http://www.nbc17.com/news/5484005/detail.html

POSTED: 11:20 am EST December 7, 2005
UPDATED: 11:48 am EST December 7, 2005

DURHAM, N.C. -- Most children look forward to Christmas, but this holiday season is only a looming deadline for 12-year-old girl who made the dangerous and difficult journey from El Salvador to the Triangle to be with her father.

Ericka Cruz traveled alone from Central America to Durham more than three years ago after her mother abandoned her in El Salvador. The girl managed to find her father, who has lived in the U.S. for the past decade.

But Hector Cruz has legal status in this country, and his daughter doesn't. An immigration judge in Atlanta has ordered the girl to return to El Salvador by Dec. 27

Ericka's father said that decision doesn't make sense because she has a family and a home here in the Triangle

"I don't know where they want me to send her if there's nobody over there who will take care of her," Hector Cruz said. "Now, she's a teenager, and what could be waiting for her over there? Just the streets and drugs, and things like that, and gangs."

Raleigh lawyer Paul Suhr, who represents the Cruz family, said the mayor of the town Ericka is from in El Salvador agreed to testify to the dangerous conditions street children face there. But Suhr couldn't get him to the court proceedings in Atlanta on time, so the judge disregarded that evidence and issued the voluntary departure order, which helps the family avoid the costs associated with a forced deportation.

Suhr has filed an application for protective status for Ericka, which would allow her to remain in the U.S. with her father. But an immigration judge in Chicago hasn't ruled on the issue yet, leaving the family with a dwindling number of days to hope for a reprieve.

If Ericka does have to return to El Salvador, the court has suggested she be placed with a non-governmental agency there that looks after orphaned youths. Meanwhile, Suhr plans to continue working to get her legal status in the U.S.

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There are 10,000,000-20,000,000 illegal immigrants now here and hundreds-maybe thousands of OTM felons turned lose on the public because their home countries won't take them back. This judge won't let a 15-year-old stay here with her father who has legal status. There's something very wrong with this picture.