An Arizona police detective resigned after learning that her family was not telling her the truth when they said she was born in the US. The truth was that she was born in Mexico and brought to the country as an infant. The 42 year old Carmen Figueroa only learned of her true status earlier this year.

If you think this is incredible, I’ve actually had several people come to me over the years with similar stories. One of the most memorable was a young man who came to the US with his parent on a tourist visa at two years old. He learned his status when he graduated dental school and needed to get a birth certificate to apply for a license. His parents confessed to him at that point and were it not for the fact that he had already married an American, he might have faced deportation. That case was the basis for a television script for an episode on a popular legal drama written by a friend.

These cases should remind people that not only are many DREAMers lacking in culpability for their status, some have gone much of their lives not ever realizing they lack status. It’s truly cruel to suggest that these folks be deported. In the case of Ms. Figueroa, she is NOT eligible for DACA or the DREAM Act because she is too old. That’s a problem with the law. If someone came as an infant to the US and has lived in the US for nearly 40 years, why would we sent her home.

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