Receiving the gift of a lifetime this holiday season, a family in the small town of Oliver in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley facing a deportation order received a phone call from the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, that they will be allowed to stay in Canada.

German Melgar and his wife Santos Molina came to Canada five years ago from El Salvador. Following over 50 of Melgar’s family members, the family applied for refugee status to escape the political violence in their home country that claimed Melgar’s father. Their claim was rejected after a number of complications including the failure of the court-appointed lawyer to show up to court. After this failure, residents in the Oliver community rallied around the family and have paid for legal expenses to appeal the deportation on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, led by Melgar’s employer Linda Fortunato.

In response to the appeals of the Melgar family and Ms. Fortunato’s work on their behalf, Mr. Day has made an 11th hour intervention to cancel the deportation order. Melgar and Molina have been issued a one year temporary residency permit. During this time, their applications for permanent residency will be processed. Fortunato described the family’s reaction as “ecstatic, I couldn't get two words out of them, they were all crying.”

Melgar has argued that he and his family would face persecution and possibly violence if he were returned to El Salvador. The couple have two infant children born in Canada who have Canadian citizenship and thus would not be required to leave. When their appeals failed Melgar and Molina faced a difficult choice to keep their family together or to leave their children behind in Canada with relatives where they would have receive health care and education. They had been ordered to leave Canada in the coming weeks.