Nicaraguans and Hondurans Welcome Ruling

The Honduran and Nicaraguan communities in Southern California on Thursday reacted with relief to the U.S. government’s decision to delay deportations because of Hurricane Mitch, even as some immigrant groups expressed disappointment that other Central Americans were not granted similar reprieves.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service announced Wednesday that about 150,000 Honduran and Nicaraguan immigrants from the storm-whipped countries--an estimated 40,000 in Southern California--can stay and work in the United States for 18 months while recovery efforts continue in Central America.

The temporary protected status affects immigrants here illegally and those with temporary visas.

The reprieve is welcome news to the estimated 7,000 Nicaraguans and 5,000 Hondurans living in Orange County illegally or on temporary visas, said Silvio Mendez, Nicaraguan consul general for the western United States.

Most Nicaraguans and Hondurans in Orange County live in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Orange, Mendez said, and work in factories and auto repair shops and as janitors and maids.

“It’s a great relief,” added Marlon Portillo, who works with Honduran and Nicaraguan day laborers through IDEPSCA, a Boyle Heights-based community organization. “Eighteen months is not a lot, but it’s something. Now people can work, and not worry.”

Many immigrants have been concerned about being deported back to chaotic situations in the wake of Hurricane Mitch’s destruction, community workers said.

“There is a great economic crisis that would get more aggravated if thousands of people were deported back there,” said the Rev. Tomas Lopez of the Pico-Union United Methodist Church, who recently returned from two weeks in Honduras. “There wouldn’t be a way to stabilize the countries.”

Central American immigrants in the United States are also helping relief efforts with the money they send home, supporters of the ruling said. Nicaraguans in California send about $250 million a year back to their homeland, about half the total sent from those living in the United States, said Mendez.

But happiness over the respite was tempered by some frustration that other immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala were not included in the delay.

Immigrants from those countries, which U.S. officials decided had not been damaged as badly, will be allowed to remain in the United States until March 8.

For Julio Escobar, 36, a Honduran national who has been in this country illegally since 1985, the reprieve was welcome news. But as he sought immigration counseling Thursday at the Central American Resource Center in Pico-Union, he voiced concern about his Salvadoran wife, who was left out of Wednesday’s ruling.

“My wife is in limbo,” said Escobar as he tended his two U.S.-born daughters, ages 10 and 2. “She’s afraid. It would be catastrophic if any one of us would get deported.”

U.S. officials said all Central American countries hurt by the hurricane are receiving some type of relief assistance, but that 95% of the devastation occurred in Honduras and Nicaragua, where the fierce storm ripped apart the countries’ infrastructures, tore up farmland and left millions homeless.

Some community leaders said they fear that 18 months will not be enough time for the ravaged countries to rebuild.

“What’s going to happen after 18 months?” said Max Ocon, a Nicaraguan American who works with Amigos En Action, an organization sending relief to hurricane victims. “The solution should be permanent residency. We’re talking about the two poorest countries on the continent. It’s going to take a long time.”

That is the fear of immigration critics, who said the gesture could result in thousands of immigrants remaining here indefinitely.

“The problem with these temporary grants is that they have consistently turned into permanent immigration programs,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “Everybody has to recognize the devastation that Hurricane Mitch caused. But the answer may not be letting large numbers of people stay here.”

Barbara Coe, founder of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, a Huntington Beach-based group that co-sponsored the anti-illegal immigration Proposition 187, called the ruling a fiasco.

“I don’t want anyone to be shipped out of here to go home to a state of starvation where they cannot function, no, absolutely not,” Coe said. “But I feel this whole scenario is nothing but another pawn by the pro-alien lobby to play on the emotions of the American people and make an issue of it when, in fact, we have no idea exactly what is involved.”

INS officials said information packets about the program will be distributed to the Honduran and Nicaraguan consulates and community organizations as early as next week. Officials said INS offices are backlogged with citizenship requests, and applicants seeking the protected status should call a special INS toll-free number or get information off its World Wide Web site.

Barbara Coe, founder of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, a Huntington Beach-based group opposed to illegal immigration, called the ruling “a fiasco.”

“I don’t want anyone to be shipped out of here to go home to a state of starvation where they cannot function, no, absolutely not,” Coe said. “But I feel this whole scenario is nothing but another pawn by the pro-alien lobby to play on the emotions of the American people and make an issue of it when, in fact, we have no idea exactly what is involved.”

* Applications for temporary protected status are available by calling (800) 870-3676, and from the INS World Wide Web site at https://www.ins.usdoj.gov

Times staff writer Esther Schrader contributed to this story.