Immigration battle ends for gifted teen

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Immigration officials, after a nine-year deportation battle, say a Reno, Nev., family with a gifted daughter will be allowed to remain in the United States.

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that illegal immigrants Ben and Londy Cabrera, who emigrated from Mexico and Guatemala respectively in the 1980s, will be able to remain in their new homeland with their two daughters, who were born in Los Angeles.

One of the girls, 15-year-old Diana, is an "A" student who has been tagged as "exceptionally gifted" and has earned national awards. At one point, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., unsuccessfully sponsored a private bill that would have allowed the parents to legally remain on U.S. soil.

The back-and-forth battle between the Cabrera family and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regional office in Long Beach, Calif., ended when officials said "unspecified new facts" led the government to drop its efforts to deport the family, the newspaper said.

Londy Cabrera told the Times in a telephone interview from her home in Reno she was happy with the decision: "I am speechless; sometimes I lost my faith and said 'Forget it; it's over,' but because of my daughters, I kept going. Now I feel like flying."