The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Andria Sandoval, an Emporia attorney who specializes in immigration law, put a face on statistics Wednesday night that show long waits for visas.

Changes since Sept. 11, 2001, in particular, have created backlogs. For some hoping to receive family-preference entry to the United States, a wait of 20 years and even 40 years, isn’t out of the ordinary.

“It gets frustrating,” Sandoval said. “It almost seems worth it to bring them here illegally and be here with them.”

But the penalty for illegal immigration, even if a pathway exists through marriage to a U.S. citizen, can be steep — a 10-year ban on living in the U.S. could be imposed and the immigrant spouse must return to his or her native country to sort out the problems.

Sandoval, speaker for the first of three immigration forums sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Emporia, married an El Salvador citizen, which led to her legal career. Her two step-daughters, who still live in El Salvador, want to join the family in Emporia, which will require additional visas.

“Reuniting families,” Sandoval said, through the family aspects of U.S. immigration law, is her goal as an attorney and makes up the bulk of her practice. Her office is located at 417 Commercial St.

Before an audience of about 40 people at the Emporia Public Library, Sandoval summarized basic immigration laws, then answered more than 10 questions, many of which focused on ways immigrants can earn permanent residency and eventually U.S. citizenship.

One questioner asked the fate of children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants. Sandoval said children in that situation might return to their parents’ country of origin, or, as American citizens, they could stay in the U.S. Neither are entirely ideal, Sandoval said, because the family could be split up.

Jacque Heckman-James, president, said the local League is helping to educate its members and the public about immigration issues. Eventually, the national League office will generate a statement of consensus about immigration.

The forums won’t directly tackle such controversial issues as border fencing and agricultural labor shortages, but they’re designed to give people the tools to debate the concerns more knowledgeably.

The next forum, on Oct. 17 at the library, will consist of a panel of local immigrants and an Emporia State expert on global immigration.