News

Raised in the USA

A local young woman faces deportation

BY CHRISTOPHER KOTTERMAN

Emily Akinnagbe's morning is not unlike yours. At 5:45 a.m. on a typical day, she is already up and about. She has to get out the door by 6:45 so she can be at the pre-school where she works in time to feed the children breakfast.

"When I was 16, I wanted to move to New York, drive a Camaro, and have a dog," the 22 year-old says. "Now, basically, what I've been living since I got my work permit is my version of the American dream."

It seems as though she is a young woman who has found her niche here. But she is not a U.S. citizen. And she may not be living here much longer.

To pass Emily Akinnagbe on the street, or to hear her speak in her accent-free English offers no hint of her story.

Now, the story of her hope to stay in America may come to an abrupt end. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to deport her.

Emily's father brought her to the United States from Venezuela in 1988 when she was eight. They came in on visitor visas.

In 1998, after being confronted by the INS, her father returned to Venezuela, leaving Emily behind.

Emily has a "stepmother," herself an immigrant from El Salvador, but she is not Emily's legal guardian. In the eyes of the law, Emily was abandoned.

Emily also has two half-sisters who are citizens by birth. She has always acted as a parent to them, she says. Her stepmother had to earn enough to support the entire family because Emily could not work. She still lives at home and looks after them.

"It's all there for them," she says. "I just keep telling them—guys, don't let this pass you by.'"

Emily began attending Whittier Elementary in the third grade and went on to Takoma Park Middle School before graduating with honors from Montgomery Blair High School with a GPA of 3.69. Her academic performance earned her some scholarship money, which she used to attend Montgomery College. However, because she was left behind without visa status, Emily could neither work legally nor qualify for instate tuition at college, and the scholarship money was gone after one semester.

Emily had a legal Social Security Number, but her father lost the card and she had no identification to get a replacement. She said she was urged to use a fake card because the number was hers after all.

"I couldn't do it," she wrote in a letter to the immigration service. "I knew better. Anything that I didn't get the correct way could not be mine."

Instead, she took care of her sisters and braided hair for pocket money. She kept busy by volunteering at local elementary schools. For seven years, she volunteered at Takoma Park, New Hampshire Estates, and Oak View elementary schools. It was during this time that Emily figured out that she wanted to work with children, she said. But she got tired of sitting at home and not growing as a person.

"Ever since I got out of high school, doors have been closing," she says. "Even though I had the grades, I couldn't do it."

She decided to do something. A friend referred her to local immigration attorney Priscilla Labovitz. Labovitz helped Emily request legal documentation as an abandoned child.

When she filed the petition, Emily was granted a coveted work permit, which allowed her to get a job and a driver's license. She could do the things that everyone else takes for granted, like go to the dentist.

"I finally did get to go to the dentist, and he was like, —when was the last time you went to the dentist?'" she says. "I told him it was a long story."

Today, Emily gladly gets up and goes to work. When she talks about the kids, it is easy to see genuine care.

"It's a highly academic school. We have four year-olds learning how to write their names," she says. "They get frustrated. You have to know when to give them a break and let them play."

She is also proud of how motivated they are.

"They look for that check [mark] and a happy face," she says.

Her favorite time of the day is lunch, when she can sit and talk with the kids.

"The kids know I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so they always announce when they have it," she says.

Emily is continuing her studies in early childhood and elementary education. She has started back at Montgomery College, and is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa national honor society.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, denied her petition because she is too old. Labovitz has filed another motion on her behalf, which will be heard soon. If successful, it will allow her to stay in her current situation. If not, she will most likely be sent back to Venezuela, though she has no home there, and she would be barred from returning to the US for ten years.

"Everything that I worked so hard for would go to waste," she says. "I'd be starting over."

But she refuses to be bitter toward immigration officials.

"They're basically just doing their job," she says. "People like me that came in when we were children didn't have a choice. I had to do something."

Emily knows that if she hadn't filed a petition, the immigration service might never have found her.

"In a way, the system forces you to either lie and go along with it, or expose yourself," she says. "Either way, you get punished. But if you expose yourself and everything goes well, things will be great. So I chose that route."

Asked if she calls herself an American, she says she thinks of herself as one, but with one exception: "I can't call myself an American yet," she says. "Because I can't do everything that they can do. Not yet."