Annapolis family sits at heart of DACA debate; Luis Portillo: ‘I know there are more people like me, too’

Luis Portillo shifts a lot on the couch of his Annapolis home when the topic of his impending deportation comes up.

A 42-year-old El Salvadoran immigrant who said he and his family have been in Annapolis legally since 2001 with temporary protected status, he regularly retreats into a response of "Everything will be OK."

But he admits it's somewhat of a defense mechanism, one he uses to keep up appearances with his two children, both of whom are attending college in different states.

"I try to stay positive ... for them," he said.

Listening to Portillo, their family's situation seemingly manages to hit every single aspect of the current immigration debate happening not an hour away from where they live.

Portillo said he and his family fled El Salvador in 2001 on a tourist visa he'd renewed because he'd come to the country previously to visit family.

El Salvador had been devastated by an earthquake, which is what sparked then-President George W. Bush to extend them and other El Salvadoran immigrants the temporary protected status. According to the Pew Research Center, the status extends to about 320,000 people in the country who hail from 10 nations that have either gone through a significant natural disaster, like El Salvador and Haiti, or from war-torn regions like Yemen.

However, as the name implies, it does not offer permanent relief. The status is typically offered for a six- to 18-month period, and it's up to presidents to renew the status or let it expire.

For El Salvador, the status was renewed several times under Bush and then-President Barack Obama, allowing people like Portillo and his family to stay in the country for nearly 17 years.

In 2012, Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, immigration policy, which gave certain immigrants who arrived in the country under the age of 16 and had lived in the country since 2007 the opportunity to obtain work permits for two-year periods.

Portillo said his two children - a 19-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old son who came into the country when they were 3 and 4 years old, respectively - obtained permits under the policy.

President Donald Trump and his administration did not renew the temporary protected status for El Salvador earlier this year, giving them until September 2019 before they will no longer be allowed to stay in the country legally.

Trump also canceled DACA, and it is set to expire on March 5. However, a federal court ruling allowed those with the protection to renew their status if it expires in March or later, which Portillo said his two children did.

The president has put the onus on Congress to come up with an immigration deal that protects those covered by DACA, but the Senate rejected a bipartisan agreement earlier this month after Trump threatened to veto the bill.

Portillo, who has worked at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Annapolis for more than a decade-and-a-half, said he's considering going into hiding if neither Trump nor Congress offers him any path to citizenship.

He said he hopes his story will bring light to the weight behind Trump's decision. He said he only expected to be in the country for five years, but ultimately set up roots after his kids began to excel at school.

"All these years are thrown in the trash," he said. "Seventeen years in one place is a life."

His home is a modest, two-story house with a 9-year-old yellow Labrador who yelps behind a small gate in the kitchen as Portillo talks about how his daughter made the dean's list and his son plays basketball at college.

He emphasizes he works twice as hard to put them through college, splitting time between an auto body shop and the hotel.

But it comes at a time when the microscope on immigration has focused on crimes perpetrated by immigrants, with the gang MS-13, a transnational gang with bases in El Salvador, being a major focus.

A report by the Center for Migration Studies claims about 25 percent of 506 people accused of being MS-13 members were illegal immigrants, which they claim are the result of "failed immigration policies" and an unwillingness by some state and local law enforcement agencies who are "not allowed to cooperate fully" with immigration officials.

The report's author, Executive Director Jessica M. Vaughan, has also cited DACA as a contributor to the gang's resurgence.

"For example, one MS-13 clique leader in Frederick, Md., who had received a DACA work permit and was employed as a custodian at a middle school in Frederick, Md., and who was recently incarcerated for various gang-related crimes, reportedly was told by gang leaders in El Salvador to take advantage of the lenient policies on UACs (Unaccompanied Alien Child) to bring in new recruits, knowing that they would be allowed to resettle in the area with few questions asked," she wrote.

But Portillo said he, too, fears the gang and the resurgence they've had in this country, and he hopes those examples don't paint a broader picture that doesn't include the stories of his two children.

As the conversation moved to his children, he said they're his only concern. He said they cried over the phone when they were discussing the end of the temporary protected status with him, but he promised he would make it work.

He said he hopes something can be reached so he can see his two children graduate from college.

"For me, I just needed more time," he said. "I know there are more people like me, too."

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Credit: By Phil Davis - [email protected] - twitter.com/PhilDavis_CG

Caption: Luis Portillo proudly displays the letter announcing his daughter made the dean's list at Loyola University Chicago. Portillo emigrated to the U.S. 17 years ago with his wife and kids under TPS, which is set to end in September. The family who considers the U.S. their home, hope for an ultimate path to citizenship.

Thalia Juarez/Capital Gazette