Summary: The beginning of this passage starts with the American state representative giving an

anti-illegal immigrant speech to people in Washington D.C. Russell Pearce sets forth a solution
called Proposition 200. This proposition would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving public
benefits from welfare to education. This proposition passed with 56% of the voters voting in
favor for it. Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix started to form anti-illegal posses with civilians to
hunt for illegal immigrants. Even President Bush placed 6000 National Guard members to the
border to patrol the area. After the robotics competition, Oscar chose to stay in America and be in
construction work and dreamed of going to college and joining the military. Cristian also had the
same problems because his familys AC broke so they put $3,000 of their savings into buying a
new unit, which was money that he hoped, would go to his college fund. Luis worked two jobs,
in the morning he filed papers for the Social Security office and at night he worked as a shortorder cook. After the story of these kids got published, they start to receive tons of media
attention and even Nightline decided to do a broadcast of their story. While some people
wondered if their results in the competition were a fluke, the Carl Hayden robotics team was able
to place top three in the three different national robotics competitions from 2005-2007. In 2007,
the MATE organizers placed their event in Canada which prevented the undocumented students
from attending, but Fredi and Allan decided to form their own underwater-robotics competition
instead. The success of the original 2004 team was able to inspire many other kids into joining
the team and they were even able to get a group of businessmen to set up college scholarships for
the members of the robotics team. That fund was able to send 23 kids to college. Eventually, this
program became a pathway to college and many people who were in this program were able to
attend college. Cristian decided to apply to Arizona State University, but finds himself extremely
bored with his classes. Halfway through his freshman year, an Arizona state senator proposes
Proposition 300 which will prevent colleges and universities from giving reduced in-state tuition
to undocumented students. This forced Cristian to drop out of college and work in a laboratory at
his house. Lorenzo used his scholarship money to attend Phoenix Colleges Culinary Studies
program and Luis decided to attend the Cordon Bleu College and together they decided to form a
catering company that specialized in Mexican-fusion dining. However, they both had to find
steadier jobs because their catering was very intermittent. Lorenzo ended up losing his house in
2009. Oscar ended up marrying a girl he met at college named Karla. When Proposition 300 was
passed and threatened to take away his ability to attend college, many people got together to help
fund Oscars college payments. After graduating from college and listening to Obamas
graduation speech Oscar decided that he would deport himself. He would be banned from the
United States for at least a decade and lived in poverty in Mexico. However, a senator was able
to get Oscar back by August 2010. Oscar immediately decided to join the US army and through
this is able to get his US citizenship. He gets sent to Afghanistan on November 29, 2011 and
even sees combat. The book ends with a short passage on how the kids are doing after their
robotics competition.
Reading Response: I was once again reminded about how much anti-illegal immigrant
sentiment still remains in the country. In California, at least where I live, most people tend to be

not as against undocumented people as the people in Arizona appear to be. I also felt like people
were going over the top with their anti-undocumented sentiments. There was no real need for the
sheriff to form civilian posses to hunt down these undocumented people, and the book even said
that many of those people were armed. There was no reason to arm civilians in order to hunt
down undocumented people living inside the US. I was also disappointed with the fact that
proposition 200 and 300 were both passed pretty easily. Even though I can understand why those
citizens of Arizona felt that their state benefits were being used unfairly by the undocumented
immigrants, I also felt like they should at least make sure that those people receive minimum
benefits. Being in an extreme state of poverty is usually what drives people to commit crimes
and this is what gives a bad name to all the illegal immigrants. I was also glad to hear that the
Carl Hayden school was able to send so many people to college through their robotics team and
that so many people decided to donate to these kids to help send them through college. It made
me feel some hope in the human race and their kindness. But I was also disappointed that
Cristian ended up being kicked out of college because he couldnt pay the necessary fees.
Cristian was the smartest kid in the robotics team and that team most likely would not have been
able to make it that far without him and yet he was the one stuck at home in a homemade
laboratory making random inventions. Lorenzo and Luis were also two people who I felt
deserved more than being low-pay cooks and minimum wage workers, I was also saddened to
hear that Lorenzo ended up losing his house and that him and his family eventually became
homeless. However, Oscars story was the saddest one to hear because he had to leave his wife
and child alone in a hostile state and ended up being deported for many years. He was eventually
able to come back but ended up going to the army shortly after. I personally felt surprised that
Oscar could feel such faith in his country even though it had turned its back on him many times.
Discussion Questions: Would you have applied to MIT or to ASU if you were in Cristians
position?
What do you think makes people feel such hatred toward undocumented immigrants?
Reading Process: While I was reading this portion of the book I was saddened and disappointed
to hear about what these kids had to go through and how hard the government was making it for
all undocumented people to survive and succeed. I wondered why many of the politicians
focused only on the bad parts of the illegal immigrants and continuously stated the lost state
money that was going into the care of these people. Many of these kids were smart and wanted to
succeed but could not due to the constraints that society was placing on them. However, I was
glad that not everyone held such strong anti-illegal immigrant views. Many people donated to
these kids in order to help them get through college and pay for their education. I was partly glad
when I heard that Lorenzo ended up going to a cooking school because he had a strong passion
for cooking but I was saddened when he ended up losing his house due to him being unable to
get the necessary money to keep his house. I had hoped that he would be able to bring up some
money to support his family but he was eventually unable to. I was also surprised that the
organizers of the event would move the even to Canada and I thought that maybe they didnt

want to have these Carl Hayden kids coming and continuously scoring so high. I had hoped to
hear about how many different awards they were able to win and I believe that they could have
won many more if the competition had not been moved to Canada. I was also surprised with how
dedicated Oscar seemed about serving the US in the army and enlisting. After he had been
kicked out and refused entry and basic benefits he still believed that America was a great place
and that he had to give back, and I felt like there was an irony with the fact that one of the most
patriotic people happened to be an undocumented immigrant at first.
Important Words: diploma- a certificate awarded by an educational establishment to show that
someone has successfully completed a course of study. This word is important because many
undocumented students, including Cristian, were unable to get a college diploma due to the fact
that the government worked against these people.
Visa- an endorsement on a passport indicating that the holder is allowed to enter, leave, or stay,
for a specified period of time in a country. This word is important because many of the people in
the story did not have a visa that allowed them to stay in America and even Oscar was unable to
attain one.
Scholarship- a grant or payment made to support a students education, awarded on the basis of
academic or other achievement. This word is important because scholarships are what allowed
the kids in the story to finish college. Many undocumented immigrants relied on these
scholarships to help them through college and to help them get a diploma.