DAILY LOBO new mexico
November 16, 2009
Deported student to finish degree by Tricia Remark Daily Lobo
A UNM graduate student is fighting to complete his master’s degree after he was deported in August. Immigration officials arrested student “Juan Santiago” on campus this summer, Santiago said. Santiago requested his name be changed to avoid repercussions as he tries to return to America. Enrique Lamadrid, chairman of Spanish and Portuguese, said Santiago is not the only student who left UNM because of deportation issues. He said Santiago and another graduate student would have been teaching assistants this fall. “We lost two graduate students in the Spanish department to deportation or threat of deportation,” Lamadrid said. “They were going to teach a total of 100 students. The ripple effects of this are bigger than might be first evident.” Santiago said he got an undergraduate degree in University Studies from UNM and was halfway through his graduate degree in Spanish. He wanted to become a teacher in the U.S. or Canada. After emigrating from Mexico when he was 16, Santiago said he bought a birth certificate so he could drive with a license. He planned to move with his wife and brother to Canada after finishing a Ph.D. at UNM, he said. He applied for a passport with the birth certificate he bought, and, shortly after, immigration officials showed up at UNM to arrest him. “They found out about the fraud, and that was the reason why the State Department went to UNM to deport me,” Santiago said. “They didn’t put me in prison because my record was clean, but they took me straight to immigration in El Paso and they took me to Juarez, where I currently live.”
Lamadrid said UNM is working with legislators to make an agreement with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement so officials don’t arrest students on campus. Albuquerque Public Schools have already adopted this policy. Students being scared to come to school because they might be deported contributes to drop out rates, Lamadrid said. “We recognize (ICE has) the right to enforce the laws of this country. We’re not contesting that,” he said. “They know where these people live in many cases, so why do they have to come to school? Deportation and fear of deportation are real concerns on the UNM campus.” Santiago said the moment he was arrested on campus was shocking. “I have no idea why they went to UNM — they didn’t tell me why. They were just waiting outside of Ortega Hall to arrest me,” Santiago said. Lamadrid said UNM should be a place where students can get an education without worrying about ICE arresting them. Patricia Lopategui, professor of Spanish and Portuguese, said ICE shouldn’t arrest students on campus because they are there to learn. “Students should be protected in a place that is devoted to knowledge and becoming better human beings,” she said. “They way they took him — like a criminal — and not letting him go back to his house to take care of his business there, I think that is awful. It speaks very badly about human rights in the U.S.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t define when or where officials can arrest undocumented immigrants, according to the ICE Web site. “Simply stated, DRO’s (Office of Detention and Removal) ultimate
see
Deported page 3
Close but not quite see page 13
monday The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Save the last dive
Joey Trisolini / Daily Lobo Senior Ashley Grisdale springs off the diving board while Bridget O’Hara rests after finishing her part of the girls 200-yard medley relay at Seidler Natatorium in Johnson Center. The Lobos lost their final home meet 158-142 to New Mexico State and 195-105 Wyoming.
Student with flu symptoms dies, another freshman hospitalized by Pat Lohmann Daily Lobo
Courtesy of Alena Kelsey Raymond Plotkin, left, makes a snowball with his roommate Esteban Martinez near the Redondo Village Apartments on Oct. 29. Plotkin was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms last week and died Wednesday.
Inside the
Daily Lobo volume 114
issue 59
Raymond Plotkin exhibited flu-like symptoms five days before checking into UNM Hospital, where he died Wednesday with what appears to be the H1N1 virus. Plotkin’s roommate, Esteban Martinez, said the freshman locked himself in his room and stayed away from classes to avoid spreading the illness before he was hospitalized. Martinez also said Plotkin had chronic health issues. “He’d had medical problems in the past,” Martinez said. “He seemed fine when he came here, and then it just hit him, and we weren’t expecting it to happen.” Martinez said Plotkin isolated himself in his room in the Redondo Village Apartments
Goodbye paradise
Basketball battles
See page 5
See back page
on Monday or Tuesday, staying away from classes and large groups, before going to UNM Hospital on Saturday morning. Student Health and Counseling Director Beverly Kloeppel said the University has done everything in its power to prevent an H1N1 outbreak. “Everything else that’s been possible for us to do, I think we’ve been doing,” Kloeppel said. Kloeppel said she was not aware of any underlying medical conditions that might have contributed to Plotkin’s death, and the Department of Health determines the relevance of any illness to cause of death. The Department of Health told the Albuquerque Journal that an 18-year-old man with
see H1N1 page 3
Today’s weather
51° / 25°