Born in El Salvador, married on LI. Despite legal challenge, citizenship path program gives them hope for better future

By the time Juan Morales was 4 years old, both his parents had fled his homeland of El Salvador because of gang violence — a scourge his siblings faced every day as he bounced between the homes of other relatives.

Now 20 and living in Amityville, Morales said he was 8 when he got in a car bound for the United States, buoyed by the possibility of a permanent family reunion.

He didn’t realize the car crossed the American border unlawfully as it entered Arizona in 2011, later winding its way east to New York, where his parents anxiously awaited him in Lindenhurst.

Morales managed to escape the early risks of gang recruitment and intimidation, but in the U.S., legal permanent status eluded him.

Fearing deportation, he said his parents never sought protection for him, after his family's reunification, through a program for young people who were brought illegally into the U.S. as children.

Now Morales is hoping a federal program he applied to after it opened on Aug. 19 can provide for a better future for himself and his wife, Keiry Morales-Martinez, 19, by helping him obtain lawful permanent resident status without leaving the U.S. for processing.

"Keiry is the face I see when I go to sleep at night and the one I see when I wake up in the morning ... Imagine not knowing if you’ll see your family again. People have different struggles, but if they have citizenship, they have the essentials, where I am limited," said Morales, who works in a restaurant.

The prospect of a finding a solution through the program isn't clear-cut. Known as Keeping Families Together, it is facing a legal challenge that on Monday led a federal judge in Texas to pause the program for 14 days. 

'Going to keep fighting'

The administrative stay U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker issued comes after 16 states led by Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit challenging the Department of Homeland Security-run program that was implemented after President Joe Biden announced a policy change in June. 

Biden's administration introduced the initiative as a way to help an estimated 500,000 noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens — people potentially numbering in the thousands on Long Island — obtain lawful permanent resident status without leaving the U.S. for processing.

An estimated 50,000 noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens also can apply. In the past, the process routinely would force applicants back to their country of birth for years, separating them from their families, according to immigration law experts.

It's based on a policy available to families of military members and veterans who qualify and is known as "parole in place." 

Applicants who get approval generally have three years to apply for permanent residency and can stay with their families in the U.S. They will be eligible for work authorization for up to three years.

One of the program's opponents, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said it's a way to reward lawbreakers.

"We have temporarily blocked Biden's unlawful new ‘parole in place’ program, which would have rewarded over 1 million illegal aliens with the opportunity for citizenship after breaking our country's laws — and incentivized countless more," Paxton said in a statement after the litigation's filing. "This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law." 

The Department of Homeland Security said it will continue to accept program applications, but pending applications will not be granted during the pause.

"Keeping Families Together enables U.S. citizens and their family members to live without fear of separation, consistent with fundamental American values. The Department of Homeland Security will comply with the court’s decision, including continuing to accept applications, while we defend Keeping Families Together in court," a DHS spokesperson told Newsday in an email.

The agency wouldn't comment on how many Long Island residents had filed program applications. The legal challenge, which several Long Island immigration lawyers said was expected, nevertheless is causing concern among program applicants who are waiting to see whether the suspension will be lifted.

Some local lawyers, including Garden City attorney Ashish Kapoor, said they're continuing to field interest from program candidates who want help with the application process, but that there is more trepidation because of the federal lawsuit.

"There is fear in the sense that it's a more conservative district and typically in those districts, they have judgments more in favor of a more conservative approach," he added of the Texas legal filing. 

Other states that joined in the lawsuit are Florida, Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming. The conservative nonprofit America First Legal, which is headed by an ex-adviser to former President Donald Trump, is acting as co-counsel for the states during a time when the issue of immigration has taken center stage in the upcoming presidential election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

'Not a threat to anybody'

Morales said he fears being deported to El Salvador and separated from his spouse, a U.S. citizen whom he started dating when they attended Amityville High School.

The couple, who just celebrated their first wedding anniversary, shelved dreams of higher education in order to find jobs that would pay the rent.

Morales has fewer job prospects due to his status, but both are hopeful their path will get easier if Morales gets relief through the new program.

"This is key to getting a better-paying job and education," he said. "It would allow me to think about having kids and being able to support a family."

The lawsuit was an unsettling development for the couple.

"I understand a lot of people want to protect their homes, they want to protect their own family. But the people that are submitting these applications, they're not a threat to anybody. They've been here for a while. They have family like I do. I went to school here, I have friends here," Morales said.

To be eligible for the program, candidates must have entered the country without legal status, have been in the country since June 17, 2014, and have been married as of June 17 of this year, the day the program was announced. They also must pass a background check, have no disqualifying criminal history and not be a safety threat. 

A description of the Biden administration's policy from DHS said it is intended to reinforce the core of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 — which aims to keep U.S. citizens together with their families. 

Morales said he would feel like a stranger in El Salvador, a Central American country he feels only formally connected to by birth. He doesn’t know what city he's from or if he still has relatives there.

"I feel almost isolated to the point where I'm not really close to people that are from my country, because I can't relate to them," said Morales, who added that fear is also part of the problem for him.

"I feel sometimes I can't even talk about my immigration status in public because I feel scared," Morales added.

His wife, who works in a doctor's office, said she worries about what a future without him would mean, and the idea that if he had to leave the country, she "wouldn't know when he would come back."

Their Huntington Station attorney, David Sperling, said his advice to clients is to move "full speed ahead" with the application process. 

"There has always been opposition to any kind of new immigration regulation," he said.

'Don't feel safe'

Sperling also represents Maria Elisa Alvarez-Gomez, 48, of Huntington Station, another applicant to the program.

Alvarez-Gomez said she fled her native El Salvador in 2004 due to violence and poverty. She has raised two daughters, now 19 and 16, on Long Island, including for a decade by herself after her first marriage broke up.

Now happily remarried, her spouse is an American citizen who was born in Puerto Rico. 

With a work permit that expires in 2028, Alvarez-Gomez is able to work in a factory in Hauppauge, but is seeking permanent legal status that she hopes can be expedited under the new program.

"I don’t feel safe now. There is no security for me," Alvarez-Gomez said. " ... It would be easier to have all my documents and not live in fear that I can get fired or deported and taken away from my family."

The Huntington Station resident said she is afraid of one day losing her job and being sent back to a country she barely would recognize. Her parents died in El Salvador several years ago, funerals she couldn't attend because of her fear of not being able to return to the U.S., and she said most of her family now lives here.

"If I would be sent there, I don’t even know where I would go. I would have to stay in a hotel," Alvarez-Gomez said. "My whole life is here now, with my daughters and husband."