Many Immigrants Face Divided Family

Jesus Gonzalez already has his airplane tickets. Early next month, he will say goodby to his wife, board a plane with the couple’s 15-month-old son and go home to a small town outside Guadalajara.

The Gonzalezes do not know when they will be together again, but they will have accomplished one thing: compliance with the new immigration law.

Gonzalez, a factory worker, decided to go home because he is not eligible for amnesty under the law. His wife, Lilia, is. The couple’s U.S.-born child will go home with his father because Lilia cannot afford a baby sitter on her meager earnings as a factory worker.

Faced by Thousands

The family exemplifies the kinds of problems facing thousands of immigrants who must decide whether to break the law and remain together, or comply with it and break up their families. A clarification of the touchy “family unity” issue by Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Alan C. Nelson to Congress on Wednesday did little to ease such difficult family choices, according to immigrants’ rights advocates.

While Nelson said the INS will not deport children who are here illegally if both of their parents qualify for amnesty, he gave no such assurances to the spouses of eligible family members.

“It is a half-measure approach to a very serious problem,” said Father Luis Olivares, pastor at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and chairman of the principal coalition of immigrants’ rights groups in Los Angeles. “It will continue to divide families.”

“The number of children who might benefit from this policy are going to be very few,” predicted Juan Gutierrez of One-Stop Immigration, a counseling center. “In a majority of such cases, the father came here first and then sent for the mother and children.”

Fernando Tafoya, director of an AFL-CIO amnesty program here, said that nearly half of his clients have close relatives who are not eligible for amnesty.

Will Lobby Congress

Olivares said the immigrants’ rights coalition, which includes a variety of labor, church, legal and social service agencies, will lobby Congress to address the issue of family separation.

Meanwhile, families like the Gonzalezes will continue to face heart-wrenching choices.

“I’ll stay here and live with my sisters for now,” said Lilia Gonzalez, who lives in Boyle Heights. “Jesus will go back to Mexico with the baby and live with his family and try to find a job.”

The family will get back together, she said, “when we get enough money or can figure out a way to immigrate my husband.”

After a pause, she added: “This is so hard. How can one live without one’s son?”