Late last month, Francisco opened the door to immigration agents who were looking for someone else who used to live at the same address, according to Lorena Melgarejo, executive director of Faith in Action Bay Area, who is helping to champion his case.
Francisco came to the Bay Area from El Salvador in 1998 and did not have the proper documentation at the time, Melgarejo said, prompting a deportation order 20 years ago. But in 2001, Francisco, whom she said has no criminal history, was able to secure a Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, allowing him to get a legal work permit and driver’s license.
Congress established the TPS status, mostly for Salvadorians and Haitians, under the Immigration Act of 1990. It’s a humanitarian program whose basic principle is that the United States should suspend deportations to countries that have been destabilized by war or catastrophe.
