Undocumented immigrant attends State of the Union as Texas Rep. Marc Veasey’s guest
Julieta Garibay felt overwhelmed with emotion in the hours before Tuesday night’s State of the Union speech. As someone brought illegally into the U.S. as child, the longtime Texas resident said she hopes to put a human face on a hotly debated immigration issue.
<<<snip>>>
Garibay, who now lives in Washington, D.C., said she lived in Texas for 20 years after being brought from Mexico when she was 12. Garibay graduated from Dallas Community College and from the University of Texas-Austin with a masters degree in nursing. She said she worked as a waitress and babysitter during school.
However, she is unable to put her professional degrees to work. Nursing positions require her to provide her immigration status, which she cannot do. Instead, she works as an activist in the immigrant-rights group United We Dream.
Rep. Marc Veasey, a Fort Worth Democrat who invited Garibay to witness Obama’s annual speech at the Capitol, expressed similar hopes. Veasey said many immigrants just want to be with their families.
More at http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/02/undocumented-immigrant-attends-state-of-the-union-as-texas-rep-marc-veaseys-guest/ .
