Immigrant Beaverton School District employee to regain legal status ...

Mario Vilela Orozco, a Beaverton School District employee who was involved in a dispute about his visa, will regain legal status and a job within the school district.

Vilela Orozco, a Peru native, said he repeatedly reminded the school district to update his H-1B specialty occupation work visa, a promise officials made when they hired him in 2010. He taught at Whitford Middle School in the two-way language immersion program until late June when officials realized he had improper documentation.

It was then that Vilela Orozco, 40, realized his visa paperwork had never been completed and he was working illegally all along.

District officials recommended that the school board fire him, but during a board meeting on Sept. 24, the school board voted 6-1 to reject the recommendation.

After the meeting, Vilela Orozco said he had requested his personnel records, including emails evidencing his reminders to update the visa. But when officials responded to his request, he said, the emails weren't there.

Now, in an effort to make things right, the school district will sponsor a new H-1B visa and teaching job, he said.

"Obviously we looked at the situation," said Maureen Wheeler, communications officer for the school district. "Because it is a personnel action, we're not going to go into a whole lot of detail."

School district officials came up with a statement about the changes together with Vilela Orozco's lawyer, Herb Grey.

Grey said that following board meeting, Vilela Orozco was laid off based on his hire date, then subsequently recalled to a new position.

"The matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved," he said.

Vilela Orozco said he is overjoyed at the school district's decision. He said the dispute was more a battle for his human rights than a struggle to keep his job.

"This was not a fight about me staying in this country," he said. "I was only fighting for respect. This fight happened because I wanted them to know I was telling the truth."

Vilela Orozco came to the United States dreaming of a steady job and prospective American citizenship. He graduated from Portland State University with a master's degree in teaching and worked for the Estacada Web Academy in Clackamas before being hired in Beaverton. ?

All throughout his interview process with the school district, Vilela Orozco said, he explained his visa situation to officials. They promised to file his visa employer transfer application and pay the sponsorship fee.

Foreigners on H1-B work visas, which are valid for three years and renewable for another three, are only authorized to work for the employer who submitted the application.

The dispute surfaced in June, when the school district became aware of Vilela Orozco's illegal status, fired him then rehired and placed him on unpaid leave after a union attorney intervened.

He said they offered him $3,000 ? the original cost to update the visa ? for his promise to resign and not sue.

But Vilela Orozco declined that offer and persisted to the end of a fight for what he said was fundamentally right.

"I've always wanted my reputation to be good, not only to set an example for my family, but also for the children that I teach," he said. "I got messages from people telling me they admire me because I never gave up."

--Andrea Castillo

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/beaverton/index.ssf/2012/10/immigrant_beaverton_school_dis.html

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