Long limbo of Tito Cruz ends with citizenship after 16 years

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Tito Cruz started breathing more easily in November.

That’s when the Salvadoran, who came to Las Vegas illegally in 1990, became a legal permanent resident, thanks to the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997, which is known as NACARA.

Cruz, 49, left El Salvador because of its rampant poverty and fighting between the government and guerrillas.

He came alone, armed only with the name of a contact from his native country.

The hardships he endured were compounded by the fact that he couldn’t return home when his mother died.

He couldn’t risk leaving the United States, where he had applied for asylum and had obtained a work permit.

His case was pending for 16 years.

Determined to forge a better life in this country, Cruz has always worked two jobs at a time.

Today, he cooks for two shifts at a Chinese restaurant.

The $25,000 he makes annually is supplemented by the wages of his wife, a housekeeper at the Stratosphere.

Now that he has legal status, Cruz can seek better jobs freely. But his prospects are limited; he doesn’t know English, nor is he literate in Spanish.

Speaking quietly through a translator, Cruz said he wants to learn English but has little time to spare between work and raising five of his 10 children.

Cruz encourages them to do well in school. With more opportunities, he said, they can build better lives than their parents have had.

As for the country’s ongoing debate over illegal immigration, Cruz said he hopes Americans can empathize with the struggles of those who leave family and home behind to start a new life in a strange land.

He also wants them to understand the stress these immigrants feel, knowing they could be deported at any time, “that someday, they will see and feel what immigrants feel, coming to this country, with all their problems and limitations.”