After 17 years of 'legal life' in the US, a family considers its next move
The official announcement landed early Monday morning. Vanessa Velasco received a 7 a.m. text from a friend, also from El Salvador. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will end a program that has allowed Velasco and her husband, her friend, and more than 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants to work and live in the US without fear of deportation.
Velasco was not surprised. Neither was her husband.
“We were prepared for this, hoping it was not going to happen, but at the same time expecting it,” said Enrique Velasco, as he sat next to his wife on a puffy brown sofa at their home in Brentwood, California.
Brentwood is a small, rural city filled with farms and orchards, an hour east of San Francisco. It is the place the Velascos and their three children — Andres, 4, Dayana, 12, and Arianna, 17 — have called home for more than a decade.
The couple’s life in the US started in 2000. They left El Salvador on tourist visas; Vanessa was 19 and her husband was 20. High school sweethearts, they say they wanted to see the US and explore a different life.
“Things were going from bad to worse in El Salvador,” Enrique said, referring to the country’s rising gang violence and deep poverty.
Then, months after they arrived, a series of devastating earthquakes hit El Salvador. Salvadorans in the US were offered refuge, the chance to stay and work through a government program called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. It was created by Congress in 1990, and signed into law by President George Bush, with the goal of providing safe haven for immigrants when war, a natural disaster or an epidemic make going back home too dangerous.
Over the years, as the Velascos were able to renew their protected status and put down roots. They had children, all three of whom are US citizens. They are halfway through the mortgage on their three-bedroom home. Enrique found niche work restoring historic buildings and landmarks, while Vanessa raised and help home-school their children.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/after-17-years-of-legal-life-in-the-us-a-family-considers-its-next-move/ar-BBIb6ja?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp
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Can we do that? It would be much easier! 