Local petition pushes for protection of immigrants

LYNN – A group of Latin American immigrants have started a petition in Lynn they hope to take all the way to the White House.The petition asks the federal government to make good on a 2010 request to provide temporary protected status for undocumented Guatemalan immigrants in light of three major storms and earthquakes that have wracked the country over the past two years.”Due to all the recent destruction, we have been overwhelmed with requests for help from family members living in Guatemala,” the petition reads.Juan Gonzalez, himself a Guatemalan immigrant, said he started the petition because he believes momentum is on their side to receive the 25,000 signatures needed to receive a response from the White House. The petition aims to encourage the U.S. government to revisit a 2010 request to allow temporary protection status, originally made after a major storm hit the country.That request has gone unanswered.But now, Gonzalez said, the conversation in Washington, D.C. is turning to immigration reform; President Barack Obama was just re-elected and next week a high-level Guatemalan diplomat is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, in part to discuss temporary protection status.”We’ve never had something like this,” Gonzalez said.The temporary immigration status would allow undocumented Guatemalans to legally work in the United States for a predetermined period of time.It does not lead to permanent status, but it does give Guatemalans time to assess their situations before returning back home to a damaged country, said Pastor Eduardo Caceres, of Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia de Lynn.”If they go back to their home country now, it will be chaos,” he said.He and Gonazlez noted this petition could help make the streets of Lynn and other communities safer, because only those without criminal records would receive the special status.School Committee member Maria Carrasco, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, also lent her support to the cause.”I’m here because I’m an immigrant and I have compassion for immigrants who are working hard in our country,” she said at a press conference for the petition Wednesday.For more information on the petition, or to sign it electronically, visit whitehouse.gov/petitions and click on “Find a petition.”Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].