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Reform bill has hurdles for gaining legal status
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By the numbers
The United States is home to 26.8 million residents of Mexican origin. That represents 9 percent of the country's total population; 16.9 million of them live in California and Texas.
In New Mexico, there were 168,640 foreign-born residents in 2005, mostly from Mexico, or 8.9 percent of the population. That includes immigrants with and without legal status.
In 2002, between 50,000 and 75,000 of them were estimated to be undocumented.
Since 1997, more than 38,000 immigrant women have applied for U.S. residency under the Violence Against Women Act. About 30,700 applications have been approved.
About 3.1 million U.S. resident children have at least one parent who is undocumented and could be deported.
There are 1.1 million residents of Mexican origin 25 and older who have a bachelor's degree. More than 300,000 have a graduate degree.
In 2005, the median income for households with a head of household of Mexican origin was $35,464.
Half the householders of Mexican origin own their own home, while 23.8 percent live in poverty.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, the Migration Policy Institute, Pew Hispanic Center, the Urban Institute, the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women.
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SANTA FE — Lupita Hernandez will never get to present her case to the 535 members of Congress debating immigration reform this week.
She'll probably never meet them, talk to them or have anything to do with them. But they have everything to do with her, her life, her future.
"I'm hoping," she said of the prospects of Congress reaching a deal this summer. "I'm optimistic."
But even if a compromise bill recently introduced in the Senate becomes law, life won't change overnight for Hernandez; her two U.S.-born, American-citizen children; or her partner, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras.
Under the compromise bill, Hernandez could apply for provisional status that would allow her to stay in the United States for now. She would then apply for a "Z" visa, then eventually for legal permanent residency.
A major sticking point, however, is that she would have to pay $5,000 to apply for the visa.
"That's a high fine," she said. "But we'd have to make sacrifices, and somehow we'd do it. Maybe we'd find somebody to give us a loan."
Last year, Hernandez and her partner earned about $18,000 between them. She's lived in Santa Fe for about 11 years and has already applied once for U.S. residency under the Violence Against Women Act, a law meant to protect abused women, but her petition was denied.
If she qualified for the Z visa, she would have eight years to return to Mexico to apply for permanent legal residency. That would cost another $4,000.
Hernandez hasn't thought about that future trip and whether it would allow her to visit her ailing mother in Veracruz.
She is skeptical about whether she'd be allowed to return to the United States if she did leave.
"If they don't let us come back, then what?" she said.
Although she could apply for provisional status as soon as the bill is approved, the Z visas won't be granted until new border security measures are implemented. Triggers in the bill for issuing the visas include stationing another 18,000 federal agents along the U.S.-Mexico border and constructing 370 miles of fence along the dividing line.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security would have to have the resources to detain 27,500 immigrants each day.
Marcela Diaz, director of the immigrant rights group Somos Un Pueblo Unido in Santa Fe, said the bill should give immigrants such as Hernandez some hope, but she has reservations about many of the provisions, including the $5,000 visa fee and the requirement that an immigrant head of household return to her or his country of origin.
"Maybe in eight years - but it could be longer - she (Hernandez) would be eligible for legal permanent residency," Diaz said.
While that's a long time to wait, for Hernandez those years also represent opportunity.
"We could get a lot of work done in eight years, save up a lot."
