She can't come home

Marisol Soto
Marisol Soto

Marisol Soto wants to come home.

She graduated from Pea Ridge High School in 2011, and, like many of her classmates, she was a good student, was involved in the art and choir programs and played volleyball.

The Petition

To President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson :

When Marisol Soto Caldera was just 7 years old, she came to the United States with her parents and sister. Her parents wanted to provide their children with a better life. In the United States, Marisol lived a very happy life, full of traditions, memories, and laughter with a very close family. She excelled in school. After she graduated high school she planned on starting college. She dreamed of attending University of Arkansas to become a Ultrasound Technician.

After graduation high school, Marisol faced a tough decision, it was near impossible to attend college in the United States because she could not afford it due to her legal status. She could not put her dreams on hold so she decided to go back to Mexico to continue her studies. Being back has been extremely dangerous as many people who have connections to the U.S. have been kidnapped. Marisol lives in fear and has to hide her identity. The threat of violence has taken a toll on Marisol’s mental health, she now has to take medication for anxiety and depression. Marisol longs to be with her family and to feel safe again.

For people like Marisol, she has lived in the U.S. for many years, there is no way to come back to the U.S. Marisol has heard of people just like her getting attacked in Mexico. Marisol is participating in this action because he/she has no other way of coming home. There should be a way for people like Marisol to return to the U.S., this is their home.

We are asking that you allow for Marisol to come home to the United States. This person has no other way of coming home, they’ve already tried everything else. We feel that, people who have lived in the U.S. for a long time, should be allowed to reunite with their families. A lot of these people were forced to leave the U.S., either because they were deported, had family deported, or were fleeing policies like SB1070. If your administration is an advocate to immigrants, then people like Marisol should be allowed to come home.

She dreamed of attending the University of Arkansas.

She wanted to go to college to become an ultrasound technician.

Unlike her classmates, she couldn't get a driver's license. Couldn't get a job. Couldn't get into college in America.

Why? Because she is not an American citizen.

Now, she sits in a detention center in San Diego, depressed and losing weight.

Raised an American

"I was raised with the American customs and consider myself an American," Marisol wrote. "My biggest wish since I can remember was to go to the U of A as soon as I graduated."

Marisol, 20, had been in America since she was 7 years old. The elder of two daughters of Martin Soto and Andrea Caldera Vazquez, Marisol was a happy young lady. Andrea, through an interpreter, said her family came to northwest Arkansas to be near her brother who had come to America legally several years before.

"She was a good girl," Marisol's mother said tearfully. "She was always happy and smiling."

Marisol was an A student at Pea Ridge.

"I remember Marisol as a sweet and intelligent young lady who was going to achieve great things with her life," said Crystal Marquez, one of Marisol's high school teachers.

"Marisol was a good student," said Rick Neal, who was principal of Pea Ridge High School when Marisol was in school. He is now the district superintendent. "Marisol was an outstanding student, leader, writer and speaker. She was active in all school events and activities."

Now, that's all changed.

Fateful decision

In September 2011, determined to go to college, Marisol took the route she saw as her best opportunity: She returned to Mexico to live with an aunt in the State of Mexico, about an hour outside of Mexico City.

In mid 2012, President Obama and the Department of Homeland Security announced their plan for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy that mandates young people in Marisol's situation would not be deported.

That action came a year late for Marisol.

The government began issuing the first two-year work permits under an executive order issued Aug. 15, 2012. As a result, thousands of young people began receiving things that had eluded them all these years --a Social Security number, a driver's license and the chance at finally having a job -- a legal job.

When home is not home

Instead of receiving opportunity as a full-fledged citizen of her birth country, she faced even more barriers.

She faced discrimination as an "American," she said.

Her American style of dressing, her accent, her behaviors and beliefs -- who she is -- caused bullying.

Marisol's mother explained that most people in Mexico, including her relatives, believe that all people in America are wealthy. They assume Marisol has money.

At college, Marisol said, she faced discrimination.

"I have been bullied and targeted due to my American accent and because I came from the USA," Marisol wrote. She said she was almost raped twice trying to get to school and at one point her life was threatened by a girl whose boyfriend was in a drug cartel, she said.

So, Marisol tried to leave home to return to what she considers her real home -- Pea Ridge.

Just like the driver's license and college -- she couldn't do that either.

Civil disobedience

Frustrated with the situation, Marisol joined Latinos En Accion (Latinos in Action) in a demonstration known as "Bring them Home-Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas." She and 150 other Latinos and Latinas willfully turned themselves in at a detainment facility in San Diego, Calif.

On March 9, Marisol wrote: "Right now I am in Tijuana, Mexico, with 150 other people who are going to cross the border in a pacific legal way March 10 and we will be getting detained at a California detention center tomorrow. After that they will see our cases and decide if we can go home." Home: For her meaning Pea Ridge.

According to Marisol's family, a judge will rule, depending on support from Marisol's congressmen -- be it a letter, phone call, email -- if she can return with a legal status.

"It's like a prison; she's with criminals," her younger sister, Mariana, said Monday, of the detention center.

"They let her make a phone call for a couple of minutes, but they charge her. They let her call us sometimes," Mariana said, explaining that the weight loss is from the crisis of depression she entered and the lack of quality food.

Pea Ridge can help

Concerned for Marisol's welfare and wanting their loved one home, Marisol's family is soliciting letters to motivate the judge to allow her to come home.

Marisol's case number is A#206 270 524; the National ICE number is 202-732-3000 or 202-732-3100. Marisol can receive mail at Otay Detention Center, 446 Alta Road, Suite 5400, San Diego, CA 92143. Letters must have the name and alien number.

General News on 03/26/2014