A Sense of Betrayal : Federal Decision Chills Salvadoran Refugees

They came as waves of refugees fleeing warfare, most anticipating a short stay until the violence subsided. But eventually, the vast majority settled down and adapted to life in the United States, abandoning hopes of ever moving back to their ravaged homeland.

On Friday, though, as word spread that the Clinton Administration had decided to end a special status accorded to tens of thousands of expatriate El Salvadorans, the prospect of a forced return became alarmingly real, despite official assurances to the contrary. A sense of confusion and betrayal was evident in the Pico-Union/Westlake barrio that is Los Angeles’ bustling Central American heartland.

“Going back now is difficult to contemplate,” said Martin Granados, father of nine children, six born in El Salvador and three born here. “Life for our family is in this country now. I work here, my children are learning English. . . . We’ll try to do everything we can to stay.”

With an uneasy peace prevailing in El Salvador--and with a U.S. public apparently opposed to offering special treatment to immigrants--the Clinton Administration concluded Friday that it was time to end the Salvadorans’ “Deferred Enforced Departure” protection, the latest incarnation of a program that had allowed many Salvadorans to remain in the United States legally since 1991. As a result, 90,000 to 187,000 Salvadorans--authorities could provide no more precise estimate--will find their legal status terminated Dec. 31.

Uncertainty among expatriates is most intense in Greater Los Angeles, home to the nation’s largest Salvadoran community, numbering perhaps 500,000. Many now fear forced repatriations--though experts say that is extremely unlikely and officials went out of their way Friday to allay such concerns, stressing the gradual nature of any change.

“There will be no immediate, large-scale deportations,” Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner told a Washington news conference Friday. “We don’t expect anything to happen abruptly.”

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In fact, while allowing Salvadorans’ status to lapse Dec. 31, the Administration also agreed to extend work permits of affected Salvadorans for nine months. That provides a cushion until Sept. 30 for those currently possessing working papers. And other legal protections are likely to extend for years afterward.

In the already tense, post-Proposition 187 climate of California, however, Salvadorans who learned to be wary of officialdom back home were not dismissing the possibility that there one day could be large-scale roundups and deportations. Most arrived here as illegal immigrants by crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, many after leaving their homeland under threat and dodging police and immigration agents.

Today, few relish the prospect of reverting to the shadow life of the undocumented, particularly with the increasing difficulty of finding work without papers. But even fewer seem willing to return to a nation still reeling economically, socially and politically from the aftereffects of a long civil war that many believe was prolonged by massive U.S. aid to the Salvadoran government--assistance prompted by Cold War geopolitical concerns that seem distant today.

“What future would I have now in El Salvador?” asked Cristina Melendez, a mother of two who stopped by Friday at the offices of El Rescate, the Central American social service organization in Pico-Union.

Melendez has two U.S.-born children, a 2-year-old son and a 1-year-old daughter, and has no intention of ever taking them to El Salvador. “I don’t want my children to suffer as I did,” said Melendez, 23, who works at a Fullerton paper products factory.

Less certain about what she would do was Maria Navarrete, also a mother of two young children, who said she would consider going back if she did not succeed in having her working papers extended beyond next September.

“I’ll return if I have to, if there’s no other alternative,” said Navarrete, a single mother who earns $6 an hour as a machine operator. “But it would be a much more difficult life for my children.”

Most Salvadorans in the United States, experts say, will probably file political asylum claims, applications that can drag on for years. With time, Salvadorans who fled to Los Angeles, Houston, Washington and other centers during the 1980s--when one-fifth or more of the Central American nation’s people are believed to have left--have become less of a refugee population seeking to return home than an established immigrant community unwilling to go back.

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Many, like the Granados family of Los Angeles, sold their properties back home and sent for their families, often paying so-called coyotes thousands of dollars to smuggle children and spouses on the perilous journey through Mexico and across the U.S. border. The Granadoses’ nine children are together with their parents now, and the father--a former farmer who now toils in a carpet factory--says he doesn’t have a clue as to where they would even live in today’s El Salvador.

The same uncertainty exists among refugees’ relatives in El Salvador, where annual remittances from expatriates in the United States and elsewhere are thought to top $1 billion, propping up the nation’s sagging economy. Salvadoran officials acknowledge being ill-prepared to cope with the return of huge numbers of expatriates.

Salvadoran President Armando Calderon Sol, who discussed the issue with Vice President Al Gore in Mexico City, said he received assurances that there will be no massive deportations. “And we must be clear about that because many Salvadorans, here and in the United States, were full of anxiety and uncertainty,” the president said after returning to San Salvador.

Despite the Dec. 31 deadline, hard-won legal protections will continue to shield affected Salvadorans.

All those whose status expires later this month are eligible for special consideration when filing asylum claims under the terms of the 1990 settlement of a landmark court case alleging that U.S. officials discriminated against asylum-seekers from U.S.-supported regimes in El Salvador and Guatemala.

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Indeed, social service organizations working with Salvadorans and other immigrants are gearing up for a deluge of new asylum applications from those whose status is due to lapse. While it is difficult to win political asylum under U.S. law--fewer than one in 10 Salvadorans were granted asylum even while the civil war was raging--activists say it is crucial that Salvadorans file in order to prolong the process and possibly gain permanent residence status at a future date.

“Right now we’re trying to win time,” said Juan Carlos Cristales, who is coordinating asylum applications at El Rescate, taking statements from scores of applicants about their fears of returning home.

Eventually, many in the asylum pipeline may be able to win “suspension” of deportation. That is granted to some illegal immigrants who have been in the United States at least seven years, have shown good moral character and can demonstrate considerable hardship if returned to their homelands.

At the Central American Resource Center, the other major Pico-Union social service outlet, leaders urged Salvadorans on Friday not to panic but to file expeditiously for political asylum.

“We’re disappointed today, but we still have a space to look in the future for a long-term solution,” said Roberto Lovato, the center’s executive director.

Times staff writers Tracy Wilkinson in El Salvador and Robert Jackson in Washington contributed to this report.