http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mp ... an/3392553


Immigrants want visit home
At rally, Central Americans say they must see their loved ones after hurricane
By EDWARD HEGSTROM
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

About 50 Central Americans held a vigil at a federal office Tuesday to demand permission to go see their homelands devastated by Hurricane Stan.

The Central Americans, many of whom were illegal immigrants allowed to stay legally through a program known as Temporary Protected Status, say they have gone years without seeing loved ones back home. Though the government allows the immigrants to stay in the U.S., they typically are not allowed to travel.

"This is an emergency," said Teodoro Aguiluz, who heads the Central American Resource Center, or CRECEN, which organized the protest. Aguiluz said he is particularly concerned because his organization has not had any response from Sharon Hudson, the local head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Aguiluz said he has sent letters by certified mail to Hudson but has not received a reply.

With television cameras following, Aguiluz and a group of protesters attempted to enter the CIS office to meet with Hudson. A guard blocked their entry, saying Hudson was not in the building.

Reached by cell phone later, Hudson said she was out of town on vacation. She said she was not aware of receiving letters from Aguiluz.

"I do want to be accessible to everyone," Hudson said, adding that she is working to arrange a meeting with a few CRECEN members and other Central American groups this week.

Some at the protest carried signs saying: "Permanent Residence For All." Aguiluz also raised a more specific complaint: Those who are here on Temporary Protected Status cannot leave the country.

But Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group opposed to illegal immigration, said it is "absurd on its face" that immigrants with Temporary Protected Status would demand to go home. It is designed to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the United States temporarily because they can't go home to their native countries devastated by war or natural disaster, Krikorian said. If people want to go home, they no longer need TPS, he said.

Hurricane Stan made landfall Oct. 4, killing at least 600 people in Guatemala and about 100 more in neighboring Mexico and El Salvador.