Green Card Blues

By Robert C. Johnston

Sara should be starting college this fall. A polite 17-year-old who reads classics from Spanish literature in her free time, she's smart and ambitious. Last spring, she graduated from a Los Angeles high school with near-perfect grades. It wasn't easy: During her junior year, when her family of four lived in a garage and shared a single bed, Sara spent most nights studying outside under a light bulb. Friends called her crazy, but she reminded herself that this was the price of her ticket out of poverty—admission to a four-year college.

Sara, however, probably won't be going to college any time soon. When she was 7, her parents sneaked her across the border from Mexico. As an illegal alien, she can't qualify for federal financial aid or California's in- state tuition. And her family is poor. Her stepfather supplements his pension by making jewelry, while her mother, who doesn't speak English, cares for Sara's younger brother.

Sara is hoping for a miracle—perhaps one of the rare private scholarships that don't require U.S. residency. Lately, though, she has sounded defeated. "I feel so low," says Sara, whose name, as well as those of most other young people interviewed for this story, has been changed. Suddenly, her years of hard work seem for naught. "It's all falling apart. I feel like...