PT-LawMom

MSNBC is reporting that the College Republicans are apparently holding “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” events on campuses nationwide. This little hide-and-seek has one player dressing up as an illegal immigrant and the rest of the players hunting him or her down. Apparently several hundred students showed up for a recent NYU version of the game. I can’t believe this hasn’t gotten more press before now. It goes back to the old “ignorance breeds fear” adage. If these small-minded little twerps could actually meet people who have had to leave their families behind and struggle to make it here so they can send just a few dollars back to feed their children or escape female genital mutilation and other torture in their homelands, they might open their minds a bit.

In more positive news, I thought Angelina Jolie wrote a great op-ed on the struggle in Darfur for the Post today.

Yay! They cashed my check, the discussion board is working now and I’m all set to go to Admitted Students Day. I also found out there’s another part-time working Mommy of a toddler who will be in my class. Happy day!

I also realized that when I was looking at potential schools last year, I downloaded the orientation/class info for the 2006 part-time students. After reviewing that, I now have all the general info I need regarding schedule and books this year (the same professor teaches the intro class every year). I found the two CivPro books I need at Amazon. They cost $150 total new and I checked out for $34.95 including shipping. Yippee! Have I mentioned I love Amazon Marketplace?

I have noticed in reviewing my blog posts that I’ve never updated regarding Pumpkinhead’s new Montessori and Chapin’s scheduling issues. Here’s the scoop. Pumpkinhead is thriving in his new school. This morning my little three year-old said “Look, Mama, it’s past 30!” He was talking about the clock! He’s also writing his numbers and his language development is just amazing. He’s funny, though. Chapin was picking him up a few days in a row this week and Pumpkinhead kept saying, “I want Mama to pick me up!” Chapin was kind of hurt by that after the third night, but I keep reminding him that Pumpkinhead was a total Daddy’s boy from birth to age 2 (Daddy stayed home during the day while I worked). Anyway, last night I was finally able to pick up Pumpkinhead and he said, “I want Daddy to pick me up!” LOL! Fortunately I had Chapin on the phone and he heard it so now he doesn’t feel so bad. I’m glad because I’m sure Pumpkinhead’s going to give him a bit of a hard time when school starts. Hopefully we can have good morning time to make up for some of it.

As for Chapin’s new job, it is working out really well. He has been home almost every night in time for dinner, many nights earlier than me! He’s typically had one overnight a week. If his schedule continues this way, we will be fine for school with the occasional help of my parents. We should still try to find a backup sitter, but I’m definitely feeling better about Pumpkinhead’s care arrangements these days.

The Christian Science Monitor reports that a Hidalgo, Mexico man has opened a new amusement park offering a simulated nighttime illegal border crossing experience (”Caminata Nocturna” or “Night Hike”), complete with armed border patrol officers. The owner says that his idea is to generate funds for the local economy so that people will stay put rather than making the trip across the border to find work. Apparently more than 3,000 Mexicans have visited in the almost three years since the park opened, most of which seem to be doing it for “fun” or to discourage their teenagers from attempting the real thing. For the $18 entrance fee, one imagines this park must be aimed at upper-class Mexicans and foreigners rather than the population who might actually be so desperate as to make the dangerous journey.

I’m not sure what I think of this. I suppose it is the owner’s honest intention to help his local townspeople find jobs and boost the economy, but it seems like it almost makes fun of the people who are in such dire circumstances that they choose to enter the U.S. this way. I bet those people are not “amused”.

Ha! You know the school of thought that if you’re waiting forever for your meal to arrive at a restaurant, just go to the restroom and it will be delivered in your absence? Well it appears that applies to blogging as well. Blog on a problem and it shall be fixed. Just checked T2’s web site and the info for admitted students day is up. Yay! Of course it’s during the day - bleech. Hopefully they will tell me it’s from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. or from noon - 4 so I won’t have to take a full day off work. As understanding as they are about law school, I’d like to save my vacation days for the more important law school times like, say, exams!

P.S. Of course I used the RSVP e-mail to casually drop in the uncashed seat deposit check. Hopefully they’ll confirm receipt so I can stop worrying about it.

The undergraduate institution I attended full-time at night while working full-time was a state school with a fairly bad reputation in the region, mostly due to the fact that its students were primarily low middle income and mostly minorities and eastern European/African/Asian immigrants. I was the minority in that environment, but I got a lot out of the experience. My classmates were mostly older, working students who really wanted to be there and worked very hard to obtain their degrees. My BA is in sociology and my focus was on immigrant and minority relations, so I really got a lot out of that environment. People expressed their true feelings about race and class issues because, with me as the sole exception, they were surrounded by their peers. I firmly believe that you can get as much out of your education as you’re willing to put into it so, despite the school’s reputation, I feel that I was well-educated.

That said, like most inner-city public universities, the school had its administrative flaws, especially with financial aid and the registrar’s office. Once I reached my final year or so, it was easier because my department was small and the head of the department would help me with the scheduling issues. I get the feeling I won’t necessarily find the same help at the much-larger yet similarly “public” T2 law school…

I sent in my admissions response and my check two weeks ago. Have they cashed that $200 yet? Of course not! Do I want to call and ensure that they have received it? Nope. I feel like I’ve already contacted them enough during my T2/T4 decision process and I don’t want to get a bad reputation from the get-go since I know how valuable it can be to stay on the good side of the administrative officers. So I check my bank statement every day and watch the mail for more “welcome” documents.

Another source of frustration is the lack of any information about the summer term. School starts sometime in May and orientation will also be sometime in May, but apparently this decision has not been made yet. Argh. And, of course, the school is so large that they remove old data from their web site promptly so there is no Summer 2006 data to give me any hints. They are also having admitted student events in March and have put “hold the date!” notices on their web site, but with only 2 1/2 weeks until the first event there is still no information out there. This is very disconcerting to my ultra-prepared, need-to-kn0w-it-all, Type A self. A final source of frustration is the web board they have set up for admitted students. It is set up, you can log on, but there is not a single shred of information up there. What’s funny is that I’m not the only gunner logging on daily. The board lets you view top users and you can see the number of logons by user. There are about 10 of us listing 20+ logons. Makes me feel a bit relieved to know I’m not the only one craving info.

President Bush has proposed a six-year temporary worker visa for blue collar workers, an idea I fully support. There are so many undocumented workers out there who come here and work their tails off just to support their struggling families back at home (holding down two full-time jobs, living in a room with four other people to economize). Contrary to popular belief, most of them do have taxes and social security drawn out of their checks and they never see that money again. Many of them actually come with the plan to work hard here for a few years and then return home to a slower pace and a happier life. With this temporary visa, they could work long enough to save the money they need to provide years of assistance to their families back home and then return to live the rest of their lives in their country.

Ruben Navarette’s February 4 column addresses the myth that there is a class of Americans who are just waiting to take over the blue collar positions now filled by undocumented immigrants. An excerpt:

It’s the big lie of the immigration debate: Namely, that Americans would eagerly and gladly do the jobs being done by illegal immigrants if only wages were higher.
It started out as a rebuttal to President Bush’s insistence that illegal immigrants “do jobs that Americans won’t do.” Anti-illegal immigrant crusaders responded that these are actually “jobs that Americans won’t do . . .
for the wages offered.”
There are actually people out there who like to believe that there’s some magical hourly or daily wage that an employer could offer at which a slew of Americans would leave their desk jobs and line up for a chance to do some of the hardest, dirtiest and crummiest jobs our society has to offer. In many cases, there is no such wage.

Still, someone has to do these types of jobs. And when employers try to fill them with illegal immigrants, they get crossways with native-born workers who are suddenly eager to do the very jobs that they and their families have shunned for a generation.

….

One employer told me that, when she hired the native-born, she got a barrage of questions: “How much does this job pay? What are the benefits? How much vacation time do I get?” But when she hired immigrants, some of whom may have been illegal, she got only one question: “How much work can you give me?” Now, which one would you rather have working for you?

Travis Loller published a piece today on Central American/Mexican immigrants who have been swindled by notaries who charge enormous fees in exchange for promises of fast visas and other USCIS documents. It’s really sad, but true. A notario publico in Central America has extensive legal training and is authorized to represent people in these types of matters. Unfortunately it takes only a few dollars and a single form in most states to become a U.S. notary. I met several people when I was living in D.C. who had paid (or knew someone who had paid) $5k-10k for assistance with their documents only to end up in deportation hearings or with a denied application. And now with USCIS fees going up, you can just imagine how many people will turn to notaries with the often mistaken belief that immigration attorneys are more expensive. In fact, a relatively uncomplicated case can cost $1500 (plus USCIS fees) versus 3-4 times that much at the notary’s office.

Today I mailed in my $200 seat deposit to the law school. Classes start sometime in May, but apparently they like to be mysterious and won’t be posting any details until late February. That kind of ruins our chances of making any pre-school vacation plans right now. We are hoping to visit my in-laws for a week before classes start because any vacation time I have now will probably be sucked up by exams before year-end. They’re more likely to let me take unpaid leave for exams than for vacation. Anyway, that’s the update. Still stuck with $200 worth of textbooks from T4 and not sure whether to resell or hold them and see if I can use them three semesters from now when I am slated to take those classes at T2. Sigh…

My friend, Christa, started a shout-out meme today featuring me. My very talented freelance writer friend thanks me for help with outfitting her home office, but she’s really the generous one. She and her husband opened their home to me and Pumpkinhead a few years ago when we wanted to take a vacation but couldn’t afford a place to stay. She’s also been very generous with her author recommendations and with her thoughts about politics, religion and life. She is truly a kindred spirit.

Continuing the shout-outs, I wanted to feature my best friend, Ashante. She is the kindest, most generous person I know. Her mother raised her to help others, be faithful to God, and share her bounty. When we moved to Washington, D.C. in the middle of my junior year of high school, I had every intention of not making friends and just getting through. Ashante took my hand and made me meet her friends, eat lunch with her, etc. When I came back after a year out-of-state at university, she again pulled me back into her fold. I sat in awe of her strength during her mother’s battle with breast cancer, which she sadly lost in May 2003. Ashante rallied and has maintained her mother’s house, continued work on her mother’s causes, and lived as a testament to the woman her mother was. She is like a second daughter to my parents and a sister to me. She’s Pumpkinhead’s favorite Godmother and a true blessing to all of us. I would do anything for her.