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  Historical Committee
More Than
Distant Memories
Migrations
and immigrant stories are not just distant memories, they are current
realities. The countries of origin have changed, but the journeys
continue. Here are short contemporary accounts of two immigrants whose
homelands were in Central America and Asia.
Rosa’s
Journey from Nicaragua
Rosa is from Nicaragua. She made the trip to the U.S. ten years ago
with her daughter and three-year-old grandson. Together they traveled
by land through Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. When they
arrived they went to a refugee home, where they stayed while they
applied for asylum. When Rosa lived in Nicaragua, she says, she was
persecuted by the Sandanistas because she was Somozista. “The
Sandanistas wouldn’t allow any Somozista to live in peace,” she stated.
They aquired papers to go to Miami, but the paperwork on her asylum
case was going nowhere. “She applied for asylum and it was never
decided in her case,” says Brad Ginter, immigrant advocate. “Her file
was just put on somebody’s desk somewhere, and sat for the nine or ten
years that she has been in this country.”
Meanwhile Rosa had been actively trying to build a new life for herself
and her family. For eight years she has sold flowers on the street to
make her living. She has learned enough English to engage in her
business. “I have always worked. I have never received, nor do I want,
any government aid,” she says. “I was supposed to be deported, but at
the same time I would apply for a work permit. I have always been
granted a work permit.”
Now her asylum case has been through a number of rounds in the legal
system. She applied for a suspension of deportation, which was thrown
out. Then a federal judge ruled that she qualified for it under the
standards that were in effect at the time the case was filed.
After 10 years of uncertainty, Rosa has a sense of hope for her future
here. “I am happy because I can now apply to become a permanent
resident of this country.”
Third Way Café Web Site
(http://www.thirdway.com/BTN/immigration/sto7.asp) Published with
permission.
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Mennonite
Historical Bulletin
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Mission
Statement:
"God calls us to preserve our faith heritage, to interpret our stories,
and to proclaim God's work among us."
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