Thanks to the efforts of Congresswoman Jane Harman, 19 exchange students from Loreto, Mexico, recently received approval to visit Hermosa Beach after U.S. federal officials denied their entrance into the country.

Since 1974, the Hermosa Beach Sister City Association has welcomed a group of students from its sister city, Loreto, for its annual weeklong exchange program.

“At the urging of Congresswoman Jane Harman, Homeland Security Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson announced today that visa waivers for the delegation had been approved, paving the way for the Sister City student exchange program to continue,” said Nick Papas, a spokesman for Jane Harman, on Monday.

This year’s plans were cancelled following steps to tighten U.S. borders by temporarily suspending cross-border programs as directed by the newly formed Homeland Security Department.

“Now we have to wait and see if there is room on the airlines for these kids to fly up here this week,” said Elaine Doerfling, the association’s president. “I’m so excited and so grateful to Jane Harman and her staff for helping us. We’re going to have to figure something out for next year.”

Harman this week announced the approval of visa waivers for the group of students who are now able to enter the country. The students and their chaperones hope to fly from Loreto to San Diego July 31. Those Hermosa Beach students and their chaperones who visited Loreto in April over spring break will meet the group there and plan to visit the city’s Museum of Natural History.

They plan on spending the night at the University of San Diego inside its dorms and spend the next day at the San Diego Zoo.

Over the weekend, students will spend time with their host families. Monday is reserved for a day at Seaside Lagoon in Redondo Beach, Tuesday for Disneyland, Wednesday for in-town festivities at the Kiwanis Club picnic and Thursday for Universal Studios. Their last night in Hermosa Beach is booked with the traditional farewell party.

The group is scheduled to leave the country Aug. 10.

The Sister City Association sponsors the annual student exchange where a group of seventh- and eighth-graders from Hermosa Beach and the tiny coastal fishing village of Loreto are offered the opportunity to see what life is like in both cities. A group of Valley students travel down to Loreto in April for spring break and a group of Loreto students make their way to Hermosa Beach during the summer months where they stay with those students who visited them in the spring.

“The decision to deny the visa waiver applications placed the Sister City exchange program in jeopardy,” added Papas. “In order to enter the United States, the Mexican delegation would have been required to travel nearly 1,000 miles to the nearest United States Consulate in Tijuana where they would have been forced to wait for their visa requests to be processed.”

Loreto is a town more than 300 years old located along the coast of the Sea of Cortez about 1,000 miles south of San Diego. It’s best described as a small fishing village and the site of the first Spanish mission.

Longtime Hermosa Beach resident Al Valdes was Hermosa’s mayor in 1967 when the relationship between the two cities was established. The association’s student exchange program founded in 1974 is considered a very strong aspect of the organization. The organization also sponsors an adult cultural exchange program and is known for its various outreach programs including one related to the donation of medical supplies, equipment and hands-on training by Hermosa Beach firefighters and paramedics.

George Barks, a former Hermosa Beach mayor, is also a member of both Hermosa Beach’s and Redondo Beach’s associations, and the acting vice president of the U.S./ Mexico Sister City Association which is the national umbrella agency of all U.S. cities with a Mexico sister city affiliation.

“This association is a people-to-people program that promotes friendship, understanding and good will among people from two different countries,” said Barks.

This year, federal officials informed the group of students two days before leaving Loreto that visa waivers had been denied due to stricter enforcement of U.S. borders.

“We are ready to welcome these kids. I just have to check the schedule of parents here who planned their vacations around this program,” added Doerfling. “But I have no doubt we will be able to house everyone who comes here.”