When Taha Moula, a Bangladeshi college student who lives in New Jersey, received a letter from immigration authorities with deportation orders, it was as if he were struck by lightening. Moula came with his parents to the United States when he was two years old. He now wondered what would become of him in a country that was totally foreign to him, how would he continue his studies? He did not even know the Bengali alphabet. What if he couldn't adjust to the new life? This felt like a suicide.

In his 16 years of life in the United States and schooling from pre-K through 12th grade, Moula had many successes and obtained certificates for them. If he had to return to Bangladesh, would all those gains be useless to him? He emailed his friends and other contacts to let them know of the helplessness of his circumstances. He also pled his case with immigration authorities, and local and national politicians and policy makers. In the end, immigration authorities stopped the deportation orders.

Sergina Emy, 20, a resident of Orlando, Florida, is also a victim of similar circumstances. Sergina, who was born in Bangladesh, came to the United States with her parents in 1993, when she was only a four-year-old child. Her parents sought political asylum; however, after a protracted legal battle that ended just two years ago, the asylum petition was rejected. At that point, her parents applied for adjustment of their immigration status through a work sponsorship, which was approved. Both parents believed that the deportation orders against them issued by the immigration judge were withdrawn.

But in 2007, Sergina graduated high school and was admitted to college. But soon after she applied for a scholarship, immigration agents surrounded their house and arrested her along with her parents. Although Sergina's immigration status appeal was pending, on February 18 immigration authorities made the decision to deport Sergina; she left home for Bangladesh, a country that is totally unknown to her. She became a victim of immigration authorities due to actions taken by her parents many years before.

Before her deportation, Sergina explained to the local media that her parents sought political asylum for themselves and for her as well, but she was never brought before the court to present her case, nor was she allowed to speak before the judge.

According to Petia Vimitrava Noels, Emy's attorney, current U.S. immigration law does not pardon undocumented children from their parents' entering the country illegally

More than 60,000 students who graduated high school in June 2008 do not have a green card – more or less the annual average. These students have a reduced chance of getting admission into a college and their chances of getting a good job are slim. They have lived here since childhood and think of the United States as their own country. Of the young people ordered to be deported with their parents last year [UNIVISION reported in August 2008 that 90,000 Mexican children were deported the first six months of 2008], only 311 got their deportation order stayed, at the intervention of the senators and congressmen.

For several years, the Dream Act has been pending in Congress. If passed, this legislation would pave the way for undocumented immigrant students, who graduate high school and have been admitted to college [or commit to two years in the military], to a conditional path obtain a green card. Passage of this bill will go a long way to help these students overcome their hardships.