For Years, U.S. Has Renewed Amnesty for 312,000
Many Central Americans Who Got Temporary Legal Status in the 1990s Have Been Able to Keep It

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 10, 2007

Every 18 months, Jeremias Villalobos dutifully pays about $300 in fees, fills out several U.S. government forms and buys himself another year and a half of peace.

Since 1998, when the Riverdale truck driver applied for the "temporary" amnesty granted illegal immigrants from three Central American countries because of devastating earthquakes and hurricanes there, his right to remain here has almost expired -- and then been extended -- at least six times.

"I give thanks to God each time," said Villalobos, 40, a native of Honduras who gradually saved up enough money to buy a house and paint each room a favorite color while sending about $100 a month to the children he has not seen in a decade. "Only by staying here can I afford to send my daughter to school," he said. "If I were home, she might be working in the fields with me."

While Congress has struggled rancorously this month over what to do with the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, the Bush administration has kept renewing permission for 312,000 Central Americans -- including tens of thousands of people in the District, Maryland and Virginia -- to remain here under "temporary protected status."

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would extend the amnesty yet again, setting various deadlines this summer for qualified immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador to register. The original rationale for the protection -- the natural disasters of a decade ago -- has long since passed, but officials said conditions in the countries had not improved enough that the United States could end the amnesty.

Diplomats from the region said last week that although collapsed bridges have been rebuilt and flattened crops replanted, the economies of the countries are still suffering and the largely impoverished populations remain heavily reliant on money sent from relatives working in the United States.

The worst nightmare of Central America's governments would be to have that cash flow from the north -- amounting to about $10 billion a year -- cut off and replaced by a tide of returning, jobless families.

"Honduras was devastated by Hurricane Mitch, and even though so much time has passed, we are still feeling the effects," said Roberto Flores Bermudez, the Honduran ambassador to the United States. "We are doing well in terms of macroeconomic indicators, but 60 percent of the people live below the poverty level, and we do not have the social conditions that would permit 78,000 people to come back."

Many other pockets of Latin America, from Mexico to Brazil, are just as poor, but close economic and political partnerships with the United States give Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador extra clout in Washington. El Salvador contributed troops to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, and El Salvador and Honduras strongly endorsed a U.S.-backed Central American trade agreement.

"This is a win-win situation for both sides," said Ana Margarita Chavez, the Salvadoran consul general in Washington. "Of course our people send money home, but no one talks about their economic benefits to the U.S. They are doing the hard, heavy work others do not want. They have given themselves to the country that welcomed them."

One of the most divisive aspects of the congressional debate on immigration has been a proposal to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, most of whom are from Mexico and Central America. Although the plan would require immigrants to pay expensive fees and spend years earning legal status, opponents have tarred it as a form of amnesty for people who had broken the law by entering the country without permission.

Large numbers of Central Americans here have already benefited from a series of amnesties. Since the 1980s, when civil conflicts erupted in their homelands and the United States became involved in battling leftist movements there, more than half a million refugees in the United States illegally have been granted protection from deportation.

With prospects for sweeping immigration change now uncertain, immigrant advocates say families with temporary protected status should be allowed to become permanent U.S. residents because for years, they have put down roots and followed stringent rules, paid processing fees and undergone background checks.

"It doesn't make any sense," said Saul Solorzano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in Northwest Washington, where hundreds of immigrants, including Villalobos, have been filling out forms this month to re-register for temporary protected status.

"This is the right time to let them all adjust their status and close the chapter in a good way," he said.

Instead, Solorzano and other immigrant advocates are asking that all Central Americans with temporary legal status be given the same rights to permanent residency that a 1997 amnesty granted to thousands of Cubans and Nicaraguans, on grounds that they had fled leftist regimes.

At a recent rally on the Capitol lawn supporting immigration reform, several workmen from El Salvador and Honduras said that they were grateful to be living here under temporary protected status but that it was hard to be away from their families for so many years. Under the rules, no foreign travel is allowed unless there is an emergency.

Villalobos, who grew up farming corn and beans in Honduras, came to the United States illegally 11 years ago and has not seen his children since. He explained how he had carefully built a life here, staying out of trouble and working overtime at a variety of jobs to save money.

He said that his village was not affected by Hurricane Mitch but that a combination of poverty, crime and inflation has made life for his family there a dangerous daily struggle.

Villalobos said that an "honest person" can earn only about $4 a day in Honduras, where a pound of beans costs about $2. "There is nothing left over for the doctor or school clothes, and there are so many thieves you can't even wear a watch," he said.

"In this country, everything is tranquil and orderly, and there are so many opportunities. I miss my family, but they tell me: 'Please don't come home. We need you to stay in America.' "