The Invisible Girl

Meanwhile, experts say, Maria's case is a hard one to predict. After all, despite her blown chances for amnesty, despite botched applications for asylum, there are still several ways she could stay in the U.S., says INS spokeswoman Mariela Melero. Now that she's lived here more than seven years, Maria might argue that it would cause her extreme hardship to return to Guatemala. Maybe she could successfully claim that it's still dangerous for her to return home. Or maybe, given all the delays in processing in her case, Maria's American-born children could grow up before her case goes to trial and end up sponsoring her.

Then again, maybe not. Just as easily, says attorney Magali Candler of Associated Catholic Charities, the INS may throw out Maria's claims of endangerment and extreme hardship just as they have discounted thousands of others' claims, and send her back home.

"This case illustrates how hard it is to say who the good guys and who the bad guys are in this immigration thing," says former INS chief Leonel Castillo. "It's easy to blame her home government. But that wouldn't be right. Or her family. But that wouldn't be exactly right either. It's easy to blame the INS, but they haven't deported her. It's really an illustration of how hard it is to get through this system for everybody."

As for Maria, never adept at apportioning blame anyway, she doesn't apply the word to her own case at all. After all, this is a woman who still keeps in touch with her aunt and uncle, doggedly inviting them to dinner although they never call her and never ask about her family. Her main goal, Maria says, is simply to look out for her kids the way no one looked out for her.

No matter where she ends up living, Maria says, "My kids won't be shut up all the time like I was. And they need to have friends. Me, nobody ever remembered.