Asylum seeker now has green card

When Bárbara received her green card late last year, she knew that she was finally safe.

The 32-year-old Cuban Nicaraguan woman fled her home in Managua only to spend years stuck in Tijuana in the “Remain in Mexico” program, which required asylum seekers to wait south of the border for their U.S. immigration court cases to proceed. She said the moment she opened the envelope with her permanent residency card, it was a success to put atop the many others she’s had since she was allowed to cross from Tijuana to San Diego for the last time.

“I would like all the readers to know that all the effort was worth it,” she told me recently in Spanish. “I feel that every effort I make in this country — and I’m not just talking about economic or work but also intellectual effort — gives me fruit.”

I wrote about Bárbara in February 2020 as part of the award-winning series “Returned,” which took a deep dive into the U.S. asylum system.

Shortly after we published the article about her, San Diego attorney Maria Chavez offered to take on Bárbara’s case for free. With the evidence she had of the political persecution she experienced, it looked like she might have a chance of winning her asylum case even in a system that, as we’ve shown, is full of bias and disparities.

Then the pandemic happened.

Her case, as with everyone else’s waiting in the Remain in Mexico program, paused indefinitely.

In early 2021, the Biden administration decided to wind down the program. Bárbara rushed to sign up for her spot to enter the United States.

From a vantage point near the port of entry, on March 4, I watched her walk out of the processing area and board a bus provided by Jewish Family Service to take her to a San Diego hotel shelter until she passed a COVID test and was approved for travel. She waved at me enthusiastically as the bus passed by.

Once she reached her aunt’s home in

Florida, her family roasted a pig to celebrate. She enrolled at Miami Dade College to learn English and began taking courses to work as a paralegal.

Her first job, she said, was working about 60 hours a week at a bakery. At the same time, she got certifications for doing eyelashes and microblading and started her own business renting space at a salon.

After she was far enough along in her paralegal coursework, she started helping immigrants with work permit request forms.

“Every time someone receives a work permit because I did the documentation correctly, I am filled with satisfaction because I see myself reflected in that person,” she said.

The people she helped told their friends, and now she has a business with two employees.

Most of her clients are Nicaraguans, and she’s worried about the worsening, politically oppressive conditions in the country she left.

In the end, Bárbara got her green card not because of the persecution she faced in Nicaragua but because she is also a citizen of Cuba. There is a program exclusively for Cubans that allows them to request green cards after one year on U.S. soil.

Meanwhile, she fell in love and married a man who had been a friend of her family. They are in the process of buying a house.

“I think I’ve made roots,” she said. “That’s the best thing that’s happened to me.”

She’s hopeful that she will soon be able to get a green card for her son, who is now 13, and bring him to live with her. She and her husband are waiting for him to be able to be there for their big wedding ceremony.

“The secret formula in the United States is to study, work and focus yourself,” she advised. “It worked for me. I hope it works for many people.”

You can read more about Bárbara’s journey at sandiegouniontribune.com/returned.

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com