[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US/06/04/georgia.teen.heart/art.guatemalan.family.cnn.jpg caption="Juan's parents, Pascual and Maria, made their first plane trip to visit him from Guatemala. "]

Emma Lacey-Bordeaux
CNN Researcher

Congressman Phil Gingrey represents Georgia’s 11th district - a suburban and rural area which holds mostly conservative views. Two years ago, when I was a student at Georgia State, I interviewed Representative Gingrey for a radio program on the university’s radio station WRAS. The Congressman was once an OBGYN, and some 20 years earlier he had actually delivered a colleague of mine.

Since that time I had not followed the Congressman’s career; until this week, when I looked up from my computer – and there he was on CNN.

This is a politician who makes a big deal of his position against illegal immigration, calling undocumented immigrants a “tremendous strain on Georgia’s hospitals, school systems and social welfare programs…” He lays out 10 principles he will stick to when considering immigration legislation. Here is number ten:

‘Illegal aliens currently in the United States may be afforded a one-time opportunity to leave the country without being prosecuted. Those who do not take advantage of this opportunity will be removed and permanently barred from returning.’

Juan Gonzalez is an undocumented immigrant who is 18-years-old. He came to the United States from Guatemala last year and wound up in Rome, Georgia, part of Rep. Gingrey’s district working as a dishwasher. In November, Gonzalez discovered he had a chronically weak heart. His prognosis was dire. His parents back in Guatemala were desperate to see their son for perhaps the last time. But they were having a great deal of difficulty obtaining the paperwork necessary to come to the United States.

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