Salvadorans Fear Deportations : Future Uncertain for Refugees After Federal Decision

The future took an uncertain turn Friday for Elena Subialdea and other Salvadoran expatriates in Orange County, when U.S. immigration officials announced the lifting of special deferments from deportation for El Salvador nationals at the end of the month.

Like others who heard the news from a radio broadcast or friend, Subialdea reacted with shock and confusion. The 25-year-old warehouse worker, who recently wed her Salvadoran fiance, wondered aloud, “They can’t deport all of us who are here, can they?”

The same question was being asked at the El Carbonero restaurant on South Main Street, a popular dining place with Salvadorans, where Subialdea had gone to meet her cousin for lunch.

“The U.S. government says that democracy has returned to El Salvador and there is no more repression. But there is nothing there for us. There are no jobs and there is no money. The country is still in very poor shape,” Subialdea said.

As much as 20% of El Salvador’s population fled the country in the 1980s to the United States, Mexico and Canada, escaping a brutal civil war between a U.S.-backed right-wing government and a coalition of leftist guerrillas. Atrocities were committed by both sides against civilians, who were often caught in the crossfire of the warring sides.

Salvadorans immigrated to the United States by the tens of thousands, entering the country both legally and illegally. The Immigration Act of 1990 gave Temporary Protected Status to Salvadoran expatriates through June 30, 1992, deferring them from deportation. That deadline was extended twice.

On Friday, INS officials said the deferments against deportation will be allowed to expire at the end of the month, declaring that the political situation has stabilized in El Salvador and human rights violations are no longer a problem.

INS officials said that mass deportations are not imminent, but also conceded that there probably will not be a mass exodus of voluntary departures.

Rene Macias, co-owner of El Pupusodromo, another Salvadoran restaurant in Santa Ana, said he was not surprised by the INS announcement.

“The (U.S.) government has declared El Salvador to be safe and there is nothing to fear. They accepted us temporarily, but now say it’s time for us to return,” Macias said. “It’s sad, because for many people there is nothing to return to.”

Gustavo Barrera, who arrived in Orange County from El Salvador in 1985 and has had three children born here, was reeling from the INS announcement. Barrera, a truck driver, worried about having to move his family to El Salvador, “where my children have never lived and nothing awaits them but poverty.”

“My two older kids hardly speak Spanish at all. How can you punish them because their parents came here to find a better life,” Barrera said.

Gina Pena, who owns El Pupusodromo with Macias, said the INS decision was probably made easier by the current anti-immigrant mood of Americans.

“People in California and the rest of the country have made it clear they don’t want immigrants here,” Pena said. “They’re doing this (lifting of deferments) to scare people into returning to El Salvador. But how can you change something that’s been allowed for so many years?”

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 after-effects 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.

Most Salvadorans in the United States, experts say, will probably file political asylum claims. 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,” acknowledged Juan Carlos Cristales, who is coordinating asylum applications at El Rescate, taking statements from scores of applicants about their fears of returning home.

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