Dear President Obama,

I watch the news everyday, and I know that you are planning to do immigration reform hopefully this year.

I came to the U.S. when I was 3 years old from the Philippines. I arrived with my mom and my siblings, my little brother was born in California. Though we did not cross the border, we had some unfortunate events with our immigration lawyer who cheated us and ran away disregaurding our immigration case and probably his other clients as well. After that happened, my family had to sacrifice a lot, we were even seperated from each other for years. I lived in California all my life, managed to graduate high school with honors and lived an innocent life in the only place I know as home.

Last year, I was deported back to the Philippines. It was the worst experience I’ve ever encountered. Before I left, I didn’t know what to expect from a place I’ve never been to, didn’t know how to speak the language but all I knew was that I was frightened. When I arrived, I was in total culture shock. A land full of poverty, no hope, still no freedom, and no place I would ever call home. I moved into my grandmas poor, and very old house because all my relatives are already in the U.S. I cried the whole first month I lived here, knowing that coming back home to California was nearly impossible. Its been a year later, and I still feel the same.

I’m writing to you, hoping and wishing that you can find it in your heart to pass the Dream Act.  There are thousands of teenagers and young adults just like me who are innocent and at no fault to the mistakes their parents had made in order for us to have a better life in America. Those illegal who are still in the U.S. don’t deserve to be deported back to their birthplace, like me. I never realized how hard it is to get out of a third world country, especially having a 10 year ban on my shoulder, which I don’t deserve such punishment. The American Dream for citizen born Americans means having to achieve their greatest goals in life. For us, having a normal life to live at our home country with our family and friends and having the chance to be on a path to citizenship is our greatest dream! Most of us graduate at the top of our class but are defferred from the American Dream.

Please give us our first chance to get on the path legalize ourselves so we can come out of the shadows to help out by all means to our home country, the United States of America. And please don’t forget to include me, and the other innocent children who have already been deported, in the Dream Act.. We just want to come back home.
Thank You! And God Bless!

“You can’t separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom”–Malcom X

Sincerely,
Julie Anne Ferrer