Averting Deportation, Undocumented Student Realizes DREAM: Heavier than the books Mariano Cardoso had to carry to class at Capital Community College in Hartford, Conn., was the weight of the deportation order he lived with for nearly three years. Recently, the 23-year-old not only graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts, but he had the order of removal lifted thanks to a hard-fought, high-profile campaign.“I feel finally free because I had always had that on my mind — that at any time I could be deported. And [carrying] that idea around … really restricted me [from] focusing on whatever I wanted to do,” says the Mexican immigrant whose family brought him to the United States when he was 22 months old.
With the help of his community; Connecticut Gov. Daniel P. Malloy; U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and a lengthy petition, Cardoso had the deportation order halted. He says the process shouldn’t be this arduous for students like him — dubbed DREAMers — who would be eligible for the DREAM Act if it passed.
