Dallas County
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Wrestler can't take college scholarships due to immigration laws 
04:17 PM CDT on Monday, May 18, 2009
DALLAS -- Three years ago as a freshman at Molina High School Ofelia Valdez learned she was a natural at wrestling.
"The coach is like, 'just get on the mat,' so I'm like okay, I got on the mat, I started practicing, the next day they had a match and I wrestled and I won my first match with one day of practice," she recalls.
Three years and 51 medals later Valdez's future should be bright. Instead, it's uncertain.
Valdez and her family are from Mexico and moved here when she was 2.
"Our problem is that we were brought here illegally," says her brother, Adelfo Valdez, "so we broke the law just being here. We can't become residents or citizens, because we didn't get a permit to arrive here."
That means that while Valdez can go to any college she wants, she will have to pay for it. Without a social security number, she can't accept the scholarship offer she received from Oklahoma City College and she won't be able to take out school loans.
"The money," she says, "that's what's holding most of it back, because I can apply, but I can't do the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) funds and get more scholarships because of my social. I don't have one, so that's the problem."
Molina Athletic Director Charles DeVille has been in contact with a U.S. senator, trying to see whether there is anything that can be done to get Valdez into college.
"I'm afraid that the way it's going now we're going to have a girl that's one of the top wrestlers in the nation staying in Oak Cliff," DeVille said.
It's a problem her older brother encountered when he graduated from Molina three years ago.
"Her older brother, he was a really good athlete, played football for me here, he wrestled and he had several opportunities to go to school too but ran into the same thing," DeVille says.
"I was an American," Adelfo Valdez said, "that's all I considered myself ever since I was younger. There's nothing that changed until I hit a lot of walls when I graduated. Tried to go to school, tried to go to military, like I said, a lot of closed doors."
DeVille says this is not an isolated issue.
"How many other athletes do we have out here like that? How many athletes are there in the Dallas area? How many athletes are like that in South Texas?
And the immigrations laws are not just impacting athletes.
"Academically," DeVille says, "We had a young lady I think last year who had the grades to get into an Ivy League school and she didn't go. And I think the reason being, they wanted her, she went early in the year. I think the problem was getting her in school because of her status."
Valdez's wrestling coach, Kelly Walker, has been trying to figure out a way to get the Valdezes into college. He's even looked into adopting both Ofelia and Adelfo as his own kids.
"I'm looking at it like it's going to happen," Walker said. "I'm not considering any other options, so that's what I focus on every single day, is making sure her and her brother are where they need to be in the fall and competing. And we're going to have it happen. It's going to happen."
About a month ago, the DREAM Act was reintroduced in Congress. "DREAM" is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors. It would allow students like Valdez to go to college or enter the military. But until that happens, she can only wait, and hope.
"I was raised here," she said, "so I mean, United States that's all I know. I was raised here and this is where I want to be."
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