Los Angeles – Hispanic groups and other organizations are joining forces in an effort to prevent deportation of Jonathan Martinez, a young Salvadoran boy who sneaked into the United States in 2004 to search for his mother.
The immediate future of the 10-year-old – picked up by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Arizona desert – is to be decided on Sept. 11 when he has a third hearing before an immigration judge.
At the age of 8, Martinez left his homeland for the United States in the company of a 19-year-old cousin who, like so many others, did not survive the long arduous trek northward. His goal was to locate his mother, Rosalia Montoya, who came to the United States in 2000 and has lived in the country legally under Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Jonathan’s story revealed such bravery and evident longing to be reunited with his mother that, to prevent his immediate deportation at the end of 2004, the Los Angeles-based Latin American Coalition took up the matter and signed papers with immigration officials guaranteeing the boy’s appearance in court.
Oswaldo Cabrera, the organization’s president, said the legal process had thus far unfolded in three main stages.
Martinez’s attorneys initially secured a 30-day extension to prepare the case and then later convinced Judge Martin Williams to grant permission for the boy to remain in the country for five months while they gathered evidence.
The last phase will be the third hearing on Sept. 11 when the judge will decide the matter.
“We’re very hopeful that Jonathan will be able to stay in the country legally, whether through an extension of the mother’s TPS” or the granting of asylum for the boy, who has no family members in El Salvador, Cabrera said.
Together with the Catholic Church, community organizations and immigrant-advocacy groups, the Latin American Coalition has launched a campaign to rally public support behind Martinez’s cause.
The effort has involved signature-gathering, the sending of letters and the gathering of evidence showing that Martinez would be forced to live on the street in El Salvador because he has no one there to care for him.
Currently Jonathan is in the sixth grade at a school in Inglewood, California, where he been a model student, Cabrera said.
“He speaks English very fluently, knows the pledge of allegiance and is begging to be allowed to grow up alongside his mother, a hard-working woman who provides for her home day after day by working in a restaurant,” the Latin American Coalition president said.
The campaign to bring attention to Martinez’s struggle has extended well beyond California and been taken up by Hispanic advocacy groups in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Washington and Florida.
