The chapter begins with a domestic dispute between a father and daughter concerning an important event. Marisela, a senior in high school, disagrees with her father, Fabian regarding him chaperoning at her senior prom. For reasons only a parent could understand, Marisela’s dad is concerned with some of her recent behaviors she has acquired during her senior year. Despite the parental issues, Marisela is a brilliant young lady; earning straight A’s in school and highly motivated to attend college. In addition, she is extremely popular amongst her circle of friends, often wearing the most makeup, possessing an excellent selection of clothing and hairstyles. More importantly, she equally balances schoolwork and her admirers. Impressively, she attends school full time and works full time, after school hours, to assist her family financially. Unfortunately, Marisela is in jeopardy of graduating high school without legal documentation inhibiting her ability to attend college (Thorpe 2009). Yadira, Marisela’s best friend, is also an illegal immigrant in her senior year undergoing similar tribulations. Yadira is the complete opposite of her counterpart Marisela. As she wears less make-up and refrains from accessorizing, nor is she as adventurous as Marisela. Much like Marisela, Yadira does exceptionally well in school, in fact, she scores among the 70th percentile in the nation on the Advance Placement exam. Similar to Marisela, her disposition aligns with her senior year closing rather quickly without legal status. The reality of her situation sheds first light when she is unable to rent a movie from the video store, as she did not possess a valid identification card. The contemporary events occurring within society, concerning immigration status, create a state of uncertainty for both young ladies and their families (Thorpe 2009). Congress in Denver, Colorado …show more content…
Resulting in illegal status individuals failing to come forward and identify themselves: as they are in fear of deportation. This becomes more prevalent when the two young ladies attempt to complete their FAFSA and other documents pertaining to their enrollment in college and cannot proceed further with the process, as the two lack proper social security numbers. The two have the same issues: no valid social security cards, no identification cards, no legal registration status, all very disheartening situations to embrace. Ethnically, Hispanics benefit from multiple educational scholarships to assist with college expenses; however, those resources, unfortunately, are unavailable to illegal immigrants. Barriers such as the above mentioned, disregard the fact the Marisela has worked since the age of thirteen using a false identity. She has experienced the monetary deduction, also referred to as taxes, from her gross earnings, and never got to fully utilize the benefits of being a taxpayer in the society (Thorpe