US: Harvard case deepens immigration debate

The memory is a blurry snapshot in his mind, writes Maria Sacchetti for The Boston Globe. Eric Balderas was four years old, curled up under covers on a raft. He could see the sun poking through the sky, hear whispers above him, and feel the swell of the Rio Grande below. It was the day his family crossed the border illegally from Mexico into the US - a day that shadowed him all his life and until recently threatened to derail his extraordinary rise from the son of a factory worker, to school valedictorian in Texas, to Harvard.

Earlier this month Balderas was arrested in San Antonio while trying to board a plane to Boston after visiting his mother. Harvard officials, Illinois Senator Richard Durbin and thousands of supporters on Facebook and beyond swiftly rose to his defence. On 18 June federal immigration officials granted him a temporary reprieve from deportation.

His dramatic arrest, and the international attention that followed, thrust the shy 19-year-old biology major into the centre of a polarized national debate over illegal immigration.
Full report on The Boston Globe site