PHOTO: Sen. Mark Warner Welcomes Undocumented Student as His Guest to State of the Union
Fairfax High grad must pay higher out-of-state tuition rates for college after entering country illegally at age 12.
College student Amber Pinto of Fairfax joined Sen. Mark Warner as his guest at Tuesday night's State of the Union address.
Provided by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner's office
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U.S. Sen. Mark Warner’s special invited guest for President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night was 19-year-old Ambar Pinto of Fairfax. Ambar and her family entered the country illegally when she was 12 years old, according to a news release from the Senator's office.
Since then, Pinto has graduated from Fairfax High School and now is enrolled at Northern Virginia Community College – where she pays higher out-of-state tuition rates because she is undocumented. Both Pinto – and Warner – are advocates for the Dream Act and for comprehensive immigration reform.
R. Miller
10:00 am on Thursday, February 14, 2013
There is a legal process for immigrants to come to, and enter our country. My wife and baby followed that process. We paid the fees, did the paper work, waited our turn at the back of the line, and now after all that we are a family. Letting illegal aliens ignore our laws, stay here, and demand our resources as if they were a citizens is disrespectful to the process and a slap in the face to all of us who have done it the PROPER way.
Please Mr. Warner, don't drag that one percent illegal "baby" out and hold him or her up as being representative of all those who are here illegally, they aren't! And trying to sugar coat them using the term "undocumented workers" is objectionable government control attempting to manipulate the public at large into accepting something that is wrong. Senator Warner - what part of "ILLEGAL" don't you understand! Your job is to enforce our laws Mr. Warner, not assist in breaking them! We would have more jobs and less taxes if all illegal aliens were gone. and that's my "dream act".