Shutesbury teen wins lengthy immigration battle
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SPRINGFIELD - Crista Zavala reached a milestone this week in her immigration odyssey.
After almost two years of court proceedings and with lots of community support, the Amherst Regional High School sophomore and Shutesbury resident earned her "green card" Wednesday.
Soft-spoken and a little bit shy, Zavala said she's relieved the complicated process of earning legal permanent residency status is over.
"It was always uncertain what would happen so I always felt a sense of worry," Zavala, 19, said through a Spanish interpreter. "I'm no longer worried. There's nothing more to be worrying about."
It's an outcome her supporters at the Springfield-based nonprofit Alliance to Develop Power say is rare for someone in her situation.
Zavala entered the United States illegally two years ago. She did it to join her mother, also named Crista Zavala, who came to the Pioneer Valley in 2005 and worked as a dishwasher in the Amherst area to support her family in El Salvador.
The two were wrenched apart just a few months after their reunion when Zavala's mother was deported.
Having achieved permanent residency status, Zavala has her eyes on even bigger goals: to study midwifery, citizenship and eventually bring her mother and three older sisters to the United States.
"I want to continue my studies, and if I become a citizen that will allow me to do that," Zavala said.
In all, Zavala attended seven hearings before U.S. Immigration Court Judge Leonard Shapiro. She was represented by Boston immigration attorney Maureen Sullivan, who could not be reached for comment.
Zavala herself was facing deportation two years ago, but staff and volunteers with the Alliance to Develop Power came to her aid. The group worked with the state Department of Social Services to place her in foster care with the Fernandez-O'Brien family of Shutesbury. The department later took on Zavala's legal expenses, said Alliance executive director Caroline Murray.
"The amount of bureaucracy that had to be managed I think was shocking to us," Murray said of the immigration proceedings.
Alliance coordinator William Cano assisted Zavala through the court hearings and helped her get all the necessary paperwork, like her birth certificate from El Salvador.
"I think the attorney was able to show the judge that the community was with (Zavala) and she was doing great at school," Cano said. "She was also giving proof that she was a good person to be in this country and to succeed."
Zavala must renew her green card every 10 years; but she said she plans to apply for citizenship before that. She will be eligible to apply five years from now.
While working on her court case, learning English and keeping up with schoolwork, Zavala has also gotten involved politically. Last fall she spoke with Sen. John Kerry at an immigration summit in Springfield; and in March she joined a protest against raids on undocumented workers outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington.
Zavala will speak as part of a panel on immigration issues July 11 at Smith College.
Murray said she's optimistic about President Obama's plans to reform immigration laws. Under current laws, Murray said, Zavala couldn't bring her mother back to the United States because she was previously deported.
Zavala said she keeps in touch with her family by phone, but is worried about their well-being.
"It's difficult for them because there's more poverty," she said.
El Salvador, which is about the size of New Jersey, is the most densely populated country in Central America, and among its poorest.
In 2007 Zavala made a monthlong overland trek into the United States with a group of other Salvadorans who paid a "coyote," or guide, to help them cross the border undetected.
Authorities caught her soon after she entered Texas. Though the government initiated deportation proceedings, she was released from custody and allowed to join her mother in Massachusetts.
Though a deportation order had been issued against the elder Zavala in 2005, she managed to stay under the radar of Immigration and Customs Enforcement until September 2007, when she was involved in a minor car accident on the Coolidge Bridge.
Northampton Police entered her name in a national database, as is routine, and that alerted ICE to her whereabouts. She was detained and deported less than a month later.
This left the younger Zavala on her own, but Elizabeth Fernandez-O'Brien and her husband, Bert Fernandez, of Shutesbury, quickly stepped up to become her foster parents.
Elizabeth Fernandez-O'Brien, said she, Bert, their son, Remy, and others from the Amherst area earlier had helped organize a benefit dinner for those arrested in a large-scale immigration raid in New Bedford.
Later, when the Alliance to Develop Power was looking for a family to host Zavala, they opened their home.
"At first I felt strange with this new family," Zavala said. "But now, over time, I've felt much more part of it, and that's because of how they've treated me. They've made me feel like a part of the family and they've given me what I've needed."
James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.
