Parents Who Feared Deportation Granted Temporary Reprieve

For several long weeks, Londy and Benjamin Cabrera have weighed an excruciating dilemma: Facing impending deportation, should they take their two U.S. citizen daughters with them?

Or should they leave them behind with relatives for the blessings of an American life -- in particular, better schooling for 9-year-old Jocelyn and 11-year-old Diana, a straight-A honors student?

But this week, the Bell Gardens family received at least a temporary reprieve when U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Lucille Allard-Roybal (D-East Los Angeles), announced legislation to grant the parents permanent legal residency.

In her first meeting with the Cabrera family at a Century City hotel Thursday, Feinstein said she chose to act because deportation of the parents to two separate countries would “destroy the whole family.”

“Some cases deserve special consideration and this is one of them,” said Feinstein, who gave the family gifts on Thursday.

She and Roybal-Allard have noted the exceptional academic needs of Diana, a sixth-grader at Bell Gardens Intermediate School who earns top scores on statewide standardized tests and won entry into a national honors program in science and math.

Last year, Los Angeles immigration Judge Bruce J. Einhorn canceled the Cabreras’ removal orders, ruling that Diana’s achievements were so extraordinary that deporting her parents to their native Guatemala and Mexico would constitute “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.”

The couple illegally immigrated to the States in the 1980s, but have been working with legal permits while applying for amnesty and asylum -- Benjamin as a restaurant supervisor in Downey and Londy as an elementary school assistant for severely disabled children in Commerce.

Einhorn noted that the Cabreras had paid their taxes, committed no crimes and had not received welfare. His ruling, however, was overturned in September by the federal Board of Immigration Appeals.

The Cabreras’ attorney, Carl Shusterman, is asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to review the immigration board’s decision.

In a joint statement, Feinstein and Roybal-Allard said the immigration board failed to consider Diana’s special academic needs and the hardship that other Cabrera relatives in the United States would suffer.

Meanwhile, an immigration official said the filing of the legislation this week would place the deportation, scheduled for Dec. 19, on hold until Congress completes an investigation into the case and acts on the measure.

If the 9th Circuit rules against the Cabreras, the legislation would be pushed forward, according to the Feinstein spokesman. Her office reported that Feinstein has sponsored only 13 private immigration bills in her 11 years in the Senate; most have passed or are pending.

The legislation, filed a week before she was to leave her family for Guatemala, represents “a miracle,” Londy Cabrera said.

For weeks, she said, she had lost her appetite and been unable to sleep. She would take walks, or slip into her daughters’ bedroom. Seeing their sleeping faces, she would clasp their small hands, fall to her knees and pray for a reprieve, she said.

If efforts to stay fail, Londy said, she would probably choose to leave her daughters behind with their grandmother. “My heart was falling apart, but when you love your children you want the best for them,” she said.

When Shusterman called this week with the news of the legislation, Londy said she began crying, screaming for joy and jumping up and down “like Tigger in ‘Winnie the Pooh.’ ” She said she ran outside and saw the sky filled with soaring birds -- a divine sign, to her, of freedom.

“I thought this was a sign from God that he has always been with us,” she said.

With the cloud of anxiety lifted, the Cabreras said they plan to buy a Christmas tree and start holiday shopping.

Besides the legislation, they got early Christmas gifts from Feinstein, including a drawing of an orchard done by the senator and an offer of an internship for Diana. Feinstein also gave Jocelyn her private phone number and told her to call whenever she needed someone to talk to.