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Voices of the voters: Teen seeks immigration reform
Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, February 3, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A4
Ivet Avila, 13, holds up her sign, "LATEENAS 4 Hillary," at a rally Saturday for Hillary Rodham Clinton at Cal State L.A. She supports legislation that would give undocumented immigrant children access to college loans. Brian Baer / bbaer@sacbee.com
Amid the thunderous noise of Saturday's Hillary Rodham Clinton rally, Ivet Avila insisted she shouldn't be ignored just because she is 13 and can't vote for five more years. The eighth-grader, who attended with classmates from a social justice course at L.A.'s John Liechty Middle School, came to make change.
She waved a sign that read, "LATEENAS 4 Hillary," and said she was there for friends "who are getting good grades" but don't expect to be able to go to college because they are illegal immigrants.
Avila, the daughter of parents who immigrated illegally from Mexico and El Salvador, is a U.S. citizen because she was born in the United States. She wants to go to Harvard or UCLA and become a judge. She hopes some of her classmates get the same chance under "Dream Act" legislation that Clinton supports to allow illegal immigrant children conditional legal residency and access to student loans if they qualify for college.
"I have friends who feel they can't go any further, and so they drop out of school," Avila said. "And that's not right."
– Peter Hecht, Bee Capitol Bureau
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