Ellington

UW business graduate Alonso Chehade is stuck in a red-tape limbo.

The 22-year-old UW alumnus is just like you. Hardworking. Talented. Looking for a stable job. There’s just one detail that separates Chehade from everyone else: He immigrated to the United States from Peru without documentation when he was 14.

Now, Chehade faces deportation despite having lived in the United States for eight years.

He was originally set to be deported a week ago, but a 50-day extension negotiated by Sen. Maria Cantwell has provided Chehade extra time to campaign.

The former UW business student spent the last seven months putting his marketing skills to a test — worth far more points than any midterm or final. By creatively using his marketing knowledge to build a platform for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act), he has placed himself on the cusp of achieving his goal.

Considering the significance of Chehade’s situation, we should all hope he succeeds.

Some stand firmly opposed to people illegally immigrating to the United States. Understandable. Allowing people into the country sans documentation has the potential to cause countless security issues, reduce job opportunities, and drain government resources. Chehade is not causing any of those problems.

Throughout his eight-year run in the United States, not a single security issue cropped up that identified Chehade or his family as an illegal immigrant. He graduated with honors in high school and put himself through the arduous UW business program by running his own business. Today, his business finesse can be seen in motion with his movement to stay in the country.

If anything, Chehade has the potential to create jobs, not take them away.

Deporting a valuable member of our society simply so that our government can say they followed immigration policy is a thoroughly asinine concept.

Policies are in place so that situational rules can be established and regulated. While rules are structurally important to our country’s longevity, exceptions should be made in instances where rules are being followed for the sake of following rules.

Chehade’s situation is one such example.

When the primary argument — to disconnect a man from his family, the country he knows, and the city he is familiar with — is that he didn’t originate from the United States, it prompts the question, “Why does his origin matter?”

The answer is it shouldn’t.

Seattle is Chehade’s home. He has spent the most important academic years of his life in our renowned city and has built himself around the surroundings we mutually cherish.

He is as much a Northwesterner as any of us. We’re just too ethnocentric to admit it.

Other undocumented immigrants like Chehade undoubtedly attend our university. They sent in the same application as we did, they take the same classes as we do, and they all deserve a chance to pursue their dreams like we can.

Hopefully, Chehade’s actions will cause Congress to pass the DREAM Act and create a shining future for undocumented immigrants.

It would be a shame if Chehade wasn’t around in Seattle to see it happen.

Reach columnist Gavin Verhey at opinion@dailyuw.com.