CARTA DE LUIS FUENTES A LA EMBAJADA DE EL SALVADOR EN WASHIGTON DC

October 11, 2012

Luis Fuentes

237 Sherman Street

Brentwood, New York 11717

Embassy of El Salvador – Washington DC

1400 16th Street NW Suite 100,

 Washington, DC 20036. 20036
Telephone (202) 595 7500  - Fax (202) 232 3763

Dear Sirs/Madams;

I am writing this letter with the assistance of a community advocate in my area to address our inability to communicate with this Embassy or get any assistance from the Brentwood, New York El Salvadoran consulate.

I am a Salvadoran National living in Brentwood, New York, USA with the Temporary Protective Status granted to Salvadorans In 2001. Please understand that I am in dire need of assistance and I have been told over and over again to obtain such assistance from my local consulate and/or the El Salvadoran Embassy.

I am writing this because I have been to my local consulate in Brentwood NY where I presented my situation to the consul general himself and was told someone would contact me. That was on or around September 12, 2012, and I have not received a response yet. I then tried to call the Embassy in Washington, but after being hung up on several times, while told I was being transferred, and then disconnected, calling back and asking for the woman’s name who kept dropping the call only to be refused this information and hung up on again and ultimately not being able to speak to anyone, I decided to write this letter.

I feel as if my countrymen assigned to assist those of us here in the United States are not taking my situation seriously. I also feel that they are not doing anything to assist me. I need someone to help me, for this is a true emergency and one I have been trying desperately to resolve on my own with the assistance of the aforementioned advocate in my area.

The issue at hand is that my wife Marilu Noely Alas Santos decided to come to this country, as so many of us Salvadorans have, illegally.  Upon entering Texas she disappeared. The last contact I had with my wife was on September 5, 2012. I began to search for her about a week later after not hearing from her. I have been in the process of trying  locating her via CBP, ICE and USCIS.

  

The advocate I have come to for assistance has done all she can in trying to get information as to my wife’s whereabouts. We have even called and are receiving assistance from the “Angels of the Desert” a rescue organization that combs the bordering desserts looking for the lost immigrants. The founder of this organization has been most cooperative and has been actively searching and communicating with us to report his progress or lack thereof. In other words I have been receiving assistance from everyone, except the agency or government entity that we have been repeatedly told could and should assist me, the Salvadoran Consulate, my consulate!

I cannot understand how the very thing placed in this country to assist the citizens of El Salvador can be so callus and indifferent, so unprofessional and arrogant. Please understand that I would not be writing this if I would have received the slightest bit of cooperation from this agency. I would not be troubling you if at the very least they would have called to say we cannot help you, period! Yet I have been completely ignored, as if I am not a citizen of El Salvador, as if my wife and my family are not important. This is just unacceptable and absurd! How is it that the woman answering the phone in Washington sounds as if I am imposing on her time? How can she be as arrogant as to hang up on me over and over again? This is just plain childish, they are employed to assist their fellow citizens yet we are made to feel as if we are an imposition!! Whatever your training policy is this issue needs to be addressed. I am not expecting miracles, but I do expect to be treated decently, professionally and at the very least heard! If they are unable to assist me well then so be it, but I should think that an attempt or even a façade at an attempt should be made!!

I am sending copies of this letter to my local Brentwood New York assemblyman, Phil Ramos, to a local newspaper and to the local Hispanic news agencies. I am hoping that this will somehow motivate the proper authorities to assist me. I am also hoping that your customer service policy will be changed; to make one feel as if they are being helped by a fellow citizen of your home country, a compatriot, someone who understands the idiosyncrasies of our people; and not made to feel as if we are a burden and a bother. I strongly suggest that this behavior be addressed because it is disheartening and downright despicable!

Most of all I am begging for your assistance in finding my wife, the mother of our two young children, the daughter of a loving mother who is beside herself in anguish, please help! Thank you.

Sincerely,

Luis Fuentes 631-767-8363          Cecilia Quevedo 631-504-6651 community advocate