Guardian mothers.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - Listen to what his teachers and other grown-ups have to say, and Kevin Cruz comes off as a remarkable 12-year-old boy: smart, kind, funny, ambitious. Any mother would be proud of such a child.

And yet Kevin Cruz's mother has begun the legal paperwork that would allow her to give him up for adoption. Already, he lives with another Springfield woman awarded temporary guardianship.

But this legal act of abandonment is grounded in love, not indifference; in desperation, but not yet despair.

Kevin, a native of El Salvador, entered the United States illegally two years ago, leaving a diabetic grandmother who could no longer care for him. He was caught at the border, but allowed to reunite with the mother he hadn't seen since he was 3. They hugged in the Arizona desert, and Antonia Cruz brought her son back to live with her in Springfield.

But the federal Executive Office of Immigration Review ordered him deported, and Kevin's world soon included the interior of multiple courtrooms. A crucial court hearing on his status, before U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Bennett, is slated for Nov. 29 in Portland.

Kevin's legal prospects are uncertain because his mother, though currently in the United States legally, is not a U.S. citizen - a status that would make it much easier for her son to be allowed to live here.

So Antonia Cruz, in consultation with friends and immigration attorney Raquel Hecht of Eugene, hit upon an idea: She would give up her son, to be raised by another, so that he might be allowed to stay.

"It was too hard for me, but I had to choose," said Cruz, 32. "It is better for him to live here, where there are a lot of people who love him and can take care of him. We can do nothing more."

Kevin now lives with Blanca Berguin, a Springfield resident and U.S. citizen with a husband and three children of her own. Berguin, also a native of El Salvador, and Kevin's mother met at St. Alice Catholic Church in Springfield.

Berguin, a phlebotomist, dismisses the notion that hers is some grand gesture.

"I just want this to happen so he can go to school and realize his dreams," she said. "We hope and pray to let this happen. It would be a miracle."

The idea has the blessing of Lane County Juvenile Court Judge Kip Leonard, who at a recent hearing approved Cruz's petition to award temporary guardianship to Berguin, and also took a few minutes to chat up Kevin.

"What's your favorite class?" asked Leonard.

"Math," said Kevin.

"He's getting all A's and B's," piped in Hecht, the attorney.

In a later interview at home, Kevin tells a visitor about his long-term ambitions, which have nothing to do with such standard youth career goals as law enforcement or firefighting or calf-roping.

"I want to be a broker," he said.

A clean-cut youth whose eyes frequently reveal a mischievous smile, Kevin is partial to playing video games and telling jokes. Classmates at Briggs Middle School marvel at his prowess with a soccer ball. Past and present teachers are effusive in their praise of his academic success, especially considering he knew virtually no English when he arrived.

When he showed up at Page Elementary School at age 10, Kevin was essentially monolingual, said Bryan Reed, who taught English as a Second Language at Page that year.

But Reed said he quickly recognized in Kevin a crucial component to learning: "He had that quality of doing the best you can and not being afraid to make mistakes."

When he got to Briggs last year, Kevin immediately joined the after-school homework club.

"He was always organized, always did his work," recalled club adviser Kevin Webber. "If there was nothing for him to do, he'd ask if he could help me out.

"I think for him it was almost a case of sink or swim, and he wanted to swim."

Now in seventh grade, Kevin typically spends a few minutes before the first bell hanging in math teacher Dave Smith's classroom. The two bonded last year when Kevin, initially enrolled in a lower math class, was bumped up to Smith's higher-level class.

"He's kind of a model student, really," said Smith, who likes to share jokes and learn a little Spanish from Kevin. "It's just amazing to me that he could come from his situation to a new environment, a new language, and excel as he has. He's a good kid with a bright personality."

Kevin's first period is a reading class where, said teacher Elly Steinbaugh, he never misses an assignment and regularly claims the top grade. Steinbaugh said she sometimes picks up hints of stress in Kevin's world, "but it definitely doesn't affect his work. He's one of those kids who puts on a happy face no matter what. He's not negative about anything."

But he is, sometimes, reticent - when asked, for example, about the trek from El Salvador to Springfield. The scariest part, he said, "was when they took me to a house that I didn't even know" - a way station in Mexico prior to his ill-fated attempt to cross the U.S. border.

According to court documents, Kevin was a passenger in a 1998 Chevrolet Lumina that rolled up to the border checkpoint at Douglas, Ariz., on Nov. 15, 2003. The driver, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and his wife represented Kevin as their son. When skeptical inspectors challenged the claim, the couple admitted their lie, but also said Kevin was a Mexican citizen.

Kevin was released into the custody of the Mexican Consulate, which nine days later informed the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency that Kevin was in fact a citizen of El Salvador, not Mexico. Officials also notified Kevin's mother, who rushed to Arizona - "I run, I fly!" she said - to be reunited with her son.

Kevin was granted legal entry and a one-year "humanitarian" parole, and a complicated tug-of-war has ensued ever since.

Attorney Hecht contends Department of Homeland Security legal counsel initially agreed to let her pursue whether Kevin could be allowed to stay in the United States. When Bennett, the immigration judge in Portland, nonetheless ordered Kevin deported, Hecht filed an appeal with the Board of Immigration Appeals.

On July 19, the appeals board upheld Hecht's request, declaring that Bennett erred in refusing to let negotiations continue on Kevin's behalf, especially given Kevin's young age and the fact that the government's legal counsel had indicated its openness to review the case further.

Bennett - a 1982 graduate of the University of Oregon Law School and an immigration judge since 1989 - will revisit the case Nov. 29.

Bennett is precluded from speaking publicly about pending immigration cases or cases involving juveniles. Leonard, the Lane County juvenile court judge, is similarly prohibited from speaking about Kevin's case.

Kevin's mother entered the United States illegally nine years ago. She is now here legally, however, after the U.S. government granted temporary protected status to natives of El Salvador in the wake of recent natural disasters - earthquakes, a hurricane and volcanic eruption - in that country.

A single parent, Antonia Cruz said she left El Salvador because she was unable to support her only child, whom she left in the care of her mother. A furniture finisher at Cole's Furniture in Eugene for the past seven years, she said she regularly sent money and gifts to El Salvador to help support her son. But then her mother became too ill to care for Kevin.

"We tried to bring him here legal, but it cannot be possible," said Cruz, whose English is serviceable but not fluent. "I knew my mom wanted to send him (anyway), but I did not know exactly."

Despite Kevin's illegal entry, Cruz and Berguin said they are perplexed by the U.S. government's insistence that the 12-year-old boy must leave the country and the promise of a better future.

"They don't see a little boy; they only see a no-legal alien," said Berguin.

Kevin, who inherited three instant siblings at Berguin's home, visits his mother on weekends and also sees her off-and-on during the week. Cruz continues to share her home with her young, U.S.-born daughter. But she misses her son.

"Right now I feel a little better because he has a good family with him," she said. "But this is hard, really hard."

CAPTION(S):

Kevin Cruz attends Mass at St. Alice Catholic Church in Springfield on a Saturday night with his mother, Antonia, (right) and his guardian, Blanca Berguin. The boy, a native of El Salvador, is at the center of a struggle to determine if he may stay in the U.S. Cruz works in a language arts and reading class at Briggs Middle School. Working nearby is a classmate, Chad Carnay. Paul Carter / The Register-Guard "I just want this to happen so he can go to school and realize his dreams. We hope and pray to let this happen. It would be a miracle." - BLANCA BERGUIN, SPRINGFIELD RESIDENT WHO HOPES TO ADOPT KEVIN Paul Carter / The Register-Guard Kevin Cruz makes the sign of the cross as he enters St. Alice Catholic Church on a Saturday night for Spanish language Mass. Cruz (left) sits in the cafeteria of Briggs Middle School and listens to one of his friends, Luis Lopez.