Sharon, Patty and Yaxkin hope that their family can stay together. Photo courtesy of the Melendez family.
Patty Melendez faces an uncertain future in the United States even though she has lived and raised her family in Queens, New York since 1997. Patty is one of more than 900,000 immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The program was created in 1990, and allows immigrants from countries with political turmoil and violence to live and work in the United States legally.
Patty, with the help of her daughter, is fighting to stay and become a citizen. Her daughter Sharon Mejia has done much of the talking and paperwork to try to prevent a threatened deportation order, that dates to a 1997, from going into effect. Patti said she never received the order. “My mom’s story isn’t unique, but it’s important,” Sharon said.
Patty’s situation is complicated because in November President-Elect Donald Trump said that he wanted to eliminate TPS for countries including El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. Patty Melendez thought that she had escaped from El Salvador and the gangs that threatened her family and her future. Now the idea of going back is unthinkable. Her life with her daughter, son and family is in New York.
Before the family left, a gang, MS-13, was extorting the local families in their village Opico, in El Salvador for money and Patty’s family feared for their lives. Patty was four months pregnant with Sharon, and said, “She had to think of her daughter and put her future first.” Her husband, Jose, had a visa and entered the U.S. legally. So Patty, with their four-year-old son Yaxkin and her growing belly made the dangerous journey spanning over five thousand miles, from Opico to New York.
Patty’s mother found the person who would help them get to the United States. This person was someone they knew they could trust, since they had helped get some of Patty’s siblings to the U.S. already. Although the journey was stressful and the outcome uncertain, the hardships were far from over when they reached New York.
The transition to life here was not what Patty had imagined. “My hope was to be reunited with my family, and I did not find here what I expected. Many times I wanted to leave because of the situation we lived in. There were 14 people in a singular apartment. There was too much alcohol, and loud parties every weekend,” said Patty. She longed for a more peaceful life with her kids and husband, which at the time was not possible because she was pregnant and couldn’t find work.
Their lives did improve. Patty’s husband, who’d been a dentist in El Salvador, found work and became a citizen. After her children were older, Patty opened a cleaning business in Flushing and became successful. “She built something out of nothing, contributing not just to our family but to the community she became part of. She worked from sunrise to sundown. She paid taxes, employed people, and never
once took anything from this country that she didn’t earn. She’s the definition of the American Dream,” her daughter Sharon said.
Sharon and her brother Yaxkin also succeeded. Sharon works as an immigration specialist and plans to go to law school. Her brother is earning his master’s degree and preparing for medical school. Since Sharon works in immigration, she wanted her mother to tighten up her legal status and was horrified by what she found when she began the process in 2018.
She learned that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (ICE) had sent her mother a deportation order in 1997. The family apparently never received it and in the meantime, the father and son had become citizens without a challenge from ICE.
“My mom was devastated,” Sharon said.. The family learned that to move forward, they needed to file a Motion to Reopen and Dismiss the decades-old deportation order with an immigration judge. Which they did. This process took months.“Everything about the process felt like a race against time,” Sharon recalled. “It was emotionally and financially draining, and the uncertainty was suffocating.”
Patty and the family were told that they could expect a response by March 2025 and that now makes everything more frightening. “ I am afraid that all these delays are due to the current policies and political environment, but I have faith in God that everything will work out, and I will receive my papers,” said Patty.
Despite the setbacks, Sharon remains steadfast in her mission to secure her mother’s citizenship. “My mom has given everything to this country,” she said. “All she wants is the security of knowing she won’t be forced to leave the life she’s built.”
For Sharon, the fight for her mother’s citizenship is more than just a legal battle. It’s a way to honor the courage and sacrifices that shaped their lives. “My mom always says, ‘I didn’t come here for myself. I came here for you.’ And that’s exactly why I won’t stop fighting for her.” Sharon said. “The least I can do is ensure she finally has a place to call home.”
Series: Immigration
