Mayte Lara's "Undocumented" Tweet Controversy

Submission 21,174

Overview

Mayte Lara's "Undocumented" Tweet Controversy refers to the online backlash surrounding a tweet posted by a high school student in Austin, Texas who celebrated her valedictorian honor and other academic accomplishments while identifying herself as an undocumented immigrant after the graduation in early June 2016.

Background

On June 3rd, 2016, Mayte Lara (@maytelara29^[1]), the valedictorian of the graduating class at Crockett High School in Austin, Texas, posted several photographs from her graduation ceremony, along with a celebratory note about her academic accomplishments and scholarships, which she ended by casually revealing that she is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. (shown below). Over the next several days, the tweet gained over 19,900 likes and 9,400 retweets before the account was deactivated.

Developments

Online Reaction

After Lara's tweet began circulating on Twitter, she began receiving insulting tweets calling for her deportation and referring to her as a criminal (shown below).

On June 5th, Twitter^[2] user @cuervo_jones^[2] posted a screenshot of a tip submission confirmation on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website along with the caption "@maytelara29 I did it legally, nobody should get a short cut" (shown below).

Meanwhile, other Twitter users posted tweets in support of Lara along with the hashtag #MayteLara^[3] (shown below).

On June 9th, Redditor istilldontknow_1 submitted a screenshot of a /pol/ thread mocking Layte to the /r/4chan^[4] subreddit, where it gained over 1,100 votes (95% upvoted) and 180 comments within 24 hours (shown below).

News Media Coverage

In the coming days, several news sites published articles about the online controversy, including BuzzFeed,^[4] NBC News,^[6] NY Daily News,^[7] UpRoxx^[8] and The Daily Dot.^[9]

Lara's Response

On June 9th, the Austin news site Statesman^[10] published an interview with Lara, in which she claimed she was documented under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which allows children of illegal immigrants to work and study in the United States. Additionally, she claimed the purpose of the tweet was "to show that no matter what barriers you have in front of you, you can still succeed."