María Pilar Cruz Menera, a single mother of Oaxacan origin, who has spent most of her life working in the fields of California, will celebrate her first Mother’s Day as a resident of the United States.
“About a week ago, I received my resident card; and now my greatest wish is to go to Mexico and become a qualifying citizen within five years,” says this mother, who had been living in immigration limbo for 35 years, without status.
María Pilar Cruz was born in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico and immigrated to the United States in 1989. For most of the 35 years she has been in California, she has worked in the agricultural grape fields.
“I have led a very hard life, working from six in the morning, sometimes until 7 in the afternoon picking grapes; In packaging, at least, I start working at 8 in the morning.”
It was her only son Daniel Edward Reyes, born in the Central Valley, who, when he turned 21, made a request for María Pilar’s residence.
“It helped me a lot that I already had a previous request for residency that in 2001, my mother put my brothers and me in,” he explains; but the request of her son who is dedicated to real estate and who has given her a grandson, who is now three years old, was final.
During the more than three decades that she lived in the shadows, María Pilar confesses that she felt trapped, always in fear that immigration agents were going to detain and deport her.
“One cannot walk as one wants. Before, we heard a lot that migration took people away. The situation was tough. So my son was the one who told me, ‘now apply for residency, I’ll be able to fix it for you.’ I came to think that I would never be able to be a resident.”
Currently, María Pilar is 62 years old, and works in a packing plant in Reedley, a small city in Fresno County, California, where she lives and where her son was born.
Immigration attorney Sergio Siderman explains that Daniel, María Pilar’s son, filed the I-130 petition for adjustment of status in September 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which initially allowed him to obtain a permit. job.
“Without having to leave the country, he received an unrestricted resident card, valid for ten years,” he says.
Attorney Siderman details that María Pilar did not have to leave the country to receive her permanent residence, because her mother, María Azucena Menera, had filed another residency petition for her daughter under section of the law, 245 (i).
Based on this case, the litigant recommends that immigrants with children born in the country pay attention to important dates such as when the eldest of their sons or daughters turns 21 years old so that they can submit a petition to immediate relatives such as their father as soon as possible. and mother.
“The I-130 petition to request a foreign immediate family member is the safest, fastest and most effective way to legally immigrate to the United States, but even so, each case goes through a strict review process. It is always important to present a file with all the necessary documents to save time, money and effort.”
Oaxacan María Pilar says that what she is most excited about now that she has become a resident of the United States is being able to return to her homeland.
“Although I arrived in California in 1984, I returned in 1994, but since then I have never returned; and I really want to return to Puerto Escondido. I grew up and lived near the beach, and I want to see it again; and also although my mother comes and goes, I have other relatives and acquaintances with whom I would like to meet again and talk.”
María Pilar plans to travel to Oaxaca in December, along with her son and grandson, on a trip that will undoubtedly be unforgettable and full of emotions.
For now, this mother and grandmother cannot be overjoyed because next May 10 will be the first in her life in this country, and she will be able to enjoy it peacefully without fear of separation from her only son and her grandson.