Guanajuato, Gto., August 20, 2017.- In 2010, Maria Guadalupe Arelly Armenta González was deported from United States, country she lived in since she was 4 years old. For years she believed there weren't any options to continue her studies in Mexico, until the University of Guanajuato (UG) offered her the opportunity to enter as part of an agreement to support returning migrants.

In United States, she learned English through the program "Puentes", for children of migrant parents; fortunately, when she returned to Guanajuato she received support through a program with the same name, which she took as an advent signal.

Arelly Armenta González was born in Valle de Santiago, but at the age of 4, she crossed the border illegally with her mother. In United States she finished high school, worked and had started college, until she got pulled over for driving with excess of speed.

"That day I woke up really late for work. I was speeding and a police officer pulled me over and asked if I was legal and couldn't lie, that day I got arrested, they took me to jail", she remembers. To not tell her parents, she decided to maintain them at the edge of the process.

Her first airplane trip wasn't as she expected it to be, it was part of her "voluntary exit of the country". "We were tied in hands and feet, and it was when it hit me, the seriousness of the whole process", she tells. In Tijuana, an officer allowed her to keep her money, so she could pay a place to spend the night.

"I was 20 years old and I could see that the border is ugly and saw things that knocked me out of my pink world... I stayed in Tijuana for three months because I didn't have IFE", until she got two people to be her witnesses and so obtain the document which allowed her to prove her identity.

When she came to Guanajuato, she got a job thanks to her domain of English, she got married and had a daughter. However, Guadalupe Arelly felt she needed to conclude her studies, "but my high school degree (in USA) only typed Arelly Armenta, here they told me that my name had to be complete and getting the diploma with my full name was difficult."

To continue studying "doors appeared to be shutting, until one day, my coordinator of the program "Puentes" sent me an email where she proposed an alternative", she got offered bachelor's degrees options on what she would like to study and it was then she considered studying the degree in Teaching English, offered by the University of Guanajuato.

"I got a message from UG and they guided me through all the process, I told them all my story and said that I didn't have to worry for the language or the papers or anything and when they told me that, I started crying because I thought: this is my opportunity to study."

The support offered from the University derives from the Agreement of Flexibility for the Entry and Academic Trajectory in the University of Guanajuato, and from the Specific Agreement regarding the returning migrants, which recognize the conditions of vulnerability that the people face when they return to the state due to the new migratory policies in USA.

For that, the admission processes are expedited, as well as the validation and recognition of the studies made in American institutions. The institution offers legal and academic accompaniment, as well as support for scholarships and enter the job market.

"At UG I was told, we are here to help you and it was, they helped in everything during the process, they never left me alone". Currently, Guadalupe Arelly Armenta teaches in elementary and middle schools, as well as Business English courses. Because the classes are on Friday and Saturday, she can take it without schedule issues.

"My deportation was some time ago, but there wasn't a program like this, I am very happy to be the first beneficiary and that pleases because more people can finish their studies."