Thread: Children of immigrants arrive through refugee program

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/201...zfN/story.html
Children of immigrants arrive through refugee program

DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF

Manuel Perez (center), a refugee from El Salvador, moved to the Boston area two months ago, joining his mother and two younger brothers.

She was 5 years old when her mother left their tin-roofed house in the mountains of El Salvador, promising to come back. She never did, and in school other students picked on the little girl whose mother disappeared. “Your mother isn’t here,” they taunted her. “Your mother doesn’t love you.”
On the telephone, Rosi begged her mother, who was now in Boston, to send for her, even if it meant smuggling her across the southern border illegally. But her mother refused to send her daughter on that risky trip. She told her daughter she would find a way to bring her to the United States legally.

Fifteen years later, she did.
The federal government has granted her daughter conditional approval to come to the United States, according to a copy of the letter, and if approved, she would be among the first refugees to come to Massachusetts through a controversial program for the children of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
“I still don’t believe it. I was almost crying,” said Rosi, who is now 21-years-old, being identified only by her nickname because she is still in El Salvador. In a low voice, she added, “We’re in danger here.”
President Obama launched the Central American refugee program in 2014 to discourage minor children fleeing violence in those countries from crossing the southern border illegally. Under the program, immigrants with lawful status in the US can apply to bring children to the US as refugees. In July, officials said they would expand the program to include the child’s other parent or guardian, if they were still in Central America, and children 21 and over.
The program marked the first time immigrants with temporary protected status — including thousands from El Salvador and Honduras — could apply to bring their children to the US.

So far about 10,000 people have applied for the program, according to the State Department, and as of early September 433 had arrived as refugees, putting them on a path to US citizenship. Another 516 have been admitted for humanitarian reasons, but will not have the same benefits.
In July, US officials said they will expand the refugee program to allow immigrants already in the United States to also send for adult children, or a parent or guardian who was caring for the immigrant’s child in Central America.
Critics say the refugee program is sidestepping Congress to reunify immigrant families in the United States. Many immigrants now applying to bring their children only have temporary residency in the US. Without the refugee program, they would not be eligible to bring their families to America.
But others say the program offers a safer route to the US for children fleeing violence in some of the world’s most crime-ridden countries.
“Families and kids can’t wait for another generation while policy makers figure out what to do in Central America,” said Jeffrey Thielman, president and CEO of the International Institute of New England, which is helping to resettle the refugees. “That’s lost time.”
Nobody knows that better than Manuel Perez.

DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF

Manuel Perez when he was 5.
His mother left for the United States in 2000 when he was 5 years old and he saw her only three times over the next 16 years. In Massachusetts she had two more sons, brothers he barely knew who speak English better than Spanish and are students in a struggling school system in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile in El Salvador, the money his mother dutifully sent home offered Perez the best education possible. He studied at a Catholic university that taught him English so well he is nearly fluent.
But the money could not shelter him from the violence in a nation with one of the world’s highest homicide rates. In February, his beloved grandfather, who raised him, was shot and killed — allegedly by gang members who had demanded $10,000 he did not have.
In May, Perez joined his family in Massachusetts for the first time. After so many years apart, he now shares a cramped room with his two brothers, age 14 and 12. A towering figure, he is suddenly the big brother they never had. He orders them to sweep floors, wash dishes, and take out the trash and makes sure they get home safely from school. And he watches over them while his mother works at a supermarket during the day and at a bakery overnight.
Half-grudgingly, the boys oblige their older brother.
“Now he’s the major alpha,” joked his younger brother, a high school freshman. “I resent that.”
Their main complaint: Perez snores, keeping them awake at night.
“I don’t snore,” Perez, now 21, shot back. “You should go to bed earlier.”
At bedtime, the boys catch up, retelling stories from their childhoods, though Perez often nods off reading investment books he bought at the discount store. He quickly found a job delivering sandwiches in Boston, but dreams of studying business in college.
“I always felt that I needed to be here,” he said, sitting on a couch in his living room. “I had this feeling that I don’t belong to El Salvador. I belong here.”
In another neighborhood, Rosi’s mother is anxious about reuniting with the daughter she left 16 years ago and has visited sporadically since. She asked not to be identified because her daughter is not yet safely in the US.
Angry that her mother left, Rosi sometimes ignored her calls. She dropped out of school. She had a baby of her own. Her mother’s dreams of seeing her daughter earn a university degree were lost.
In El Salvador, Rosi said gang members shadowed her on the way to school so often she just stopped going.
“I didn’t keep studying because I was afraid,” said Rosi. “I didn’t tell her everything so she wouldn’t worry.”
In Massachusetts, her mother worked day and night mopping floors and emptying wastebaskets. For a year, she rented a walk-in closet without air conditioning for $450 a month, because she could not afford anything better. As soon as she discovered she could apply for her daughter to come to America, she did.
Rosi says she understands why her mother left her behind all those years ago. “I forgive her,” she said. “I knew she made a sacrifice to help me.”
Once she is finally approved, Rosi will join her mother in Boston. And under the application, she is allowed to bring her infant daughter.
“I said wait for it. Wait for an opportunity. And now she has one,” her mother said, sitting in her living room in Boston. “She’s going to come here. She’s going to study. She’s going to work. She wants to give her daughter a better life.”
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at maria.sacchetti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @mariasacchetti
Get Politic

Confirmation that we are paying for the family reunification of the illegals.

The central americans do not qualify for refugee status but obama decreed it. Where are our politicians, out to lunch?

There are so many ways that the problem of gang violence could be solved in these countries. The US DOJ in fact offers anti gang training to foreign police departments. Another one of our Western Hemisphere initiatives. In developing countries the cost of living is cheap so I'm sure any family thinking of leaving could afford a shotgun instead. These people are just flat out liars and thieves.

Obama is in such a rush to jettison the diplomatic work of many previous administrations he should be tried as an international criminal.