GILBOA, Ohio - A Pandora-Gilboa High School senior fighting with federal immigration authorities to remain in this country has gained critical support from two Ohio lawmakers.

U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio) introduced a private relief bill yesterday that would give permanent resident status to 18-year-old Manuel Bartsch, a German citizen who wants to stay in the United States to attend college after graduating from high school.

Mr. Bartsch was put in jail late last year when he met with immigration officials to apply for citizenship.

His stepgrandfather, Toby Deal, a U.S. citizen, never filed the paperwork to obtain legal status for his young stepgrandson when the pair came to the United States in 1997. Mr. Bartsch had been under the assumption that he was a legal resident.

"Senator DeWine feels strongly that Manuel's status is not his fault," said Breann Gonzalez, the senator's deputy press secretary. "He didn't know that his stepgrandfather hadn't taken the proper steps necessary to legalize his status. At this point, Manuel should be able to have the chance to go to college here and gain his legal residency."

U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor (R., Old Fort) introduced similar legislation in the House.

Mr. Bartsch said he was "very shocked" but pleased to hear that federal legislators were fighting on his behalf.

"I'm very appreciative of their doing it," he said. "You have very big figures in society taking time out of their day, and they don't have to do it, but they're doing it."

He is set to graduate in May from Pandora-Gilboa High and has been accepted into the business school at the University of Northwestern Ohio near Lima, which he called his top college choice.

But without legalization of his status and passage of the bill - now being considered by the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship - Mr. Bartsch has little chance of going to college in America.

Mr. DeWine sent a letter to Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), chairman of the subcommittee, requesting his support in an effort to ensure the bill's passage.

Born in Esselbach, Germany, Mr. Bartsch was raised by his grandparents. After his grandmother died in 1994, he came to the United States with his step-grandfather on a 90-day visa waiver.

When the teenager went to apply for citizenship so he could take the ACT college-entrance exam, immigration officials in Cleveland put him in jail on Dec. 21 and ordered him deported. They said at the time that he had overstayed his tourist visa and, by law, was not entitled to appear before an immigration judge.

The case then took a turn when David Leopold, a Cleveland immigration attorney who offered to represent Mr. Bartsch for free, was able to get a hearing for him in immigration court.

Mr. Leopold argued that his client could not have been in the visa waiver program because in 1998 he had gone to Canada and then returned without any problems at the border - a claim immigration officials later said they had credible information to support.

Mr. Bartsch was released from jail after two weeks but is still considered an illegal alien. The Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has deportation proceedings pending against him, and if he does not voluntarily leave the country by July 21, he will be barred from returning for 10 years.

Unless the bill is passed, Mr. Bartsch will go before an immigration judge in the coming months, Mr. Leopold said.

"This legislation, if it goes through and it's approved, will allow him to stay here permanently, go to college, and will allow him to live a normal life in the United States," he said. "It will certainly end this nightmare."

Contact Erika Ray at:

eray@theblade.com

or 419-724-6088.

First Published April 5, 2006, 4:01 p.m.