Mother fights to stay in U.S. while waiting for visa

IMMIGRATION: Her permanent-residency application is mired in an INS two-year backlog.

November 13, 2000

By JOSÉ ALFREDO FLORES
The Orange County Register

The Hummell family of Huntington Beach never imagined they would have to go through so much just to be together.

Norma Isabelle Coreas Hummell came to the United States from El Salvador to escape the poverty, famine and violence during her country's civil war 10 years ago.

Now she faces a different battle. Hummell, along with her American husband Mike, are fighting for her citizenship so that she can remain in Orange County and ensure that her two young children can have the education and job opportunities she never did.

On Nov. 2 she was granted a humanitarian parole that would allow her to stay in the United States for 30 days.

Hummell was forced to leave the United States in March after the INS denied her request for political asylum. Prior to the parole, Hummell spent seven months in third-world El Salvador and Mexico with her children, waiting for the Immigration and Naturalization Services to process her permanent visa application.

There is a two-year backlog for her application since the California INS Service Center only has 19 adjudication officers to handle 300,000 requests.

Both of her children are American citizens, but due to Norma Hummell's family philosophy of the mother taking care of the children, they were with her.

"I can't believe I'm back in this country," Hummell said in Spanish. "I thought it was a lie when they (INS) told me I could return to this great country. I can only hope they could extend my stay."

Hummell is one of 35,000 who are given humanitarian paroles each year.

INS Los Angeles district deputy director Leonard Kovenski said, "humanitarian parole is the last result after all other methods (to gain citizenship) have been exhausted." Paroles last no longer than one year and are given only if there is a compelling emergency.

Hummell's original request to the INS for parole in October was denied on Nov. 1.

A friend of Rep. Bill Jenkins, R-Tenn., told Mike Hummell about parole. Jenkins referred the case to Rep. Christopher Cox, who helped reverse INS' decision a day later.

"To separate a mother and two children from their father is unthinkable," said Cox, R-Newport Beach. "It's always nice when you put a family back together."

David Raft, Hummell's lawyer, has only seen three paroles given in his 10 years practicing immigration law. "It usually helps when Congress intervenes," he said.

Hummell took 1-year-old daughter Alexandria and stayed with her family in rural El Transito, El Salvador, when she was forced to leave the United States. At the time she didn't know she was pregnant with now 2-week-old Jonathan.

During the processing period for her political asylum, Hummell, 30, was allowed to stay in the United States, where she met Mike and gave birth to Alexandria on October 1999.

Hummell was denied political asylum because she arrived one month too late to qualify for the Nacara Salvadoran Asylum Program and subsequently was forced to leave.

Hummell and Alexandria became very ill and lost weight during their stay in El Salvador due to the oppressive heat, contaminated food and water and lack of ventilation in their rural home.

Hummell was diagnosed with pneumonia and feared for her children's health, especially yet-to-be-born Jonathan.

"It was a difficult life out there," Hummell said of her experience in El Salvador. "I don't know how we survived."

Mark Hummell applied and was granted a one-month Mexican honeymoon visa for his wife and child in July. Hummell stayed in Rosarito Beach, Mexico - 150 miles from Newport Beach.

"I had so much guilt from what they had to go through in El Salvador," said Mike Hummell, owner and founder of the CD-Stopper labeling system in Costa Mesa. "I had to bring them closer to me. I was crying every day worrying about them."

Mexican immigration officials granted them two additional visa extensions, the last of which ends in March 2001. Norma Hummell wasn't able to obtain parole prior to the birth of Jonathan, who was born in a Tijuana hospital. Jonathan is an American due to his father.

Now Hummell will apply for a parole extension so she could stay in the United States while waiting for her permanent residency visa application to be processed.

"The most important thing for me are my kids," Hummell said. "I need an extension for my kids. I don't want them to go through what I went through back home."