Octavio Sandoval prayed for his family in Honduras during a Sunday mass held in memory of the Central American victims of Hurricane Mitch.
His grandparents lost all their furniture when their home was flooded by the hurricane a year ago. Sandoval said he sends money home so his younger brothers can attend school and to help his mother, who is ill.
But there also were prayers at St. Alphonsus Church on the North Side for members of the local Honduran community, many who face an uncertain future in the United States.
More than 100,000 Hondurans nationwide, including a few thousand in the Chicago area, have applied for temporary protected status (TPS), which would allow them to live and work legally in the United States until July. The temporary status is occasionally granted to immigrants fleeing civil strife or natural disaster, in part so they don’t further swamp their homeland.
Sandoval, who applied for the temporary status in March, received his work permit. But he said three other relatives who applied around the same time have not.
As they wait, some continue working–even without work permits–because they are trying to help relatives in Honduras and earn a living here.
“The situation in Honduras is very, very bad,” said Sandoval, 26, a Berwyn resident. “People are trying to help their families as much as they can.”
More than halfway into the 18-month TPS program, about three-quarters of applicants have received approval for work permits, said U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Bill Strassberger. Immigration officials said the delay for the rest was due to problems in scheduling fingerprints at INS centers.
But Honduran community leaders are hoping for a more permanent solution. They want the Clinton administration to extend the temporary program, or for Congress to pass legislation that would grant permanent residency to Hondurans.
“Our country could not handle it if they sent back the Hondurans who are in the United States,” said Silvia Flores de Gonzalez, the consul general of Honduras in Chicago, who attended the Sunday mass.
The Clinton administration announced the temporary program to assist the countries hardest hit by Hurricane Mitch, Honduras and Nicaragua. But only a few thousand Nicaraguans have applied because many were eligible for permanent residency under previous legislation that primarily benefited Nicaraguans and Cubans.
Latino activists recently went to Washington, D.C., to lobby on behalf of Hondurans, but it is uncertain if any action will be taken before Congress adjourns later this month. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) has proposed legislation that would grant permanent residency to as many as 500,000 Central Americans, including Hondurans.
“We want to help our people get their work permits and eventually permanent residency,” said Ana Hessberger, one of the leaders of a new group in Chicago called Honduran Solidarity.
They don’t want Hondurans to return to a country struggling to rebuild, and recent rains have undone much of the reconstruction.
More than 200,000 people are still living in shelters and inflation runs between 16 and 30 percent, said Ana Lucia Restrepo, a Honduran economist who recently visited Chicago to talk about the debt crisis and reconstruction efforts.
Hondurans here are uneasy about the future.
Jose Padilla displays a snapshot of his hometown in Honduras, nestled among green hills. Padilla fears he and his wife may have to leave Chicago and move back.
For years, Padilla’s wife has lived and worked illegally in the U.S. He became a U.S. citizen, but in order to sponsor his wife she would have to leave the U.S. and wait up to 10 years to return. She has waited nine months for the temporary work permit.
“It is so hard living with this uncertainty,” said his wife, a 48-year-old who works as housekeeper and in a factory.
She was a nurse in Honduras for 15 years, but she said it would be extremely hard, if not impossible, to find a job there now.
“What would I return to?” she said. “A life of hunger.”
The Padillas said they send at least $350 month to their children in Honduras.
“There are thousands of people there who are without work,” said Jose Padilla, 49.
The Sagastume family recently traveled from their home in Missouri seeking information from the Honduran consulate in Chicago, where they renewed their passports. Six members of the family applied for the temporary stay, but so far only four received work permits.
They send about $300 a month back to Honduras for their parents, who are unemployed. The roof on their parents’ home was destroyed and other relatives lost their homes.
Candido Sagastume, 29, received a work permit. But his wife, who filed her application in February, is waiting.
For almost 15 years, he and family members have lived in the U.S. always with the fear they could be deported. He hopes the temporary program will lead to permanent residency.
“We want to live legally in the U.S.,” said Sagastume, who works for a cable company. “We do not want to live in fear anymore.”
