In the News

But when the officer returned and told him he was in the country illegally, Macedo de Alba started to worry.

“That’s when the panic set in,” he said.

He had come into the U.S. on a visa that had since expired, and now border patrol would take him into custody where he would spend more than two weeks in a detention center before being released.

Now, Macedo de Alba waits for a June 5 immigration hearing where the judge will decide if the court can set his case aside for the time being and allow him to remain in the U.S.

Macedo de Alba came to the U.S. from Guadalajara, Mexico, with his parents when he was 9 years old. Since then, he has established himself as a hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of student. At 16, he is multilingual, a student athlete at Mount Vernon High School, a member of the band and an honor student in the Running Start program at Skagit Valley College.

When he’s not studying, he volunteers at the local food bank or the Skagit County Boys & Girls Clubs. He also lends a hand with the Youth Migrant Project, a summer day care program for migrant workers.

But despite his accomplishments, Macedo de Alba came to the U.S. just 24 days too late to qualify for a program that would exempt him from deportation.

Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, immigrants who arrived as children and who have lived in the U.S. since June 15, 2007, are eligible — provided they meet several other criteria — for deferred action, which can be extended, and they may also be eligible for employment.

Macedo de Alba meets all the criteria except the arrival date: He crossed over on July 10, 2007.

In an effort to stop Macedo de Alba’s possible deportation, members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement asking that Macedo de Alba be allowed to stay in the U.S.

U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, along with U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, sent the two-page letter May 13, touting Macedo de Alba as an upstanding member of his community and pointing to the need to reform immigration laws.

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