Alfonso “Fonzie” Andrade spent nearly all of his life in Blount County, a rolling, rural patch north of Birmingham, Ala. He said he only learned he wasn’t a citizen in his teens. He built a family here and pursued dreams of being a football referee. He also made mistakes. They cost him everything.
You already know exactly what kind of story this will be: “Fonzie’s just a good kid! Sure, he’s broken the law multiple times, but who hasn’t? And they’re deporting him for this? Unbelievable.”
Fonzie was well known in Blountsville, the town of 1,757 where the Appalachians begin to peter out in central Alabama. His family brought him there when he was barely more than a toddler. It’s where he learned to walk and talk, with a Southern accent that reeks of northern Alabama. He learned to play football at J.B. Pennington High, to carouse like his teammates did, to yell at the TV during nailbiting Iron Bowls, to crave gas station pizza and to believe with all his heart in the American Way.
“I pledged allegiance to the American flag for 13 years of my life every morning in school,” he said, adding that he meant every word.
See? He’s a good guy!
Even in July, when he went to see his court referral officer for trouble he got into in 2021 and 2022, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up to meet him.
Wait. His “court referral officer”? “Trouble he got into”? You said he was an all-American boy.
Fonzie was arrested for possession of a small amount of pot in 2020. And again in 2021. He later ran about 10 yards from police before he came to his senses and stopped.
Uh….
He should have stayed away from that weed, for he had more to lose than many of his friends did. He should have found a way to come up with the fees – now more than $500 a year – to remain on DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program designed to protect children brought to America by their parents.
Uh….He was in DACA and then quit?
This reads just as expected, like stories of people who are impoverished and we’re supposed to feel badly about the way society has treated them while they make one terrible financial decision after another.
Here, Fonzie was literally in DACA—a program designed specifically to stop select illegal immigrants from being deported. In Alabama, membership would have provided him temporary protection from deportation, work authorization, and two-year renewable status. It’s not a path to citizenship (yet), but could be if Congress would pass the Dream Act (which I think they should). That Fonzie opted out of DACA was another in a line of stupid mistakes, and mistakes have consequences. Perhaps I’m cold-hearted, but I’m no longer moved by tales like these.