Thread: NE-Salvadorean Boy Can Stay for a Year

Enrique can stay a year
The Salvadoran boy reunited with his mother in Omaha gets a reprieve, but the feds still press for deportation.
by Cindy Gonzalez
World-Herald News Service
Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 11:00 AM CDT
The federal government would not budge Monday in its effort to deport an 11-year-old boy who came illegally from El Salvador to be with his mother in Omaha.

However, Enrique Arevalo's attorney told an immigration judge during the brief hearing that he plans to seek other ways for the youth to stay, including filing a request for asylum. That essentially bought Enrique at least another year in the United States with his mother -- who has temporary legal status -- and his four siblings.

"It's better than having him go back today," said Brian Blackford of Peck Law Firm, "but not ideal."

Blackford appeared with Enrique and the boy's mother, Zulma Arevalo, at Omaha's immigration court. They were hoping that federal prosecutors would use their discretion to drop the deportation proceedings and allow Enrique to remain with his mother, who is in the United States under temporary protected status.

When that didn't happen, Blackford told the judge he would seek asylum. A hearing on that application was set for June 2011, at which time the judge is expected to decide on deportation.

Paul Stultz, deputy chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, referred questions about the government's position to regional spokesman Ross Feinstein. Feinstein declined to comment.

Blackford said he also will seek other avenues to keep Enrique with his U.S. family, including a special humanitarian parole.

Enrique was 9 years old when he was caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with a teenage cousin in March 2009. Because of his age, Enrique was released to his mother while she fought his deportation.

Federal prosecutors have declined to use their discretion to stop the deportation, saying that Enrique has options in his homeland. Those include staying with the cousin who accompanied him on the botched border crossing and returning to the grandmother who had raised Enrique since he was 7 months old.

Enrique's mother said she left her infant son in the care of the grandmother because he was too young to travel. Now the grandmother is aging and ill, Arevalo said, and unable to protect Enrique against dangerous influences such as street gangs.

Arevalo is in the United States legally under a temporary protected status provided to about 217,000 otherwise deportable Salvadorans who were living in the United States in early 2001 when earthquakes devastated their homeland. The legal status, which is a sort of humanitarian gesture not meant to last forever, does not automatically transfer to Enrique.

Last week the federal government extended the temporary protected status to Salvadorans through March 2012. Beneficiaries such as Arevalo cannot petition to bring loved ones in from outside the country.

http://www.lexch.com/articles/2010/07/1 ... 839952.txt

Related Story-Reunited boy faces threat of deportation

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-205031-.html

Last week the federal government extended the temporary protected status to Salvadorans through March 2012.

How can it be said that something lasting longer than 10 years is temporary?

My whole life is temporary in that context.