CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, before I bring up my next
colleague, Congresswoman Barragan talked about the incredible DREAMers,
DACA recipients that are in her district, and I have many in my
district. I represent a very large city in Texas, the city of San
Antonio--I have the main San Antonio district--and you can imagine that
we have our fair share of DACA recipients in San Antonio. I want to read, really quickly, the story of just one of them. Her
name is Lisa. Lisa is a first-generation American who immigrated to the United
States from Canada in October 1996 at the age of 6. Lisa learned she
had, unknowingly, overstayed her visa on December 19, 2010, just a day
after the DREAM Act stalled in the Senate, when she received, in the
mail, a notice to appear in immigration court, which is the first step
in deportation proceedings. She went to elementary, middle, and high school in San Antonio. During that time, she was a Girl Scout, logged more than 700 hours of
community service during her high school years, and spearheaded a
fundraiser that raised $10,000 to help pay for the bone marrow
transplant of a young leukemia patient whom she had never met. In 2008, she graduated from a San Antonio high school with summa cum
laude honors, ranking in the top 6 percent of her class. She spent the
summer working as a congressional intern for the United States House of
Representatives, right here--for my predecessor, Charlie Gonzalez--
before heading to Northwestern University to study journalism and
political science. Lisa was sitting at her college graduation ceremony
on the day that President Obama announced the DACA program, June 15,
2012. Her work permit has enabled her to take out a mortgage, buy a car,
get a job, pay taxes, renew her driver's license, and repay six
figures--about $114,000--of student loans used to fund her Northwestern
University degree. Today, Lisa is a communications associate at a nonprofit. As a
reporter, Lisa's work has been published in The Washington Post,
Huffington Post, San Antonio Express-News, Boulder Daily Camera, The
Denver Post, and several other places. Her story is just one story of
the incredible folks who are part of the DACA program that are
contributing to the greatness of our Nation. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs.
Keywords matched
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