The first person to question Democratic candidates at the Heartland Presidential Forum on Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, is scheduled to be a 22-year-old undocumented immigrant from Santa Fe.

Mayté García, a volunteer and board member of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, an immigrants-rights organization, said she will ask the candidates what they plan to do about immigration reform in their first hundred days in office. She said she has a speech prepared but hasn't decided how to word the question.

"I want (the candidates) to know there is a broken immigration system for families such as mine," García said.

Although she can't vote in the election, she said, she tries to influence relatives who are legal residents of the U.S. García said she hasn't decided which presidential hopeful she is supporting but might do so when she sees the candidates in person.

"All the candidates have a certain flaw," García said, recalling the flap this fall over a proposal by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to offer limited driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. García helped change the law in New Mexico, where a Social Security number is not necessary to obtain a driver's license.

"One of reasons I'm going to the forum is I want to look straight in their eyes," she said, explaining that then, she will "kind of have a feeling for who's going to be true and pick up a challenge."

The forum is being sponsored by the Center for Community Change, a nonprofit organization that recruits and trains activists to agitate for social change, and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which also organizes people to work on social, economic and environmental justice issues. The event is expected to draw 5,000 people from 32 states. The focus is on immigration, health care and low-wage worker issues.

García, who is among 50 people from New Mexico attending the forum, said two dress rehearsals will take place. She said she was selected because of her "leadership role in the community."

Before posing her question, she said, she would share her story.

García crossed the border from Mexico, dressed as a boy, with her family when she was 6 years old. Her mother used a Social Security number and a birth certificate belonging to a male cousin of García's. She said they were seeking economic opportunity and a chance to reunite with family members who are legal permanent residents here. They have been trying to adjust their immigration status for 11 years.

García's mother cleans houses for a living, taking her payment in cash.

García is the only one in her family to go to college. In Santa Fe, she attended Alvord Elementary School and Alameda Middle School and graduated near the top of her class from Capital High School. She graduated from Santa Fe Community College this year with an associate's degrees in human services and Spanish, and now is attending the College of Santa Fe. García has paid for her education mostly by working as a waitress at a seafood restaurant.

She joined Somos at age 16 and last year led immigrants and supporters in chants of Si Se Puede at an immigration-reform rally in Cathedral Park.

Eventually, García said, she would like to get a master's degree in multicultural education, but unless the law changes, she won't be able to get a job.

The DREAM Act, a bipartisan congressional initiative that would have given immigrant children a chance to earn permanent-resident status in the U.S., died in the Senate this year. "There's so much need for bilingual teachers," García said.

She said she wants the candidates to show her "how they can make something happen where I could contribute back to this country."

The Heartland Presidential Forum will be televised live on C-SPAN at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Santa Fe.

Contact Anne Constable at aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.