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U.S. Rep. Rául Grijlava submitted a private bill Thursday asking Congress to issue a green card to an illegal entrant who officials credit with saving the life of a 9-year-old boy he encountered in the desert on Thanksgiving night.

Late Thursday evening, Grijalva submitted the private bill, “H.R. 4339, for the relief of Jesus Manuel Córdova Soberanes,” to the clerk of the house, said Natalie Luna, Grijalva’s press secretary. The bill will be referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

They are hopeful that it will be heard before the session ends next week but it could be pushed back until Jan. 15, when the next session begins, Luna said.

If approved — which Grijalva acknowledges will be difficult — it would make Córdova eligible to become a legal permanent residence. It would not, however, make his immediate family eligible for green cards.

Córdova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, has become well known for his decision on Thanksgiving night to give up his desert journey into the United States and stay with a 9-year-old boy he found alone, Christopher Buchleitner.

The oft-repeated story goes like this: At about 5 p.m. Thanksgiving evening west of Peña Blanca Lake, about 60 miles southwest of Tucson, Córdova encountered Christopher in shorts and a T-shirt walking with his golden retriever, Tanner.

Christopher and his mother, Dawn Alice Tomko, 45, had been camping in the area. While driving on a narrow dirt road, she lost control of their van, hit an embankment and fell off a cliff about 275 feet. She died. Christopher and his dogs walked away with only bumps and bruises.

Córdova, who had been walking alone for 2 1/2 days in his second attempt at illegal entry into the country, stayed with the boy through the night, building a fire, getting him food and giving him a sweater. In the morning, he found a pair of hunters who called authorities.

Christopher was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson and Córdova turned himself in to Border Patrol agents and was returned to Mexico that same day.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada has said that he likely saved Christopher's life. The area of the crash was a rough, remote area and it was a cold night. Had Córdova not been there, nobody knows what would have happened to the boy, Estrada said.