A high school valedictorian from Texas is being a harassed after posting a tweet that implied that she's actually an undocumented immigrant in the U.S. Her post has created a ruckus with people threatening that she should be deported. This forced her to shut down her social media profiles.
Mayte Lara Ibarra graduated as valedictorian at the Crockett High School in Austin, Texas this June and excitedly shared her accomplishments on Twitter. "Valedictorian, 4.5GPA, full tuition paid for at UT, 13 cords/metals, nice legs, oh and I'm undocumented," she wrote. She did not expect that it would receive such a strong reaction online.
Following her post, Mayte Lara Ibarra received over 20,000 likes and nearly 10,000 retweets before she deactivated her account, per NBC News. Not everyone actually liked what she shared as some criticized her for bragging when she should have been deported because of her status.
Let's show our support for #MayteLara for coming out about her immigration status! #ImmigrantHeritageMonth pic.twitter.com/C22Ifh2HHo
— Define American (@DefineAmerican) June 9, 2016
Mayte Lara Ibarra comes from Mexico and displayed the Mexican flag on her post. Speaking exclusively with Austin American-Statesman, the high school valedictorian said that she posted on Twitter because she wanted to show how anyone "can accomplish anything, regardless of the obstacles you have in front of you," Teenagers commonly do this on the social site, but since she received harassment, she decided to deactivate her account.
Mayte Lara Ibarra insists that while she's proud of her heritage, she is grateful for the opportunities she was able to get now that she's living in the United States. She also said that she pays her taxes to the U.S. government and she has a social security and a DACA, which gives her the right to study in the country while working on her citizenship.
Unknown to those who harassed her on Twitter, Texas is actually one of the few states in the U.S. that allow undocumented immigrants to earn their high school and college degrees, per the National Immigration Law Center. In fact, there's also another undocumented high school valedictorian who graduated from a Texas school this year named Larissa Martinez, per Fusion.
While this experience has devastated Mayte Lara Ibarra, it's not hindering her from pursuing her plans. She is heading to college in the fall at the University of Texas-Austin and she's thinking long and hard about returning to Twitter.
