Moorpark woman seeks alternate route after immigration struggles

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of occasional stories about a Ventura County couple going through the immigration process.

After spending more than $4,000 in the past 18 months to try to adjust her immigration status, Blanca Terre, 23, has not received a green card through her husband, a U.S. citizen.

Terre, who has lived in California since she illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at age 11, hit a wall in the immigration process in October when her application seeking reprieve for the time she spent in the country illegally was denied.

The State Department is still considering Terre’s request to become a legal permanent resident, but she needs an unlawful-presence waiver from Citizenship and Immigration Services. Without it, she could face a 10-year ban on immigrating to the U.S. if she went outside the country for her visa interview.

Left with the option to spend an additional $585 to reapply for the waiver and risk being denied again, Terre said she made an easy decision to go another route, at least for now.

“I feel so bad,” she said. “I wanted to cry because, man, that was so much money. ... Oh, well, things happen for a reason.”

Terre recently received work authorization and temporary protection from deportation after being approved through the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. For the first time, she is driving with a license and has a Social Security number.

The couple spent $780 more in federal application fees and help from a local immigration assistance nonprofit before securing deferred action for Terre.

She might lack a pathway to citizenship, but Terre said that no longer living in fear of separation from her husband of nearly two years was “a good feeling.”

“That was the worst year of my life,” she said. “It was affecting us, but now I feel relief and stress free.”

TEMPORARY RELIEF

Terre has been a taxpaying dental assistant since she graduated high school in Oxnard, but having legal work authorization has given her the confidence to start looking for a new job.

“I was kind of scared to look for another job,” said Terre, who hopes to become a dental hygienist.

Terre started working in March for a dental office in Simi Valley, closer to the Moorpark apartment where the couple have been living since May. Marc, 22, is studying to become a radiology technologist at Moorpark College.

“At this point in our lives right now, it’s just all going forward,” Marc Terre said. “It’s just filling in our path.”

The couple’s middle names were used in past stories to protect Terre’s identity until she was granted an immigration status that did not put her in jeopardy of deportation.

The young pair regret not securing a temporary status for Terre in the first place.

“Most of the people that we talked to — they told us the way we should have done it was through DACA first and then through marriage, and we did it the other way around,” Terre said.

Through the program, Terre has an immigration status based solely on her actions, not the fact she is married to a U.S. citizen.

“I still got it, and that has nothing to do with him. That has to do with me because I finished high school,” she said. “Because I have proof of all that, I still got something.”

But Terre said she will not settle for temporary relief from the childhood arrival program.

The program “is not a for sure thing. ... They might take it away,” she said. “I have to renew it every two years. What if the next two years they don’t give you a permit? Then what are you going to do?”

Terre said she still feels like she’s “just waiting” to become a legal permanent resident through her husband’s citizenship.

Because of evolving case law, she might be able to achieve that without an unlawful-presence waiver.

ADVANCE PAROLE

The pair recently met with immigration attorneys about their case at the Conejo Free Clinic in Thousand Oaks, which offers free immigration counseling the fourth Tuesday of each month.

“They’re as American as they come,” said Allan Mackins, a partner at Sherman Oaks-based immigration law firm Mackins & Mackins LLP, which serves Ventura County. “It continues to highlight the broken immigration system.”

Firm partners Allan and Mackenzie Mackins said Terre might be able to seek legal permanent residency without the unlawful-presence waiver.

Citizenship and Immigration Services may grant “advance parole” to qualified individuals with a pending application to adjust legal status to allow them to travel abroad and come back into the U.S., even if they do not have a green card.

Recipients of temporary protection through the childhood arrival program, regardless of whether they are seeking legal permanent residency, may apply for advance parole to travel outside the U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services will generally grant recipients advance parole for educational, employment and humanitarian reasons, including a family death or visit to a sick relative, spokeswoman Claire Nicholson said in an email.

The agency “will determine whether the purpose for international travel is justifiable,” Nicholson said. “All advance parole requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”

But the Department of Homeland Security may revoke advance parole at any time, including while the recipient of the travel document is outside the country.

“Advance parole has always been risky,” Mackenzie Mackins said.

People have left the U.S. with the temporary travel document but have had issues coming back, Mackins said. Being outside the country would then trigger a three- or 10-year ban on immigrating to the U.S. because of the time spent there illegally.

“People who are leaving on advance parole with permission from the government should not be subject to this bar,” Mackins said. “The government lets them leave, and then they get punished. It doesn’t seem fair.”

That was the reasoning of a 2012 Justice Department case in which the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled, “An alien who leaves the United States temporarily pursuant to a grant of advance parole does not thereby make a ‘departure’” and should be paroled back into the U.S.

Mackins said this “developing case law” has led to reports from Los Angeles-area attorneys who have helped get green cards for those who re-entered the U.S. after leaving on advance parole without the unlawful-presence waiver.

“That’s our job: to try to find a way to get people a legal status,” Allan Mackins said. “It’s a loophole in a broken, broken, broken system. It’s so messed up that they allow people to have this DACA status and go and visit their sick grandmothers, and now they have legal entry in the eyes of the law.”

If Terre can go on advance parole to Mexico for the first time since leaving as a child, she hopes to bring her husband so they can meet her nieces and nephews for the first time.

“My brothers are having babies — my sister, too,” she said. “I haven’t met none of them, just pictures. The family is growing up so much.”

Link to Ventura County Star article

Childhood immigration act stalls visa process for relatives of U.S. citizens

The majority of family portraits taken of Claudia Figueiredo and Greg Cooper during their 2½-year marriage are screenshots of the couple chatting on Skype and are in a Facebook photo album called “E.T. Phone Home.”

“Like the alien,” Figueiredo said. “I’m an alien. That’s what I’m called.”

Since January 2013, Figueiredo, 43, has been living in her hometown of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where she is waiting to get her green card to return to Ventura County to be with her husband and find work in the U.S., where she received master’s and doctoral degrees.

“I’m actually having a really, really hard time,” she said. “It’s such a unique, temporary mindset that I have. ... I’m really frustrated. My entire life has been about waiting. I’m just waiting.”

The process for immigrants to get a visa through their citizen spouse or immediate relative started stalling after the Department of Homeland Security implemented a program in June 2012 to allow certain people to apply to avoid deportation if they came to the U.S. illegally before age 16.

Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Sharon Rummery said the agency “anticipated a temporary increase in processing times” for some applications “due to new filings from requests for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the standard ebb and flow” of other immigration requests.

A citizen who files a petition for an immediate relative to immigrate to the United States faces a wait time of about eight months. A DHS representative said the agency hopes to reduce the processing time to five months by summer.

La Hermandad Mexicana, a California-based immigrants rights group, helped process about 100 petitions for immigration of an immediate relative from its Oxnard office in 2013, Executive Director Alicia Flores said. Approval took an average of eight months, she said.

Flores said applications for immigration of a family member, through the Form I-130, were typically approved within two or three months before the implementation of the childhood arrivals act, or DACA.

Citizenship and Immigration Services “mentioned that they’re going to try to process them faster, but that’s what happened after DACA,” Flores said. “The I-130 for immediate relatives — they’re the ones that were impacted.”

But Flores said she has noticed the processing time has dropped and that approval no longer takes “almost a year.”

“It’s improving,” she said. “Now that it’s going back to six months — they’re paying attention to the I-130s.”

Figueiredo’s immigration history began in 1997, when she came to the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship. Her petition to immigrate was approved at the end of January, within six months of its filing and slightly longer than the five-month waiting period the DHS representative considers “acceptable.”

Now that her case has moved beyond Citizenship and Immigration Services to the National Visa Center, which is overseen by the State Department, the couple hope she will soon be assigned an interview at a U.S. consulate in Brazil and be able to return to Ventura County with a green card in the summer — about 1½ years after she left.

FINANCIAL BURDEN

Figueiredo’s struggle to find a job during her temporary stay in Brazil has forced the couple to rely on Cooper’s salary as a full-time instructor at the Brooks Institute in Ventura.

Hiring an immigration lawyer and paying application fees on one salary forced the pair back into their childhood homes, where they live with their mothers.

Cooper, 45, who lives in Ojai where he grew up, said he would have started the immigration process for his wife sooner but could not afford an attorney for the first six months she was in Brazil.

“The cost of my mortgage and cost of providing for Claudia in Brazil caused me to sell my condo (in Ventura),” he said. “I couldn’t sustain my mortgage and support her at the same time.”

The couple have spent $3,600 on legal fees and application costs. They expect to pay $600 to $1,000 more before she can return to the U.S.

“It has been the most difficult, emotional situation I’ve ever been in,” Cooper said. “It’s just a tremendous sense of loss that I feel. Obviously, I miss her. Obviously, I want our family together, but to try to cope with dealing with a relationship where my wife is 6,000 miles away — it’s an emotional drain. What’s worse is: I know my wife is feeling this 10 times, and it’s hard for me to try to provide for her when I feel totally useless.”

COPING

Sitting on the living room couch on a recent weekday afternoon, Cooper answered a Skype call from his wife on his iPad.

“Hi, sweetie,” Cooper said as her face appeared on the screen. “Come say hi to mommy,” he said, motioning toward the couple’s dog, Biskit, who walked over to Cooper and slouched beside him, occasionally licking the screen.

They first have a normal chat — family updates, Cooper’s workday, Biskit’s playing a little too rough with other dogs. Then the conversation moves in a direction unfamiliar to most.

What is the most recent update with Figueiredo’s case? What forms and reports does she need to ship to the visa center? Where does she need to go to get her passport photo taken and medical exam completed?

“It’s a very invasive process,” she said. “I understand them being very picky. It has to be. I don’t think it should be easy to get around it.”

Although Immigration and Customs Services has acknowledged the childhood arrivals program has diverted resources away from processing other visa applications, the couple agree the program is “fantastic.”

“If there is a complaint, that is not the complaint,” Figueiredo said. “It’s also about family.”

Before Figueiredo and Cooper end their Skype call, they exchange a couple of short phrases in Portuguese, saying, “I love you,” and “little kisses.”

Cooper has visited his wife three times in the past year, and while they have enjoyed exploring Brazil together, Figueiredo said she was more than ready to be back where she considers home — in Ventura County with her husband.

“I feel very disempowered,” she said. “It was not my choice to come here. I had to. I couldn’t find any other way to stay.”

Link to Ventura County Star article

Economic forecast focuses on increased immigration

California Lutheran University's Center for Economic Research and Forecasting projected continued slow growth for Ventura County in 2014, but the focus of its presentation on improving the economy was not job creation or affordable housing but immigration reform.

"When you walk away, my biggest hope is that everybody in this room is a supporter of increased immigration," center Director Bill Watkins said Friday afternoon to a room of about 260 people at the Serra Center in Camarillo.

The annual economic forecast event started with a video featuring an immigrant family that left their home of Zacatecas, Mexico, and came to California — where the children grew up to become successful business owners.

"A lot of people think that immigrants are a drain on society ... that they're not paying their way," Watkins said. Immigrants come to the United States with "gumption" to start businesses at a faster rate than native-born Americans and are "willing to take chances that other people aren't," he added.

Watkins said an increase in legal immigrants is the solution to a faster economic recovery locally, statewide and nationally.

Ventura County's economy is expected to continue growing slowly, with jobs reaching the pre-recession high by mid-2018 and the unemployment rate dropping slowly to 6.7 percent by mid-2015, Watkins said.

George Mason University economics professor Bryan Caplan spoke for nearly 50 minutes about "cheaper and more humane" alternatives to current immigration restrictions and negating major arguments against an increasingly open immigration system.

(Read the report)

"Imagine that you come from outer space and you see there are some people that are not allowed to move to a country where they'd like to go to get a better job," he said. "At least on the surface, it seems like a bad thing to tell someone they can't move to get a better life for themselves. If all that someone wants to do is to drive over the border and get another job, it seems odd to say that person is a criminal."

Caplan said even if the standard arguments for immigration restrictions — including protecting the country from poverty, taxpayer contributions, and American culture and liberty — were valid, there are alternatives to overcome each perspective.

Rather than preventing more immigrants from entering the U.S., Caplan said the 1 billion people earning less than $1 per day would not mind if there were policies that enforced entry fees to immigrate to the country, imposed a surtax for immigrants, adjusted welfare eligibility, required immigrants to pass an English fluency test or cultural literary test and created voting restrictions.

But the fear is that American wages would be destroyed if the United States experienced a large influx of immigrants, Caplan said.

"When economists try to figure out what would happen if there were free migration, the result is not that there would be an increase in poverty — quite the opposite. Something like a doubling of world production would happen," he said. "This is the only policy change that economists found that could do this."

Caplan said an increase in production would allow everyone to benefit from extra competition, and most Americans would see gains because they are not directly competing with the immigrant labor force.

"This is not trickle-down economics; this is Niagara Falls economics," he said.

Domestic migration into and out of Ventura County has been negative for the past 10 years, Watkins said.

The Ventura County agriculture industry is dominated by a foreign-born, largely undocumented labor force that earns extremely low wages and is made up of mostly permanent local residents, Ventura County Farm Bureau CEO John Krist said.

The Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy estimates there are 14,000 farmworkers in Ventura County who are living in the country illegally.

But Krist said immigration reform is not going to change the fact that local farms are seeing a labor shortage because fewer workers are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since the Mexican agriculture industry is improving and it is more difficult to cross the border due to heightened security.

"If you make it easier to bring people over the border to work that don't want to come here in the first place because they've got good opportunities at home, that's not going to solve that fundamental problem," he said. "Having a workforce that's constantly afraid to be out in public — that's not helpful, that's not good. So legalizing the legal status for those who are already here would open up housing opportunities for them that they're denied now because they can't document their status. That would help make our workforce more reliable."

While nearly 4,300 new jobs were created in Ventura County over the last year, the county is down 16,000 jobs compared to December 2007, Watkins said.

The construction, retail, and leisure and hospitality sectors saw job growth in Ventura County over the past year, while higher-paying sectors including professional and business services either lagged or lost jobs, Watkins said.

But the county's aging population paired with a lack of affordable housing options and jobs for young people is continuing to promote a less vigorous local economy, Watkins said.

Median home prices are up 30 percent in Ventura County compared to one year ago, Watkins said, but he does not expect that growth rate to be sustainable.

Link to Ventura County Star article

Ventura County couple stalled in bid for immigration waiver

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of occasional stories about a Ventura County couple going through the immigration process.

Cross-armed with a face red from crying, Estela, 23, sat silently Wednesday as she listened to her husband and the leader of the Oxnard organization helping her apply for legal residency talk about what to do next.

After four months of waiting, Estela found out U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied her application requesting the federal government temporarily waive punishment for her having lived in the country since she illegally crossed the border at age 11.

While the U.S. State Department is still considering Estela's request to become a legal resident because her husband, Angel, is a citizen, she still needs an unlawful-presence waiver from Immigration Services.

Without it, Estela could face a 10-year ban on immigrating to the United States when she leaves the country to go to her native Mexico for her visa interview at a U.S. Consulate. The couple's middle names are being used to protect their identities.

WORK IN PROGRESS

The couple have been paying La Hermandad Mexicana, a California-based immigrants' rights nonprofit in Oxnard, since they started working to adjust Estela's legal status one year ago.

Alicia Flores, the nonprofit's executive director, said it has submitted nearly 60 similar waivers since the Department of Homeland Security released the form in March.

This is the only waiver application the nonprofit has seen denied, Flores said.

One of the nonprofit's employees even called Estela with "good news" when the notification letter from Immigration Services arrived, Angel said. The actual decision was far from what Estela initially was told.

"Your case has not been denied and you're not in jeopardy of deportation," Flores told Estela. "The only thing that was denied is the waiver. You need a waiver in order to get your green card. If not, you're never going to get it."

The couple spent three months preparing the waiver application. They gathered legal documents, medical records, federal income tax returns, Estela's employment information as a local medical office assistant and Angel's enrollment information at Moorpark College. The pair included wedding photographs, wrote personal statements, and asked friends and family members to write letters in support of their relationship.

Now they have to start over.

APPLICATION DENIED

The couple cannot appeal the Immigration Services decision to deny the waiver, but they can reapply — along with the $585 processing fee and another wait of up to four months from the time the second application is received.

The key to having the waiver approved is proving that Angel, 22, would face "extreme hardship" if Estela were not allowed to live with him in the United States and the couple relocated to Mexico.

But there is no clear definition of "extreme hardship" and the application reviewer is tasked with assessing each case on an individual basis.

"Mere loss of current employment, the inability to maintain one's present standard of living or to pursue a chosen profession, separation of a family member or cultural readjustment do not constitute extreme hardship," according to the decision from Immigration Services.

Angel and Estela's waiver application focused on Angel's health problems caused by the distress of his wife's unstable immigration status and a possible loss of educational or employment opportunities Angel would face if he had to abandon his enrollment in a Moorpark College program to become a radiologic technician.

Immigration Services did not find adequate evidence of "extreme hardship" from their case and highlighted the fact that Angel's proof of medical problems — anxiety and depression — was submitted in the form of a one-time assessment by a mental-health professional.

"The evidence of the record does not establish that the emotional effects of separation from (Estela) would be more serious that the type of hardship normally suffered when one is faced with the prospect of separation from one's spouse," the decision read.

Flores was concerned, however, that she did not receive a request for additional evidence before Immigration Services made the decision to completely deny the waiver. In every other case she has managed, the applicant was given time to submit more proof of "extreme hardship."

And Immigration Services spokeswoman Claire Nicholson said in an email that requests for additional evidence in all immigration cases are quite common.

Flores said the major difference between Estela and Angel's case and the others that have been approved is their lack of children. Also, the couple were previously saving money by living with Angel's mother in Port Hueneme but since have moved to their own apartment in Moorpark.

Now, Flores said, the new waiver would have "more proof than before" because there is evidence of the couple's monthly bills.

"It's just going to take more time," Flores told Estela. "They're just holding you back on making you wait a little bit longer."

But Estela's confidence is still shaken.

"If we do this and we still get denied," Estela said, "what's going to happen?"

Link to Ventura County Star article 

Local immigrant advocacy groups caravan to Bakersfield rally

Hundreds of people from across California — including Ventura County — descended Wednesday on Bakersfield by car and bus to rally for an immigration overhaul that includes a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the country without legal permission.

Organized by labor unions, immigrant rights group and faith communities, the rally was meant to pressure Republican House whip Kevin McCarthy, of Bakersfield, to support comprehensive reform.

Rep. McCarthy is seen as House Speaker John Boehner’s “right-hand person, so he definitely has a lot of clout,” said Maricela Morales, deputy executive director for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE.

Immigrant advocacy groups throughout California are targeting McCarthy because he is the most powerful congressional representative in the state and can help bring an immigration bill to the House floor for a vote, Morales said.

McCarthy, whose 23rd Congressional District is 35 percent Latino, does not support a path to citizenship. He did not attend the rally.

“We should not provide any amnesty that would benefit those who defy our laws and enter the United States illegally,” his website states.

In a statement released Wednesday, he said the House would consider a series of narrowly focused bills instead of a comprehensive measure.

“I have long said that our immigration system is broken, but ... the House will move in a step-by-step approach that first secures the border,” McCarthy said.

Another protest

A counterprotest of a few dozen people took place in front of McCarthy’s office. Organized by We the People California Crusader, the protest called for current immigration laws to be enforced and advocated against immigration reform.

The rally calling for immigration overhaul was staged as immigration advocates target House Republicans across the country, pushing them to pass legislation that could be merged with a Senate-passed bill when they return to Washington in September after a five-week summer recess.

The Senate bill, passed with bipartisan support in June, takes a comprehensive approach, with billions of dollars for border security, reforms to visa programs and workplace enforcement, plus a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants already living in the country illegally.

Still, it remains an uphill battle to push the GOP-led House to pass legislation that could be merged with the Senate bill, and a path to citizenship remains a major hurdle.

“There is still time,” Morales said. “Certainly, the longer the Congress holds back on this, the window of opportunity gets smaller, but it’s not closed yet, and we are going to fight until there is no opportunity.”

About 40 CAUSE volunteers drove to Bakersfield to join the protest, while the United Farm Workers in Oxnard rented a charter bus to take nearly 60 local residents to the rally.

More than 71,000 immigrants are living in Ventura County without legal permission and about 60 percent hold jobs, according to CAUSE.

Mary Gonzalez, an 18-year-old CAUSE volunteer, attended the demonstration with her parents and younger sisters. The family lives in Ventura.

Gonzalez is the only child in her family who was not born in the United States. Her 19-year-old brother and 7-year-old twin sisters are U.S. citizens, while she was born in Jalisco, Mexico.

Gonzalez’s mother was pregnant with her when California voters passed Proposition 187 in 1994. The “Save Our State” initiative prevented immigrants who were living in the country illegally from receiving medical care and public education, among other social services.

The law was found unconstitutional by a federal court and eventually repealed in 1999, but Gonzalez said her mother returned to Mexico while she was pregnant because she feared she would be deported when she gave birth.

“My mom and my dad were already here for a few years before I was born,” said Gonzalez, who was brought to the U.S. before her second birthday. “I grew up here. I learned everything here. ... If it wasn’t for that supposed law, then I would’ve been born here.”

Roadblocks

Gonzalez said immigration reform and the benefits of becoming a legal resident “would stop the blocks” she has experienced in her life, such as struggling to get a work permit and not being able to apply for financial aid to attend a four-year university.

While Gonzalez is legally allowed to stay in the country through the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy as she attends Ventura College and pursues a bachelor’s degree in psychology, her parents do not have the same protection.

“Especially since my sisters are so young, we don’t want our family to be separated,” said Gonzalez, who added that her father works for a Santa Barbara landscape supply store, while her mother stays at home with her sisters.

“Most immigrants are hardworking people,” she said. “They shouldn’t be punished just for being alive.”

Roman Pinal, a United Farm Workers organizer based in Oxnard, said an additional 15 charter buses were rented by the UFW throughout the state to have a presence of between 800 and 1,000 farmworkers at the Bakersfield event.

“The work that farmworkers do is vital,” Pinal said. “Not a day goes by where immigrants aren’t involved in the harvesting of every fruit and every vegetable imaginable. ... Our economy depends on them.”

Pinal said UFW has a daily, ongoing effort to see that comprehensive immigration reform is passed this year and is “very close to seeing some movement in the House.”

“We have a very unique and strong case to make that not only do farmworkers count on an earned legalization process, but our farms depend on the labor force that’s currently doing the hard work.”

“Farmworkers — with a lot of pride — wake up every day and do that hard work, and as consumers every day we’re out there and we go to the grocery stores and we see the fruits of that labor,” he said. “That’s going to continue; we’re just hoping it continues in a much more sustainable way, both for the workers and for the farms.”

Mercedes Chavez, who has been picking crops in Ventura County for the past decade, held her youngest daughter’s hand as she waited to board the bus to Bakersfield.

The 45-year-old said she fears deportation from her Oxnard home and being separated from her husband and six children, who range in age from 3 to 26 years.

Chavez has not left the United States since she entered the country illegally 10 years ago, but she said the restriction of not being able to leave and come back is even more painful now that her mother is sick and living alone near Puebla, Mexico.

“I can’t go to see her,” she said in Spanish. “If it’s fixed, the president could give permission to leave and enter so I can see my mom.”

Link to Ventura County Star article

McKeon supports immigration reform, but says Arab terrorists could pose as Hispanics to cross border

(Watch the Buck McKeon on immigration reform video)

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, said Wednesday that he supports immigration reform and legalizing those who are in the country without legal permission, but added that tighter border security is necessary to prevent Arab terrorists from entering the country disguised as Hispanic people.

"There are people ... that can't tell the difference between a Hispanic person and an Arab person," McKeon said at a public Simi Valley event Wednesday. "If you get an Arab that's trained, that's coming into this country to be ... a terrorist, they can mingle in and they can get in here and then they can do damage."

McKeon, who leads the House Armed Services Committee, is back in his 25th Congressional District for the House's August recess and met with veterans and residents at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Military Museum in Simi Valley on Wednesday.

In a question-and-answer session during the event, local members of Organizing for Action — a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting President Barack Obama's policies — asked McKeon about his immigration reform policies.

McKeon spokeswoman Alissa McCurley said in an email Friday that "the last thing Congressman McKeon meant to do was cause any offense," but was advocating for immigration-reform legislation that includes stronger border security and "a lawful, workable and fair status mechanism for those who are currently living in this country undocumented."

McCurley said: "An overwhelming majority of people who enter this country come to provide themselves and their families opportunities through hard work and a chance at the American dream, but unfortunately, there are many who will exploit any perceived weakness and will enter this country with criminal intentions."

Peter Rothenberg, San Fernando Valley Chapter lead for Organizing for Action, posted McKeon's response Thursday on YouTube, where it has been picked up by BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post and ABC News.

While Rothenberg said McKeon's comment on border security was a "red herring," he gave McKeon credit for acknowledging several problems with the current immigration system — including employment verification and retaining highly skilled immigrant workers.

"There's lots of areas of agreement," Rothenberg said. "It's not like he opposes everything with immigration." Rothenberg has led efforts to win support for immigration reform in McKeon's district, such as a rally Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum and phone banks targeting voters.

Link to Ventura County Star article

Ventura County groups cheer passage of immigration bill

Leaders of Ventura County labor unions, human rights groups and the farming industry were quick to praise the U.S. Senate’s passage of the comprehensive immigration reform bill that provides a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally. (Read the full story about the bill.)

But they also recognize that the work is far from over as the legislation enters the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where significant debate is expected over the immigration system overhaul.

“We knew that it was going to be an uphill battle,” said Maricela Morales, deputy executive director of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE).

“2013 is our small window of opportunity,” she said Thursday. “Next year — 2014 — at a national level, congressional representatives are gearing up for their re-elections, so those representatives that are in communities that are not supportive of immigration reform will feel a lot more pressure.”

While Morales stressed the importance of passing the immigration reform bill within the next six months, she said the bill has great limitations and efforts to protect the approximately 71,000 immigrants living in Ventura County without legal permission that would extend far beyond that deadline.

“We are glad that something is moving forward, but we just want to be open-eyed about what it really includes,” she said. “It provides some relief to protect millions of people from threat of deportation, which is very real and very scary and rips families apart, so that’s definitely a positive.”

There are countless local residents that have been keeping a close eye on the bill as it moves through Congress out of fear of being separated from their families.

For example, David Gonzalez, a recipient of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is allowed to remain in the country as he starts college in the fall even though he is not here legally. But his parents, who work at an Oxnard packing facility, do not have the same protection.

And Leticia Santibanez is the mother of two, who are U.S. citizens, but she cannot obtain legal residency through her husband — also a citizen — because she has more than one illegal entry into the country.

Even though immigrants in the country illegally would be able to apply for provisional legal status if the bill becomes law, Morales of CAUSE said the bill does not do enough with its “incredibly onerous so-called path to citizenship.”

“The bill itself is really about border enforcement — doubling the number of border patrol agents,” she said. “What it lays out in terms of a pathway to citizenship is very very narrow, very limited. Four to 5 million people at some point in the next 10 to 20 years would have some protection — that’s a step forward but it comes at a great cost.”

Other local groups said the current bill is a compromise for most interested parties, but said the proposed immigration overhaul is a step in the right direction to fix what many call a broken system.

United Farm Workers organized events throughout California Thursday and Friday to celebrate the passage of the bill and start preparing for the next round in the House, Regional Director Lauro Barajas said.

“Wow, that’s a good sign,” Barajas said after learning of the more than two-thirds support in the Senate. “We’ve been working like crazy for a lot of years.”

Local farmworkers plan to meet briefly at a Moorpark farm Friday to celebrate the legislation moving forward.

Rob Roy, president and general counsel of the Ventura County Agricultural Association in Camarillo and legal representative for many Ventura County growers, said he was very happy to see movement on the immigration bill that could help solve the farmworker labor shortage.

“There’s a 100-page component within the Senate immigration bill that deals specifically with the agricultural industry and, fortunately, throughout this senatorial process there hasn’t been any amendments that deal with the agricultural component,” Roy said. “We’re very gratified that that portion of the bill is intact.”

Roy said a separate immigrant guest worker program bill was introduced in the House, but it “doesn’t go as far as the Senate bill.”

“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Roy said. “It’s going to be a very polarizing debate for many reasons. We’re gearing up for that debate.”

Alicia Flores, executive director of Oxnard’s La Hermandad Mexicana, a California-based immigrant rights nonprofit, said she spent the last week touring Republican congressional representatives’ offices throughout Southern California and is optimistic the bill will pass.

“Everybody told us that they support immigration reform,” she said. “The only concern they have is the border and border security As long as the borders are secure, they’re willing to support immigration reform.”

Flores agreed that the bill needs to succeed by the end of the year and noted there are plans to “pressure Congress and let them know that we cannot continue waiting.”

“People don’t want to come illegally — they don’t want to risk their lives,” she said. “They just want to come and work and provide for their families.”

Link to Ventura County Star article

Ventura County couple worry about path to immigration

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of occasional stories about a Ventura County couple going through the immigration process.

"What's going to happen if she doesn't come back? Have you thought about that?"

The questions to Angel, a 21-year-old Moorpark Community College student, weigh heavily on his mind as they are asked by the woman preparing his wife's immigration file.

While most of his peers eagerly awaited spring break, Angel was planning to spend his week off school gathering legal documents, undergoing a psychological evaluation, preparing financial records and writing the most important paper of his life.

The essay would not result in a simple letter grade. His words would help determine whether his wife, who has been living in the country illegally since she crossed the border with her sisters at age 11, may stay in the U.S.

"When you find the right person, you do not let them out of your sights, and that was exactly what I did," Angel wrote about his 23-year-old wife, Estela. "We haven't been separated since we were married on August 11, 2012 — that was the happiest day of my life."

Angel completed the letter last month, along with compiling personal information and legal documents for an application requesting that the federal government temporarily waive punishment for the time Estela has spent illegally in the U.S. The couple's middle names are being used to protect Estela's identity.

The Department of Homeland Security's revised policy improves the pathway to legal residency for immigrants who live in the country illicitly and are spouses or children of U.S. citizens. If Estela is approved, she may stay with her husband until her scheduled visa interview in her native Mexico.

The old system would have required Estela to wait in Mexico until the DHS decided she should not be reprimanded for having lived in California illegally for more than half of her life — a process the agency said could take more than one year. Local immigration attorneys and advocates, however, say some families were separated for as long as three years.

While the couple have expressed gratitude for the new rule, they say the process to complete the application has been anything but easy.

ONGOING STRUGGLE

They started working on correcting Estela's legal status in October, and her petition to immigrate to the U.S. was approved in December. Anticipating the implementation of the new waiver rule in March, Estela and Angel stopped pursuing her case to avoid being separated.

The so-called provisional unlawful presence waiver became available three months ago, but Angel and Estela could not mail the application until earlier this month.

They had to juggle preparing the application with school and work. Angel is a full-time student, and Estela works six days a week. They worried about the paperwork and wanted to make sure it was as thorough as possible so it wouldn't be denied and progress as fast as possible.

But they experienced setbacks: canceled consulting appointments; a $600 psychological examination; and a wait on proof of payments from the U.S. State Department. They also had to file income tax receipts, write personal statements, compile photographs and enlist people they knew to write letters of support.

During that time, Angel was diagnosed with a major depression disorder and extreme anxiety, and Estela was admitted to the emergency room with stress-induced acid reflux and severe migraines.

Because the U.S. has a vested interest in Angel, a legal citizen, the key to permitting Estela's illegal presence rides mostly on his health.

Angel, who was born and raised in California, needs to show he would face "extreme hardship" if Estela is forbidden to live with him in his native country.

But extreme hardship is loosely defined and varies from case to case. It can include health problems and loss of educational or employment opportunities.

The mounting pressure and significance of Angel's personal letter took a toll on the aspiring radiology technician.

"There's a lot that's involved with the hardship letter, and I don't want to give them any reason to deny her," he said. "I always want to be on the positive side, like this is going to happen. What are we going to do after she gets her papers and all that ... but I'm always thinking also: What if it doesn't?"

Without the waiver, Estela would face a 10-year ban from immigrating to the U.S., a penalty for having lived in the country illegally for an extended period.

COST OF CITIZENSHIP

Like many others in Ventura County, the couple are working with La Hermandad Mexicana, a California-based immigrants' rights nonprofit in Oxnard.

Nearly 60 people seeking immigration advice inundate the small office near downtown Oxnard every day. Having the nonprofit's executive director, Alicia Flores, oversee their case has had its share of challenges for Angel and Estela.

Flores is stretched from running the organization and leading the local movement for a change in immigration policy.

"We have the experience, and we are credited from U.S. CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services), and as soon as something comes up new, I take the training right away," Flores said. "I'm concerned with the communities."

After discovering he would have to pay nearly four times as much for professional legal representation, Angel was fine with relying on La Hermandad, despite dealing with rescheduled meetings and unanswered phone calls. Including the fees charged by La Hermandad, Angel and Estela have paid $3,600 for applications, service charges and psychological evaluations to adjust Estela's legal status.

Flores told Angel about a Catholic Legal Immigration Network training session she attended in Omaha, Neb., after the waiver was released in March. In a group of more than 60 with 17 states represented, Flores said the seminar leaders asked which organizations were charging less than $1,000 to process the waiver. She said very few hands — other than hers — went up.

"They said: ‘Good luck. See if you guys can support yourself,' " Flores said. "It's a lot of work."

But Flores is confident the hassles will all be worth it for Angel and Estela.

"So far, we haven't had any waiver denied," she said.

Flores said Citizenship and Immigration Services has been taking about three months to process waivers, putting the expected response date for Angel and Estela around early September.

If the waiver is approved, Estela will receive 30 days' notice before her visa appointment in Ciudad Juárez, possibly as soon as October — one year after the couple started the immigration process.

Now, all they can do is wait and hope that Angel's words are enough to keep Estela here.

"I think day and night: What if my wife's admission to the United States is denied. What would I do?" Angel wrote in his letter. "I made a vow — for better or worse until death do us part. I made a promise to God and my wife and I do not have any intention of breaking it ... Please give us the opportunity with our goals and stay together as we promised each other."

Link to Ventura County Star article

Immigration reform legislation is a compromise, but welcomed by farmworkers

It's been 10 years since Rosa Torres, 35, and her husband trekked four days and four nights through the desert to cross the U.S.-Mexico border through Arizona.

Leaving behind her family in Oaxaca, Torres and her husband started working in the Camarillo strawberry fields and moved to Oxnard where the couple are raising four daughters — ranging from 4 months to 9 years old.

Torres is neither a U.S. citizen nor a legal permanent resident, but that isn't what pains her every day. Holding 4-month-old Aria, Torres started to cry. She said she just wants to be able to visit her family — those who are still alive — without fear of being prevented from returning to her children.

"In Mexico, they say, ‘Oh, it's so great that you work,'" Torres said in Spanish. "I tell them, ‘Yes, it's great that I work and everything, but it's very difficult because you can't leave.' "

But with initial details of the long-awaited comprehensive immigration reform legislation surfacing, there is the possibility that life could soon change for Torres and millions of other immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

If the proposed bill is passed and certain border security measurements are completed, eligible immigrants could apply to earn provisional legal status, which would give them the ability to travel outside of the country and work for any employer, according to a 17-page legislation summary obtained by The Star.

Individuals could apply to become legal permanent residents after 10 years with provisional status. However, after five years qualified agricultural workers such as Torres and Dream Act eligible immigrants would be able to obtain a green card, a document showing evidence of lawful permanent resident status.

"It's what we've been waiting for," Torres said in Spanish. "It would be like winning a big lottery with the law, because you could leave to see family and come back to work."

United Farm Workers Regional Director Lauro Barajas said he met with UFW President Arturo Rodriguez and other California-based union representatives over the weekend to discuss the provisions of the proposed law expected to be fully released this week.

Rodriguez was scheduled to join the bipartisan group of senators dubbed the "Gang of Eight" as they unveiled the legislation Tuesday. However, the event was postponed following the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday.

Barajas said UFW is "not totally happy" with the proposal, but the final product was a compromise for all parties involved.

While Barajas said the union was hoping for a shorter wait time to earn permanent resident status, he said that the law would address the main concerns of most farmworkers — the ability to freely travel, get a driver's license and be assigned a Social Security number.

"It's not the best, but it's something that is decent for people — not to be fearful of going to work or having a problem with the police," he said. "Something that is very important for the people is to travel and see their families in their countries."

For Torres, that is the most important aspect of the immigration overhaul. Over the last decade since Torres left her home in Oaxaca, both her father and brother died.

"You don't know if you're going to find them (your family) alive or dead — and they're dead," she said. "I won't see them It's horrible."

Link to Ventura County Star article

Hundreds march through Oxnard to support immigration rights

Nearly 1,000 protesters took to the streets of La Colonia on Sunday to encourage lawmakers to pass an immigration overhaul that would make legal residents of 11 million immigrants living in the United States, including an estimated 71,000 in Ventura County.

Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers of America; Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Oak Park; state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara; and Oxnard Councilwoman Carmen Ramirez helped lead the two-mile march that ended with a rally at Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

The demonstration was one of seven organized this weekend in California and Washington state to honor UFW founder Cesar Chavez, whose birthday is March 31.

"If it wasn't for immigrants in this country, there wouldn't be an agricultural industry today," Rodriguez said. "Without the skills and the professional workmanship of immigrant farmworkers today — that unfortunately don't have papers — we wouldn't have the fruits and vegetables on our tables that are grown here in the United States."

About 14,000 undocumented farmworkers live in Ventura County, according to estimates by the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, an area nonprofit.

Spanish chants of "Yes, we can" and "The people united will never be defeated" drew many residents out of homes and businesses to watch the steady stream of flag-bearing people weave through the Oxnard neighborhood accompanied by dancers, beating drums, mariachi singers and burning sage.

Brownley, who took office in January, said she wanted to bring the community hope from Washington, D.C., that there is a "real chance this year to pass comprehensive immigration reform."

The national debate about immigration and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants resurfaced after November's presidential election, when the power of the Latino vote was seen.

A bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang of Eight" has been working on legislation that would rework the country's immigration system with a bill expected to be released in the next few weeks.

"I'm hopeful that when a bill comes forward it will be one that everyone can agree upon," Brownley said. "The immigrants who are here are really a backbone of our economy. We need them out of the shadows and being responsible, taxpaying citizens. ... That sentiment is really taking place certainly in Washington and across the country."

Before the march, 10-year-old Desly Cayetano pulled Brownley aside to tell her that her father works in the field and that she wants "people in the field to have papers."

Alejandro Cayetano, 37, who harvests blueberries in Camarillo, said the majority of field laborers he knows have no documents. The Oxnard resident of 16 years joined the protest with his wife and three children.

"Everyone came together for immigration reform ... in order to have a better life, to have the benefits that we want because right now we can't have them," Cayetano said in Spanish.

Rodriguez stayed at the front of the march until he left for a similar protest in Fresno, where, he said, he expected 10,000 people. Nearly 15,000 protesters were expected in Salinas, 4,000 in Bakersfield and 1,000 in Santa Rosa for additional demonstrations Sunday, Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the UFW and other national agricultural associations have been working closely with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to ensure farmworkers are recognized in the anticipated immigration bill.

"It's important to protect people's lives, and it's important to treat people like human beings," he said. "We are going to do everything we can to ensure that that happens in these negotiations."

Set to graduate from Pacifica High School in June, David Gonzalez is a recent recipient of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which allows him to stay in the country even though he is not here legally. But Gonzalez, 18, said he joined the protest because more measures are needed.

While Gonzalez plans to study political science at CSU Northridge next fall, he said his parents are undocumented workers at an Oxnard packing facility.

"It's not only for me," he said. "It's very important to be here for my parents also because they're the original Dreamers."

Storify: Images of Oxnard immigration march

Link to Ventura County Star article

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush gives his side of immigration, nation reform

Former Republican Florida Gov. Jeb Bush proposed three steps to a sold-out crowd at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum today to put the U.S. economy back on track — expand domestic energy, reform immigration laws and transform the education system.

"They're not necessarily ideological that if we just pause and said, ‘We'll have the food fight on all the other stuff,' and there's some good things to fight about, trust me — that we could get to the point where we could have higher sustained growth," Bush said.

After leaving office six years ago, the son and brother of presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively, was thrown back into the national spotlight with this week's release of his new book, "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution," which he signed copies for event attendees today.

Bush picked up widespread media attention and some criticism for the book's proposal to provide a pathway to legal residency — not citizenship — for undocumented immigrants. Other Republicans, such as those on the bipartisan Senate committee seeking immigration reform, have advocated for an eventual path to citizenship for people in the country illegally.

Regardless of the book release, immigration reform did not dominate Bush's speech in Simi Valley.

Before launching into detail on economic growth policies, Bush cracked a few jokes, talked about life as a grandparent and gave praise to President Ronald Reagan in front of an audience of 650 that included former U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly, Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy, Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten, Simi Valley Mayor Bob Huber, Westlake Village Mayor Philippa Klessig, Simi Valley councilmen Mike Judge and Keith Mashburn, Ventura Councilman James Monahan and Thousand Oaks Councilman Al Adam.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Executive Director John Heubusch introduced Bush by comparing the former governor to Reagan and the "fundamental, important issues where the two men match," including tax cuts, government spending reductions and business growth.

"There's been a famous question often asked when there's a particularly vexing problem facing our country What would Reagan do?" Heubusch said. "Bush understands this He remains an extremely important national voice in the Republican Party."

To speed economic recovery and reduce that national deficit, Bush suggested eliminating regulatory barriers to accelerate the use of natural gas through responsible drilling and approval of the Keystone pipeline.

On immigration reform, Bush said there needs to be border security improvements and laws that make it easier for immigrants to come to the United States legally rather than illegally. He also wants to see an effective guest worker program and pathway to residency for undocumented immigrants that includes civic education and learning English.

Bush also stressed the need for major transformation of the K-12 education system that focuses on school accountability to improve college and career readiness.

Following the speech, an elderly woman was helped out of her chair to ask Bush if he was going to "save" them. Bush did not confirm nor deny a possible future bid for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election.

"The Republican Party has seen the need for a more positive, proactive message — not just to be against things, but to go back to the days of being the place where the interesting ideas were developed and advocated," Bush said. "If we do that part, then the country is going to be saved by the American people, not by, you know, an aspiring elected official or one that might ponder it later on."

Royal High School sophomore Fred Ganados of Simi Valley asked Bush what he thought should happen to the children of undocumented immigrants who were educated in the United States after being brought into the country illegally.

Bush said President Barack Obama's deferred action for childhood arrivals policy helps "the so-called DREAM Act students" without creating a permanent solution.

"We propose a path to legalization for adults, a path to citizenship for their children under the theory that the sins that if illegal immigrants break the law, that their children should not be penalized."

Ganados, who moved from Manila, Philippines, with his parents four years ago, said he hopes to see the immigration system streamlined to make it easier for people like him and his family to become citizens.

"It took us nine years," he said. "It was really hard on us and we spent a lot of money."

Link to Ventura County Star article

Oxnard woman, in U.S. illegally, joins bus tour to argue for immigration overhaul

An Oxnard woman in the U.S. illegally and her youngest daughter were among 50 people who boarded a chartered bus in front of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office in Los Angeles on Monday as part of a national tour calling for an immigration overhaul.

Leticia Santibanez, 41, left her native country of El Salvador for the United States 20 years ago. After her political asylum application was denied, she was deported in 1998 and left behind her Oxnard home and husband, a U.S. citizen.

Santibanez took her only children at the time — then ages 4 and 1 — to El Salvador, but the baby’s poor health worsened after two months in the country, where medical standards are lower, she said.

She returned to the U.S. illegally and has been living in Oxnard since. Now, she is hoping for change.

The “Keeping Families Together” tour launched Feb. 25 and will travel through 19 states before reaching Washington, D.C., next week for a rally and meetings with congressional representatives. The Southern California leg of the tour continues through Wednesday, with the bus traveling through Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange and Kern counties.

Santibanez’s multiple entries into the U.S. disqualify her from seeking legal residency through her husband’s citizenship until she spends 10 years outside the country.

“I need to be heard,” she said. “I don’t want to be left out of the immigration reform.”

Immigration rights advocates hope to persuade lawmakers to adopt a broader path to citizenship as Congress focuses on adopting an immigration overhaul in coming months.

If Santibanez has four children and a husband who are U.S. citizens, “There must be something wrong with the system,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of Oxnard’s La Hermandad Mexicana, a California-based immigration rights nonprofit.

“She shouldn’t be living afraid or in the shadows,” said Flores, who blew kisses to Santibanez and her daughter before the bus drove away.

Chants of “Sí, se puede,” or “Yes, we can,” could be heard among beats from traditional Korean drums and instruments as protesters of all ages and ethnicities formed a picket line in front of the Los Angeles high-rise where Feinstein, D-Calif., has an office suite.

Feinstein was not in California, and her representatives did not meet with tour organizers, said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Flanked by immigrants and their family members, SEIU Local 721 President Bob Schoonover said the bus will carry the voices of families torn apart by failed immigration policies.

“We’ve all been hearing a lot of debate about immigration,” he said. “Some people like to divide it between the left and the right. It’s not that kind of issue. This issue should be decided on what’s humane.”

While Santibanez has lived illegally in the United States for the past 15 years, she said her daughters, ages 8 to 21, constantly fear she will be deported.

“They don’t want to be alone,” she said. “They have only me.”

Santibanez’s husband moved to San Diego to work as a forklift driver after being transferred from his job in Port Hueneme. She said she couldn’t risk moving her family because there are too many immigration checkpoints near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Santibanez’s youngest daughter, Valentina, 8, got permission from her elementary school to travel on the bus tour.

“I wouldn’t see my mom anymore,” Valentina said, standing next to her mother and wearing a shirt with the phrase “Obama, don’t deport our parents,” in Spanish.

Facing a similar situation as Santibanez, Raquel Nolasco, 40, also traveled from Oxnard for the rally but did not join the bus tour.

Nolasco left her parents’ home in Mexico City when she was 16 and illegally crossed into the U.S. by herself to work in Santa Barbara, where she cleaned houses and met her husband.

After not seeing her family in more than a decade, the mother of five took her children to Mexico to meet their grandparents. But she was arrested at the border when she tried to return with her children. Three weeks later, Nolasco illegally crossed back into the U.S.

“It’s not fair that my children, my husband are citizens and I can’t get my papers,” Nolasco said in Spanish as she fought back tears.

Link to Ventura County Star article 

Port Hueneme couple is relying on new immigration policy to stay together

Estela has been living in California for the past decade — she finished high school here, she works here, she fell in love with her husband here.

But everyday the 22-year-old says she lives in fear, whether it’s driving to-and-from her Port Hueneme home or working as a taxpaying employee at an Oxnard medical office.

She is undocumented — one of an estimated 71,000 in Ventura County.

Estela hopes to benefit from a new immigration policy finalized in January by the Department Of Homeland Security. The rule, which takes effect March 4, improves a pathway to legal residency for undocumented spouses and children of United States citizens. Instead of having to wait months or years outside the U.S. to complete the legalization process, qualified undocumented residents can seek a temporary waiver to remain with their loved ones before traveling to their native country for an immigrant visa interview.

If all goes as planned, Estela and her husband, Angel, a legal U.S. citizen, eventually will travel to the U.S. Consulate in violence-ridden Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico for about two weeks to complete the immigrant visa process through the U.S. State Department. Their middle names are being used to protect Estela’s identity.

LIFE OF STRUGGLES

Estela, the youngest of nine children, was 11 when her mother died after a long battle with cancer. She spent the next year living in her family’s two-bedroom home in Guadalajara, Mexico, with five siblings. Her father had moved to Los Angeles years earlier after a pattern of alcohol abuse and domestic violence involving her mother.

“We didn’t have anything to eat. My brothers — they were always doing their own thing, so I was kind of always like, ‘If I don’t work, I don’t eat,’” Estela said after tearfully recounting her mother’s death.

“The boys, they were really bad. They were always out there doing drugs, stealing, doing a lot of bad stuff, really bad stuff,” she said. “I guess my mom protected us from everything from heaven because there were so many things — there were always a lot of guys in our house, a lot of guns.”

Her father and oldest sister, who also lived in Los Angeles, eventually came up with enough money to pay for men to help Estela and two of her sisters cross into the U.S. through Ciudad Juarez, a city that Estela hopes — though reluctantly — to soon return to with 21-year-old Angel to complete the legal permanent resident process.

Under the new program, Estela can apply for a temporary waiver that allows her to remain with her husband and avoid punishment for the time she spent illegally in the U.S. The old system would require her to wait in Mexico until the waiver was approved — a process that could take more than one year, according to the Homeland Security Department. Local immigration attorneys and advocates, however, said they frequently have dealt with cases where families were separated for as long as three years.

“Before, a lot of the people, they knew they were eligible for this waiver, but they were afraid to leave the country because they didn’t know how long this waiver was going to take,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of Oxnard’s La Hermandad Mexicana, a California-based immigrant rights nonprofit.

The opportunity to apply for what is officially known as a “provisional unlawful presence waiver” while remaining in the U.S. will provide more incentive for undocumented immigrants to start working toward legal residency, Flores said.

NO GUARANTEE

The revised policy allows undocumented immigrants to obtain a waiver before traveling to their native country for the visa interview when permanent resident status can be confirmed.

But that doesn’t mean all risk is eliminated, said Flores, who has been working with Estela and Angel on their case.

“When you receive the approval of the waiver, it’s just partial,” Flores said. “There still could be some risk of leaving the country, but it’s minimal not as (much as) the one we’re facing right now.”

That risk stems from a law that delays the legalization process for up to 10 years for undocumented immigrants who lived in the U.S. for an extended period without permission. The waiver eliminates that penalty for qualified individuals whose spouse or parent is a U.S. citizen.

The key for being eligible is that there must be evidence that the American citizen would face “extreme hardship” if their undocumented spouse or child is not allowed to live in the U.S.

“Extreme hardship is not a definable term and elements to establish extreme hardship are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each case,” according to the new rule. While financial struggles and family separation experienced by the U.S. citizen may not solely qualify as extreme hardship, other factors could include health problems and loss of educational or employment opportunities, among many others.

Gabriella Navarro-Busch, a Ventura immigration lawyer, was working with 20 cases eligible for the revised waiver policy just one week after the rule was published, but her appointments quickly filled up through March.

“Instead of waiting in Mexico, they’re waiting here,” Navarro-Busch said. There is still the possibility that a waiver could be denied, but at least the applicants would be in the U.S. with their families, she added.

It is unclear, however, what will happen to people who don’t qualify, Navarro-Busch said.

“Are they put in deportation proceedings?” she asked. “We think that it’s contrary to the president’s policy because he’s actually telling the Department Of Homeland Security, ‘Don’t put people in deportation proceedings if they don’t need to be.’ ”

FEAR OF SEPARATION

Everyone did not make the cut to take advantage of the new waiver, however. People who had a visa appointment scheduled in their home country before the revised process was implemented had to go the traditional route, which requires leaving the U.S.

Flores cited one local case involving a family of four — the mother has been separated from her two children and husband since December. The mother is waiting in Mexico to get her waiver approved, while her husband is working, going to school and struggling to provide for their children, one of which is in poor health, Flores said.

“Thank God it’s this new law because, honestly, just the thought about going back to Mexico for one to six months, I was stressing already,” Estela said. “I got used to here. It’s been half of my life It’s just hard to leave and not to know if you’re going to come back.”

For Estela and Angel, the potential danger and cost of traveling to Ciudad Juarez is worrisome. The young couple depend on Estela’s income now that Angel is back in school preparing for an 18-month radiology technician program that starts in June.

The total cost of Estela’s legal status adjustment is estimated at $3,000, but she said the temporary waiver was a best-case scenario that will help their financial situation by keeping travel costs low, keeping her at work longer and keeping her husband in school.

“If we go out, it’s going to be together and not for a long time — I hope,” she said.

Link to Ventura County Star article 

Immigration overhaul seen in Ventura County as overdue

Ventura County farmworkers, growers and lawmakers applauded immigration proposals that look to implement a legalization process for many of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally, while upgrading border security to prevent illegal entries and temporary-visa violations.

Lauro Barajas, regional director of United Farm Workers, said the proposals are not perfect but that the fact that Republican and Democratic lawmakers united to address the problem is commendable.

"It's good that both parties came together and started looking for a way to fix this issue," said Barajas, who works out of the UFW's office in Oxnard. "A way to fix immigration is being taken. For us, that's the most positive thing."

Barajas said he represents 3,500 farmworkers in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and thinks that more than half are undocumented.

About 74,000 undocumented immigrants live in Ventura County, making it the county with the sixth highest percentage of immigrants in the state, according to a 2011 Public Policy Institute of California report.

If a law is enacted following the proposed standards, illegal immigrants could immediately register with the government to get probationary legal status to live and work without fear of deportation after passing a background check and paying a fine and any unpaid taxes.

Document: Bipartisan framework for immigration reform

Probationary legal immigrants could become permanent residents with full access to federal benefits only after certain border enforcement measures are taken and every person already waiting for a green card passes through the system.

There would be exceptions and a streamlined citizenship process for those who entered the country illegally as children and undocumented immigrants working in the agricultural industry.

Adolfo Rodrigo Lopez, 42, has been a strawberry farmworker in Oxnard for the past 12 years while his wife and six children remained in Mexico. He did not want to disclose his legal status but said he has many acquaintances and friends that would benefit from the immigration proposals.

"A reform is what we need right now," he said in Spanish. "I hope they pass a law. It benefits everyone."

Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, said: "We have worked for years with Senators (John) McCain and (Jeff) Flake on a solution for the immigration crisis facing agriculture. We applaud them for developing these principles and look forward to working together with them along with Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Marco) Rubio to ensure the agriculture piece of this critical legislation addresses our industry's concerns once and for all."

Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo, who shortly after the November election publicly called on Republicans to champion the creation of a pathway to citizenship, said he was encouraged by the bipartisan Senate proposal.

"From the details I've seen so far, it looks like a very thoughtful way to approach the issue," Gorell said.

He said he likes the provisions for tighter border controls and employer sanctions combined with an approach that gives illegal immigrants already working here "a known pathway toward citizenship that will give a lot of comfort and security to families that have the despair of legal uncertainty right now."

Gorell said that issuing work visas to those already here "would be a bump to our economy right now" because it would fully bring them into the system and "make them taxpayers in every sense."

Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, said an approach that includes paying a fine before being able to get in line for citizenship strikes an appropriate balance.

"There needs to be some accountability for people who bucked the law," he said.

Williams said the inconsistency of the current system has always been that "our law says we don't want these workers, while our economy says we definitely need them."

He said the results of the November election appear to have motivated Republicans to change their position on providing a pathway to citizenship.

"They're looking at the numbers and the fact that Republicans will lose elections if they continue to be an impediment to immigration reform," Williams said. "Some are changing their tune to make the Republican Party more acceptable to Latinos."

Link to Ventura County Star article