After four-month journey to find father, El Salvadoran girl facing deportation

... Erika, now 11, entered the country illegally, and a federal immigration judge has ordered the girl to return to her native country by June or face deportation -- ruling that her family and attorney say will sentence her to a life on the streets ...

Speaking through a translator, Erika recounted how she lived in Acajutla, a port town on the Pacific Coast about 50 miles south of the capital, San Salvador.

One day in 2001, her mother went to work and never returned home, leaving her and two younger half-siblings. The children lived off the kindness of neighbors for about a year before Erika decided to leave to try to find her father, whom she had not seen since she was 2 ...

She made her way north through Guatemala and Mexico, walking and riding buses with strangers. She eventually found herself alone, without food or water, on the Mexican side of the border. She drank from the Rio Grande and looked to the other side ...

Girl Fights Deportation to Stay With Dad

... The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said it would not take action against Erika while her case is argued in the courts. But her father and attorney are trying to persuade officials to allow Erika to stay in the United States permanently because she has no family in El Salvador and would be vulnerable to prostitution rings if forced to return ...

Erika did not know her father's first name but was able to tell officials his last name. She also knew she had a grandmother, Cruz's mother. Authorities were able to locate the grandmother in Houston, and she then called Cruz. He quickly drove to Texas and picked up Erika at a detention facility in Brownsville ...

"I'm hopeful," Cruz said. "We have a very good lawyer. … Erika wants to be a lawyer, so she can help her people" ...