By Peter Prengaman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES - An immigration judge Monday ruled that a 10-year-old Salvadoran boy who was apprehended crossing the U.S. border alone could stay in America at least until next summer.

Judge William Martin's decision will allow Jonathan Martinez to stay with his mother in Inglewood while the family prepares an asylum claim to keep him, lawyer Julianne Donnelly said.

Donnelly said the basis of the application would be that Jonathan does not have anyone to take care of him in El Salvador, making him susceptible to gangs and violence.

"He would be forced to fend for himself on the streets," Donnelly said.

The boy was expected back in court in mid-August, when the asylum claim would be tried, Donnelly said.

Jonathan's case illustrates a growing problem with the federal program known as "temporary protective status" under which his mother is staying in the United States: what to do with thousands of children from Central America who come to the United States illegally to join their parents.

The program provides legal residency to illegal immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, all countries that have suffered devastating natural disasters in recent years. The idea is that they can best serve their homelands by working in the United States and sending money home.

But only immigrants in the United States when a program starts -- for Salvadorans, after two major earthquakes in 2001 -- are eligible. That means children who come later to join parents don't qualify, putting them in a sort of immigration limbo. Many end up being deported.

Jonathan's mother had left him with an aunt in 2000 to illegally immigrate to the United States. Since 2001, she has had the temporary status.

When the aunt got sick in late 2004, Jonathan said he and a teenage cousin rode buses north for several weeks to reach the U.S. border. The two were separated, and Jonathan was nabbed in the desert trying to cross the Mexico-Arizona border. He has lived with his mother and 3-year-old half sister since then.

The family said the aunt who took care of him has since left El Salvador, his grandparents are too old to take him in and his father disappeared years ago.

"I'm happy because I get to stay," Jonathan said after Monday's hearing. "I didn't want to go back because I would be by myself."