EVERETT — Few were as excited about Election Day as Moises Herrera. He did not run for office. He cannot even vote. But reaching Tuesday's election, he hopes, will set in motion actions that will allow him to stay in the country.

The minivan-driving father from El Salvador has no criminal record, but for years he has cycled in and out of detention for civil immigration violations, including last month, when he was in Suffolk County jail instead of the delivery room where his son was born.

Now Herrera is among millions of immigrants nationwide waiting for President Obama to keep his promise to issue an executive order sparing them from deportation, an order that the president and his aides had put off until after the election.

“It's the great hope,” Herrera, a 36-year-old father of four, said in an interview on Election Day, days after immigration officials released him. “There are many, many people in that jail, and they are waiting for that day.”

Source URL: Boston Globe