Vreemdelingenrecht.com - het weblog

 Last week, I boarded a plane for the first time since arriving in the US from Slovakia 15 years ago. Despite having all my papers in order, I couldn’t shake the anxiety of all those years I was unable to leave, and the fear of being deported I have imagined myself on an airplane a lot over the last 15 years – always against my will, flying back to Slovakia, never to come back. Last week, for the first time since 2000, I boarded a plane. For the first time in my life, I was flying alone. My green card was tucked away inside my European Union passport in the overhead bin. No one at the airport asked for either of those documents. Yet, for so much of my life those pieces of paper – or rather absence of one of them – defined who I was. Despite having all my papers in order for the last four years, I had to force myself to fly. The occasion was bittersweet: on one hand, it was a reminder of all those years that I had spent in the US, unable to leave. On the other,...

The New York State Youth Leadership Council gives undocumented youth a platform to raise their voices and humanize a debate that’s dominated by myths and stereotypes. Here, Berenice tells her story of struggling to excel as a young scholar. Seeking to move onto the next stage of her academic career, she’s realized that her credentials are flawless on paper–except for the papers she lacks. My name is Berenice and I am an undocumented graduate of Columbia University. I got my bachelor’s degree in May 2010. To be honest up until the end of April I was not looking forward to graduation. Rather than being excited I was afraid. For four years Columbia had provided me with a safe and protective environment. However, after graduation all of that protection would be gone. To make matters even worse, even though I had made it this far I would not be able to accept a lab technician position that had been offered to me by my mentor. This was the perfect job for a recent college graduate. Th...