Afterword: Where does Brissa go from here?
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After A Home For Brissa concludes, readers have lots of questions about what's next for Brissa.
BY CINDY LANGE-KUBICK | Lincoln Journal Star
Time ran out on her first voice mail message, so she called again to finish what she had started.
The woman wanted to talk about "that girl from Mexico."
She wanted to tell me about all the people who came to America the right way, and too bad for the rest.
She wanted to tell me that if she had wanted a soap opera, she would have turned on her TV.
She was referring to "A Home for Brissa," a six-part serial the Journal Star published last week.
I wrote the words.
LJS photographer Jill Peitzmeier took the pictures. Editors helped get it into the paper.
The woman who likened the series to "The Guiding Light" represented one kind of reader.
Luckily, we heard from others, too.
"I hope there's a happy ending for Brissa," one phone message said.
Heartbreaking, another caller said.
"I understand the need (for immigration reform)," she told me, "but there has to be heart. There has to be compassion."
But the most-often asked question didn't take sides. Those folks just wanted to know one thing: How does it end?
None of us knew how Brissa Placek's story would end six months ago when we found out about the family's plight from a relative of Brissa's shy wrestler boyfriend.
We started reporting in December.
The plan? To follow the 18-year-old girl - brought her illegally from Mexico eight years ago and eventually adopted by a Wilber family - for as long as it took to see her through the immigration system.
We hoped that one family's journey might illuminate a larger truth: How difficult it is to gain legal status and how far love will travel to make things right.
Since we began following the Placeks more than six months ago, immigration reform has dominated the political landscape - and with it the public's feelings about the more than 11 million illegal immigrants believed to be living in the United States.
Nearly everyone agrees there is a problem.
We didn't set out to solve it.
We didn't set out to write a primer on the CIS - Citizenship & Immigration Services - once called the INS.
But we learned a lot along the way.
Like how an adoption can be legal, but the child can still be illegal. (Two different sets of laws. The adoption is legal under state law. Brissa is still here illegally under federal law. One doesn't change the other.)
We learned how arduous and expensive the path to legal residency can be.
Even more astonishing was how many years people wait in line for a chance to get a green card, granting a noncitizen permanent residency in the United States.
For certain classes of applicants, the wait stretches back to 1993. 1991. As far back as 1983.
The truth is, we have what a lot of people in the world want. Hope.
Brissa's birth mother abused her.
When her mother decided to come to the United States, Brissa's older sister told her her mother wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore - because we had laws against child abuse.
Brissa and her little brother and mother traveled eight days to the Arizona border. Brissa doesn't like to talk about it. She is ashamed.
When she sees faces of people caught at the border on the news, she doesn't want to look.
She knows how desperate they are.
There are a lot of Brissas out there. One immigration group estimates there are 65,000 young people smuggled into this country illegally who have graduated from high school and have no pathway to citizenship.
Brissa was one of the lucky ones.
She had a family who could sponsor her and who were willing to sacrifice everything to keep her here.
For those who don't, there is still the DREAM Act. It made it out of the Senate as part of its immigration reform bill.
Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors would grant temporary residency status to high school graduates who enroll in college. After they earn a degree - or serve in the military for two years - they would be granted permanent residency.
They could one day become citizens.
Friday afternoon my phone rang at work.
It was the Placek farm in Wilber.
Brissa's Social Security card had arrived in the mail.
Brissa and her mother were leaving to get her learner's permit.
And then, before another day could pass, they were off to Lincoln to apply for financial aid and student loans so she could go to college this fall.
How did Brissa's story end?
It's just beginning.
Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.
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Bphonsavat wrote on March 26, 2008 11:13 pm: