Oscar Vazquez has been doing remarkable things most of his life.
As a high school student, he and three friends entered a national underwater robot competition and won, defeating college teams with far more resources and education, including the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology team.
Not only was the feat remarkable because the high school students tackled the competition with a budget of $800 compared to the $15,000 the corporate sponsors supplied to MIT, but the team was from an inner city school in Phoenix"and all four were undocumented residents from Mexico.
As bright as they were, none were eligible for federal loans due to their undocumented status. College attendance seem far out of reach.
Oscar, however, pursued his dream of a college education and worked his way through school on construction jobs. With an engineering degree, he was sure he’d find good work. That hasn’t been the case.
In the meantime, Vazquez married and started a family. He and his wife Karla discussed the options and how limited he was due to his lack of citizenship. He had entered the U.S. illegally as a 12-year-old when his mother brought him over the border.
“I didn’t want to come, but when you’re 12 years old, what can you do?” he explained.
After considerable discussion, the couple agreed that Oscar had to do “the right thing.”
Essentially, Oscar deported himself back to Mexico and applied for a green card.
His application was immediately denied, as Oscar had expected. He and his wife were prepared for the 10-year wait most illegals face, and Karla had already made plans to join Oscar in Mexico.
Fortunately for the Vazquez family, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill."a proponent of the Dream Act"had heard the story of the team of illegal students who defeated the odds in the robotics competition. He asked the Homeland Security office to take another look at Oscar’s application.
“I only had to spend 361 days in Mexico,” Oscar said.
He returned to the states in August of 2010 and, soon thereafter, visited the local recruiter. Although he had spent four years in Junior ROTC in high school, Oscar knew his illegal status prevented him from serving in the U.S. military"another dream he had wanted for a long time.
Now armed with his green card, Oscar enlisted and, thanks to the new expedited policy of citizenship"anyone with active duty service during a period of hostility is eligible for citizenship"he became an official U.S. citizen May 19 at Fort Knox.
“I’m grateful for a wife who was willing to go through that with me"Mexico isn’t a very nice place to be right now,” Spc. Vazquez said.
Oscar explained his decision.
“I felt I was putting limitations on what I could do for my family; I felt I was holding my wife and daughter back.,” he said. “When you’re doing the right thing, things begin to flow. It was hard, but when you’re doing the right thing, you just know it’s right.”
Oscar’s next step after his graduation from One Station Unit Training June 2 will be Fort Benning, Ga., where he’ll attend airborne school. He hasn’t decided yet if the Army will be a career for him; he and Karla will make that decision together as well.
“The Army was a good decision"no matter what,” he said. “But I also know I will continue to study; life-long learning is important.”
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