Guatemalans who fled 1990s civil war face expulsion from South Florida

“U.S. officials say Guatemalans no longer qualify for political asylum because their countrys civil war ended in 1996. Due to a massive backlog, the government only last year began notifying applicants that they must leave the country, immigration lawyers say.

During her long wait, Tomas took refuge in her new home and put the war behind her. A childhood memory of the great-aunt she saw dragged and decapitated slowly faded. So did the image of a neighbor whose body she found hanging from a tree one night while gathering firewood with her father. Every year, she renewed her work permit, raised her sons, and had little idea that her newfangled American life was built on borrowed time.”

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