Fernando Briceno

Memoirs of an Illegal Alien Fernando Briceno

"MEMOIRS OF AN ILLEGAL ALIEN
AN AMERICAN ADVENTURE

Fernando is a table tennis player at the US Open in Miami in 1986. After the tournament he visits New York City and is captivated by its grandeur and goes back to Ecuador, dreaming of returning to the United States, which he does. This time he overstays his visa and becomes an illegal alien. He gets married and obtains a work permit, and later a DEA-sensitive clearance. His marriage ends up in a divorce before getting a green card. His dedication, passion, and work quality, despite that he is a high school dropout, catapult him to work directly for the DEA with great success in some of the most exciting drug-smuggling cases in the United States. Twenty-four years later Fernando is in need of a lung transplant, still an illegal alien, and hopes to get his green card, so he can stay in the country he loves. His father, an American citizen, filed a petition on his behalf in 2004, and the wait to legalize his status goes on.

"