change, who have seen how the political process can be commanded to great effect for the common man.
I have pondered this for a long time, and morally and ethically I have decided we have no right to derive other nations of their greatest natural resources, and the greatest causative factors for change: their people.
I feel sorry for her and I feel anger towards her parents. However, she is here illegally and she and her parents need to be deported.
Every illegal immigrant takes the place of what could be a legal immigrant from China, Africa or Indonesia. It really ticks me off that the illegals from Mexico get all of our compassion and money when there are people who live in truly desparate situations and want to come here legally.
I Wish her the best, we do need a reform for immigration.
Why is everyone only talking about her paying college tuition. How about all those years of free public education. Did the parents ever pay taxes. if they did, they certainly used fake papers. How many more Jessicas do we need? How many do not graduate from H S but graduate from drugs/crime . How long are we going to support this kind of behavior? of course lawyers will spin anyway they can- she was a child, has no family back. So deport her with her parents. Do not make her a heroine out of it; what message does that send to all people who come in illegally.
I am a legal immigrant and it took me a lot of hardword and time to finally get a GC, not cheating.
Congratulations to Jessica Colotl on finishing college under the most trying circumstances. My family imigrated to this country from Germany and I was the first college grad. I know that it can be tough without serious family help. My very best wishes to Jessica and her family.
Where are her parents – where they deported? They should have been?