[1] An immigrant from the Dominican Republic, he rose from poverty and homelessness to show promise, according to one faculty member, as "one of the best classicists to emerge in his generation.
[5] In 1994 Padilla, then living with his family in a shelter in Bushwick, Brooklyn, met photographer Jeff Cowen, who took an interest in the young boy.
[2] At Collegiate, Padilla learned Greek, Latin, and French, participated in debate tournaments, and was described by an administrator as "one of the most powerful intellects" to ever attend the school.
[2] Despite personal appeals from Senator Hillary Clinton (whose husband, Bill Clinton called President George W. Bush on the subject), Charles Schumer, Charlie Rangel, Jane Harman, Mark Dayton, and other members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate, the deans of the Harvard Law School and the Woodrow Wilson School, asking Michael Chertoff and Emilio Gonzalez to personally review Padilla's file, Citizenship and Immigration Services (the agency now responsible for issuing visas) declined to consider his application.
[9] Along with his academic and political supporters Padilla campaigned unsuccessfully in 2006 for passage of the DREAM Act, which would have allowed high school graduates who had been undocumented immigrants since childhood, to become legal residents if they agreed to attend college or served in the United States Armed Forces.
[8] Padilla's memoir, Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League, was published by Penguin Press on July 28, 2015.