For holidays, family just wants legal status

With holidays approaching, Christina Mendoza fears her family will spend Christmas separated – half in Nashua, half in Mexico.

Mendoza was single mother of a 2-year-old baby when she met a young Mexican worker back in 2000. Christina asked not to name her husband because he entered the United States by illegally crossing the Mexican border 11 years ago. We’ll call him Juan.

The relationship quickly sparked into a romance, resulting in marriage in 2001 and the couple’s first daughter the following year. According to friends’ accounts, Juan is very committed to spending his life with Christina.

“He’s always with his family, and his kids just don’t come over wearing flip-flops. They are always well dressed to the occasion. He loves them,” said Gary Lamb, a friend and veteran firefighter at the Nashua Fire Department.

As the Mendoza family grew, Christina tried to talk Juan into regularizing his status here. She says he feared the bureaucratic steps his own country would impose and they put it off.

Eventually, they hired a lawyer in 2003. As the family grew – the Mendozas have an 11-year-old, who is Juan’s stepson, and three daughters, ages 7, 2, and 6 months – Juan felt pressured to help his family financially. He worked in pickup jobs as a painter or a carpenter, as chances appeared, and paid all his taxes via an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, an identification provided to workers ineligible for a Social Security number.

Juan helped with the kids as Christina works two jobs, as a full-time electronic assembler for BAE Systems and part time at Avenue, a Nashua clothing store. He used to drive three of their kids to child care, because Christina goes to work at BAE at 6 a.m., and school doesn’t open until 6:30.

But one October morning, Juan was pulled over by a Nashua police officer and he was charged with driving without a license. According to Christina, Juan pleaded guilty in court and paid a $240 fine.

“That’s when I told him, we have to get this done. You’re not going to be invisible forever,” said Christina, who asked Juan: “Would you rather be in jail or in Mexico, waiting for your visa and being able to help us and see us?”

After three unsuccessful visits to the Mexican consulate in Boston, the Mendozas put together a hardship package, to attest to Juan’s good character, and flew to Mexico. The package included several letters of support including ones from Christina’s mother, an officer in the Salem Police Department, and from Keith Phemister, a pastor at Faith Baptist Church of Nashua.

“There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained,” Phemister wrote of Juan, quoting Winston Churchill, in his letter of support.

Christina added to the legal package Juan’s finger prints collected by the FBI with a statement of “no records found,” and a note from New Hampshire State Police that Juan has “no arrests on record.” In Mexico, she felt unprotected by a situation she feels her own country doesn’t seem to help.

Now she’s back in Nashua without two of her children or her husband. Because she cannot afford day care for her two little kids, they stayed in Mexico with Juan.

“I’m afraid my daughter won’t remember me,” Christina said at the kitchen of the Nashua home the couple bought together. Of Juan, she said, “I feel lost without him.”

The anxiety grows as communication with Juan’s family’s cell phone is lousy. Every time Juan needs to visit the American consulate, in Ciudad Juarez, he has to endure a two-day bus ride from Huizcolote, in Colima state.

Christina’s lawyer had warned it can take at least six months until permission is granted for Juan’s return. To make matters worse, an American consulate employee has said Christina doesn’t make enough money to support a family of six. Her two salaries are $700 less than the $37,000 minimum income required to support her family.

While Juan waits for his visa in Mexico, Christina can’t afford the mortgage and bills on her own.

Gary Lamb, the Mendoza’s friend in the fire department, filed an affidavit of support stating he is willing to sponsor Juan, but the hardship package hasn’t been received by American officials in Mexico yet. Lamb is convinced Juan has proven he is deserving of a life in the United States.

“He’s an asset to the community, not a guy who’s looking to live off the system. He is hard working, an honest guy and a family man. A lot of lives are affected by his not being here.”

Eduardo A. de Oliveira is a columnist for The Telegraph. Originally from Brazil, Eduardo is a 33-year-old Nashua resident. His column appears every other Monday on the front page of The Telegraph.