wfn.org | Salvadoran couple wed

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-082

Salvadoran rescued from deportation returns to joyous 
wedding in North Carolina

by E. T. Malone Jr.

(ENS) There was the usual last-minute anxiety before 
the wedding began. Somebody whispered that the bride was having 
trouble with a button. The four o'clock starting time passed, as 
the organist glanced from time to time toward the rear of the 
church, pulled out more sheet music, and kept on playing.

People shifted in their pews. Wedding congregations--
filled with guests who are often unfamiliar with Episcopal 
liturgy--are always more varied than those who attend regular 
services, but this congregation was an absolute hodge-podge. 
Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, black and white, Anglos and 
Hispanics, the poor and the wealthy, the educated and the 
uneducated, the powerful and the powerless--all had gathered on 
May 15 at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 
to witness a wonderful event: the marriage of Daisy Diaz and Jose 
Federico Campos, her childhood sweetheart and father of her five 
children.

When the procession finally began, and the beaming 
bride appeared with flowers in her hair, there was more than the 
usual sigh of relief.

More than just a wedding, as joyful as that can be in 
itself, this was the outward and visible sign of an energetic 
community project that had reached a happy and successful 
conclusion.
Languishing "in exile"

For until little more than a month earlier Campos, a 
resident of Chapel Hill since 1987, had languished "in exile" in 
El Salvador where he was deported in October 1998 after being 
arrested when he showed up in Charlotte for what he thought would 
be a hearing on his permanent residency in the U.S.

Instead, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service 
officials pulled out an 11-year-old deportation order that had 
been issued when Campos, on the advice of a private immigration 
counselor, had failed to show up for a deportation hearing in 
1988 in federal immigration court in Atlanta.

Campos and Diaz had fallen in love when he was a 17-
year-old high school student and she was a 14-year-old in middle 
school. Fleeing the civil war in El Salvador, Campos crossed 
illegally into Texas and lived with his older brother Carlos. 
Three years later he applied for political asylum, but was 
denied. Told he could be sent home, he didn't attend the 1988 
hearing.

When Diaz turned 17, Campos persuaded her to join him 
in the United States, which she was able to enter legally. Here, 
they began to build a life and work toward becoming American 
citizens. They had five children, all American citizens, the most 
recent of whom were twin daughters born only nine months before 
Campos' deportation. But they were unable to marry because the 
change in status would have voided his residency application.

Campos became a carpenter and construction company 
supervisor in Chapel Hill and Diaz worked as a certified nursing 
assistant. Their three sons--Hugo, Jorge, and Alonzo--attend 
Seawell Elementary School and play in local soccer leagues. The 
oldest son, Hugo, suffers from a genetic disorder called 
neurofibromatosis, which can cause tumors and seizures. He must 
take expensive medication and every three months receive magnetic 
resonance imaging scans at the University of North Carolina 
Hospital. Health insurance at Campos' job covered part of the 
cost of Hugo's treatment.

Still, the INS would not consider hardship to children 
in reversing the deportation order, explained Molly McConnell, a 
Chapel of the Cross parishioner who became an indefatigable 
volunteer case worker for the family. "Molly almost burned up the 
church fax machine campaigning," said her rector, the Rev. 
Stephen Elkins-Williams, who preached the homily for the wedding.

She acted as coordinator for the task of finding 
effective legal representation for Campos and for organizing all 
the documents needed to apply for a waiver of deportation.
A community's support

Diaz, alone with the five children, received community 
support ranging from volunteer child care to cash donations for 
medical costs and legal fees. Jeff Weinstock, a Seawell School 
parent and chair of the school governance committee, acted as 
almost a surrogate father for the boys, taking them out for pizza 
or for soccer games.

The breakthrough came when it was discovered that 
Campos might be returned to the U.S. if it could be proved that 
his absence was a hardship to his mother, who by now was also 
living in North Carolina. "Well, this was no problem," said 
McConnell. Documentation was soon on its way and the visa officer 
at the U.S. embassy in El Salvador expedited a visa for Campos.

He stepped off the plane at the Raleigh-Durham Airport 
with nothing but the clothes on his back and the all-important 
green card, making him a permanent resident of the United States.

His sons cut the yellow ribbons that had been tied 
around the school marquee six months ago, and the entire school 
community staged a huge welcome-home celebration on Apr. 16, the 
day after Campos' return to the United States. Staff and parents 
there had rallied to help the family after his deportation. Food 
and banners filled the courtyard and portable stereos played "I'm 
Walking on Sunshine," "Celebrate," and "Don't Worry, Be Happy."

Immediately, Campos and Diaz wanted to schedule the 
wedding, and began talks with the Rev. Timothy Kimbrough, rector 
of Church of the Holy Family in Chapel Hill, where the boys had 
attended an afterschool program and begun attending Sunday 
school. They plan to have their children baptized there in 
November. The wedding service was held at Chapel of the Cross to 
accommodate a larger crowd.

"Joyous and unique"

"What a joyous and unique occasion," said Elkins-
Williams in his homily. "In celebrating weddings for seventeen 
years here, I do not remember one like this--from whatever way 
you want to look at it!.We give God great thanks that we have 
seen this day and for the privilege of participating in this 
joyful union."

Kimbrough as celebrant read much of the ceremony in 
Spanish, and Ted Vaden, a parishioner at Chapel of the Cross and 
editor of the Chapel Hill News, which had published a series of 
articles and editorials on the case, read one of the lessons.

Their children joined Campos and Diaz at the altar for 
the final prayers. Alonzo brought the ring. Jorge served as his 
father's best man, and Hugo gave his mother away. The twins, 
Vannessa and Valeria, watched most of the ceremony from a front 
pew.

Still, everything is not settled. Recently, a new 
problem cropped up when the INS appealed a judge's ruling that 
Diaz herself be granted permanent residency--raising the spectre 
of the mother of this family now possibly being deported. 
McConnell supervised the distribution of pre-printed postcards at 
the wedding addressed to INS officials, asking them to withdraw 
the appeal.

The next day she was on the telephone, methodically 
going down the list of people who had signed the guest register. 
"Hello, I'm sure you simply overlooked it, but you forgot to sign 
one of the postcards yesterday. Now, why don't you just.."

--The Rev. Canon E. T. Malone Jr. is canon for publications 
and records for the Diocese of North Carolina.