Time running out for Missouri student fighting deportation

WASHINGTON -- When immigration reform legislation collapsed in the Senate earlier this year, 21-year-old Marie Gonzalez saw her hopes of living the American dream fade away, too.

Absent a dramatic turnaround in Congress, the Missouri college student turned immigration activist will be deported to Costa Rica next year to join her parents in a bittersweet reunion.

"Obviously it's been a terrible situation," Gonzalez said in a telephone interview from Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., where she's starting her junior year. "It's made me grow up a lot sooner than what I would have originally chosen."

Gonzalez, who was born in Alajuela, Costa Rica, hasn't been to the country since she was five. That's when she and her parents came to the United States on six-month visitor visas to search for a better life.

But Gonzalez's life has been in limbo since 2002, when an anonymous tip led to questions about her father's immigration status. The Gonzalez family had missed out on their chance to apply for permanent residence status through confusion about the legal paperwork required. Marvin Gonzalez was fired from his job, and he and his wife were deported to Costa Rica in 2005.

Marie Gonzalez, 21, a junior at Westminster College, posed at a section of the Berlin Wall Monday in Fulton, Mo. Gonzalez, a native of Costa Rica, is facing deportation in 2008 unless legislation that would allow her and thousands of other students complete their education is passed. (Tom Gannam ~ Associated Press)

Still, they wanted their daughter to stay and get her college education if she could. Maria Gonzalez got a break when the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency granted her a one-year deferment from deportation in 2005 and renewed it again last year.

Gonzalez became an activist, speaking at rallies around the country and traveling to Washington 11 times in support of legislation known as the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. The measure would allow an estimated 50,000 undocumented students who entered the country before age 16 the chance to become permanent residents if they attend college or enlist in the military.

But the DREAM Act failed to win approval last year and again this year as part of a broader immigration package that would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

In April, federal officials told Gonzalez her deferment would be renewed for a third and final time, giving her a firm deadline to leave by June 30, 2008.

"Over the past few years, I've met tons of students that are in similar situations," Gonzalez said. "We want to be here, we want a chance to live in this country, a chance to contribute, to give back to the community."

Marie Gonzalez

Last month, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he will offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill when Congress returns from its summer recess. He hopes to gain support for the measure because it would help meet the demand for new military recruits.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., helped Gonzalez win the deferment, but is not inclined to support the DREAM Act.

Spokeswoman Shana Marchio said Bond is sympathetic to the Gonzalez family, but "he does not support a unilateral change in the law to reward those who broke the law while others who respect our laws patiently wait in line."

Adrianne Marsh, spokeswoman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said McCaskill sympathizes with Gonzalez but is not ready to take a position on the DREAM Act without looking at the nuances of the proposal.