Thread: Reunited boy faces threat of deportation NE

Reunited boy faces threat of deportation
by Cindy Gonzalez
World-Herald Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, July 6, 2010 12:28 PM CDT

Nearly a decade had passed since Zulma Arevalo last laid eyes on the baby boy she left behind in El Salvador.

She always knew that someday they would be reunited -- and that moment came last year, after Enrique, then 9, was caught crossing illegally into the United States to join her. Because of Enrique's age, authorities summoned Arevalo, who was in Omaha.

"It was so strange," the mom recalled. "I left my son as an infant, and I didn't recognize him. We just stood there staring at each other.

"Then we hugged."

Arevalo, who has temporary protected status in the United States, was able to take the boy, pending the federal government's final decision on his deportation.

Enrique, who turned 11 this past weekend, easily transitioned into a household of mixed U.S. citizenry. He has lived there since March 2009, the middle of five kids.

His family time here could end, however, after a Monday immigration hearing.

Despite Enrique's age, his mother's protected status does not automatically transfer to him. He would have had to have been in the United States in 2001 to be eligible for the temporary protected status granted to otherwise deportable immigrants from El Salvador, which was devastated that year by earthquakes.

Arevalo and about 217,000 other Salvadorans are in the United States under that status, a sort of humanitarian gesture not meant to last forever. Beneficiaries such as Arevalo have no official route to permanent U.S. residency, and they cannot petition to bring loved ones in from outside the country. (The long-term hope for many is that Congress will change the law and allow them to apply for permanent residency.)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Ross Feinstein declined to comment on the case, other than to say that youths are not immune from the law. "All non-U.S. citizens are subject to the same federal immigration laws, regardless of their age."

David Weber, a Creighton University assistant law professor who specializes in immigration, said it might be easier, in the eyes of the federal government, to return an undocumented youth before he gets too rooted in U.S. ways. The longer the child stays, the more he could lose the cultural identity of his homeland.

"The government might see this as an opportunity to correct the problem at an earlier stage rather than allow connections to progress with the passage of time," Weber said.

Amy Peck, Enrique's lawyer, said the federal prosecutor handling the case has discretion to stop Enrique's deportation proceedings. The prosecutor did not return a reporter's call, but Peck said the prosecutor has recommended sending Enrique back.

The prosecutor wrote in an Â*e-mail that Enrique could stay with the cousin who joined him in his border crossing attempt, but Peck said "he's not a parental figure."

Peck is urging federal authorities to let Enrique remain with his mother, at least until her temporary protected status expires. That status for such Salvadorans is scheduled to expire in September, although Peck is confident that it will be extended, as it has been for nearly a decade.

An immigration judge also could grant Enrique a special pardon.

"Our immigration laws make no sense," Peck said. "The government allows a mother to stay but forces her to be without her children?"

Arevalo has been in the United States since March 2000.

Enrique was 7 months old then -- too young to take with her when she jumped the border, Arevalo said. But she had two other children to feed and was also pushed northward by a fear of the local gang members who had raped her.

In the United States, she met the man with whom she still lives and with whom she has since had two U.S.-born children. Arevalo's two older kids also live with them.

Theirs is a variation of the mixed-status family that recently became the subject of debate when a second-grader at a Maryland school told first lady Michelle Obama that her mom had no papers.

Obama, with the first lady of Mexico at her side, told the girl: "That's something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers."

The term "mixed-status" typically describes families in which at least one parent is in the country illegally but a child has automatic citizenship because he or she was born on U.S. soil.

Arevalo does have the option of returning to her homeland with Enrique and her four other children, including the two U.S.-born kids.

Weber described the dilemma:

Should a parent choose a life with better schools and wages even though someone must live illegally in the shadows? Or does the parent settle for a lower standard of living that allows the family to live lawfully and physically together?

Although family reunification through legal channels is one goal of the federal immigration system, that process often is lengthy. At the same time, Weber said, authorities and other public officials face intense public scrutiny over illegal immigration.

"Clearly this desire to deter or eliminate unauthorized immigrants is trumping family reunification," he said. "I'm not saying that is good or bad -- just the way it is. People seem to be favoring enforcement over what I consider more humanitarian policies."

While Arevalo was raising the rest of her family in Omaha, her mother was caring for Enrique in El Salvador. No other family members were fit to raise him, Arevalo said. But the aging grandma has grown sicker with diabetes. At times she has lost track of Enrique's whereabouts.

He went to school irregularly. He usually found friends to play with outside.

"My mother can love him, but she cannot care for him," Arevalo said.

In early 2009, Enrique told Arevalo that he wanted to join her in Omaha. He was caught that March crossing into Texas with a teenage cousin and others.

The older cousin was returned to El Salvador. Federal agents placed Enrique in a juvenile detention facility along the border. He was released to Arevalo while she fought his deportation.

She doesn't want him to go back, fearing that he could be pulled into the street gangs that lured her younger brother. Her brother came to the United States but continued his gang lifestyle, and now is in a U.S. jail.

Arevalo has a very personal fear of gangs. She was raped by three masked men in 1999. Enrique, she said, was born as a result of that assault.

"My worry is that he'd need a family," Arevalo said, "and the first family that would take him would be the gangs looking for new youths."

In Omaha, Enrique attends public school. Math is his favorite subject. He plays soccer with his brothers and sisters. They read books, watch videos and tease Enrique as if they had never been apart.

Arevalo's longtime boyfriend has taken in Enrique as his own.

"I feel happy," Enrique said in the English language he is quickly picking up. "I'd rather stay."


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Deport, deport, deport time for the poor me baby me baby.........

Peck is urging federal authorities to let Enrique remain with his mother, at least until her temporary protected status expires. That status for such Salvadorans is scheduled to expire in September, although Peck is confident that it will be extended, as it has been for nearly a decade.

There is absolutely no reason as to why Salvadorans in this country are still receiving protected status! It's time to send them all packing back to El Salvador. Just another abuse of our immigration system. The powers that be have no intentions of ever sending these people back! They will continue to receive protected status indefinetly!

Arevalo has been in the United States since March 2000.

Enrique was 7 months old then -- too young to take with her when she jumped the border, Arevalo said. But she had two other children to feed and was also pushed northward by a fear of the local gang members who had raped her.

In the United States, she met the man with whom she still lives and with whom she has since had two U.S.-born children. Arevalo's two older kids also live with them.

How many kids does this woman have! I cannot keep track!