Believe In America.com

butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271

LOS ANGELES -- Carlos Siguenza remembered the threatening letters left at his home in Guatemala in the late 1980s, when the country was embroiled in a 36-year civil war that left about 200,000 dead.

"Join the guerillas or be killed," he said, quoting the anonymous messages.

When he didn't comply, several men tried to shoot him, he said.

Siguenza fled to the United States, followed two years later by his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children. They applied for asylum in the early 1990s and were issued work permits and Social Security numbers.

Now, federal officials want to deport them and thousands of other Guatemalan refugees after denying their asylum claims. Authorities have determined there is no longer a threat because the Central American nation's war ended a decade ago.

"We bought a house and have been making a life here for 15 years," Elizabeth Siguenza said. "We have nothing in Guatemala."

Guatemalan civil rights groups are fighting the orders, contending it's not the applicants' fault that so much time has elapsed between the filing and processing of their claims.

continued:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-guatemalans-asylum%2C0%2C603037.story