Today we share the story of an immigrant, one of the thousands of similar stories in the United States today. Pray that the broken Immigration System will be mended, soon and very soon. The Power of Community Herta Llusho came to the United States from Albania when she was 11. She and her mother settled in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Herta and her mother came to the United States legally. Shortly after arriving, Herta’s mother filed an application to stay in the United States. Herta quickly thrived in school. She graduated from Grosse Pointe South High School with a 4.05 grade point average. In high school, she was a member of the varsity track team, won an Advanced Placement Scholar Award, and was a member of the National Honor Society. Herta is currently a junior at the University of Detroit Mercy, where she is an honors student. Herta is studying to be an electrical engineer. She has a grade point average of 3.98 and has completed two internships at engineering companies. In addition, Herta is also very involved in her community, volunteering at homeless shelters, tutoring programs, and as well as her church, where she spends hours tutoring kids and volunteering with the junior high Sunday school class. It’s a joy to watch so many children run up to her at church because of the love they receive when they are with her. Despite Herta’s success in school, her community and her church, in 2009, after nine years of legal proceedings, the government placed Herta and her mother in deportation proceedings. Herta said: “I was shocked. My friends are here, my education is here, my community is here. All of a sudden, I was asked to leave behind everything I know and go back to a country I barely know. When I lived there, I was little, so I don’t remember it much and I barely speak Albanian anymore.” Herta’s community has risen to support and even defend her. Thousands of people signed an online petition to stop her deportation. Due to their perseverance, last year, the Department of Homeland Security granted Herta a one year stay of deportation. There are thousands of more students like Herta waiting for thousands of communities to come along side to support and defend. As Herta recently said, “I’m a typical story. There’s thousands of stories out there just like mine. Please support the DREAM Act so students like me don’t have to leave. We are worth it. This is the country we have come to love.”
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 15:45:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015