Farrales said that his deferral could not have happened without the help of his professors, his lawyer, and friends like Jeffrey R. Chaput ’01, whom he met on campus move-in day in 1997 as a first-year student at the College.
The two were roommates at Harvard for the first four years, residing in Grays West and then Leverett House, and Chaput helped rally support for Farrales’s cause.
While Farrales was detained, Chaput visited him at the detention center, where he slept on a bunk bed in barracks with approximately 70 other detainees. Farrales held an impromptu English class daily for detainees from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Somalia.
Chaput describes Farrales as his “brother” and “the nicest person the world has to offer,” and said that he mobilized friends from Leverett and Delta Upsilon—now known as the Oak Club—to organize a letter campaign among Harvard alumni, faculty, and staff to plead Farrales's case before the government. A Facebook page entitled “Save Mark Farrales” was also created to raise awareness and encourage support.
“Sitting on the other side of a glass and chicken wire partition, I spoke to Mark, and learned that he taught English to other detainees,” Chaput said. “He translates between the guards and the detainees. It’s amazing to me how positive he is about this, and it’s hard to capture how extraordinary of a person he is.”
Farrales is not the first Harvard College affiliate to face potential deportation—and be granted a deferral. Eric Balderas ’13 was propelled into the national spotlight last summer when he was detained in San Antonio, Texas after trying to board a plane with a consulate card and his Harvard identification.
Balderas said he could identify with Farrales’s situation. He avoided deportation to Mexico after being granted deferred action to stay in the United States temporarily.
“The Department of Homeland Security gave me deferred action to be able to finish my studies. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do that with [Farrales] either,” Balderas said. “I may be able to renew deferred action when it expires after I graduate, but I’m not entirely sure I will have that option. It isn’t guaranteed.”
But Balderas identified some differences between himself and Farrales, noting that “Mr. Farrales is at a different point in his academic career, and he is older than me. I think a big part of why I was able to stay is that I am younger and in school at Harvard.”
“It’s worrisome that there are students at Harvard now that will transition from the situation Eric is in, at the University with resources available, to being in Mark’s shoes,” said Jofre. “It is such an injustice to know people will face that.”
For now, Farrales faces a waiting period—and a measure of uncertainty.
“The next step legally is waiting. I have no control over whether I will get another deferral or not,” Farrales said. “If the BIA decides to reopen the case, then I may have the opportunity to have my own day in court, for the first time in my life.”
—Staff writer Nadia L. Farjood can be reached at nadiafarjood@college.harvard.edu.