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One family’s story of deportation and separation
Rudy’s children are wearing diapers at night, though he says they are “too old” for that. His youngest daughter, age three, won’t sleep alone. Their mother, Rudy’s wife Raquel, was deported 20 months ago, leaving behind an anguished husband and five traumatized children.
Twenty-nine years ago, at the age of three, Raquel’s parents brought her to the United States from Mexico. Her entire family lives here. She speaks English more fluently than Spanish. Before being deported, she had not been to Mexico since her parents brought her here. California is her home — and her family’s home.
Until her deportation, Raquel was going to school to get a better job to support her family. She had earned her AA degree from Santa Rosa Junior College and was attending Sonoma State University with the help of financial aid. She was arrested while driving to school because her windows were “too dark.” More likely, it wasn’t her windows that were too dark, and she was arrested for driving while Latino.
Because of her undocumented status, the police immediately turned Raquel over to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). She had one court appearance in Sonoma County and was sent to San Francisco.
The day before she was to be deported, her family visited her in the jail in San Francisco. Her children were forced to say goodbye to her through a pane of glass. Raquel has not been able to physically touch her children since that day she left for class at SSU almost two years ago.
ICE officials flew Raquel to Calexico, bused her across the border to Mexicali, where she knows no one, and dumped her there.
Rudy managed to gather together enough money to fly there and meet her. He took Raquel to live with his mother in Mazatlan, more than 700 miles away. His mother and most residents of her neighborhood cannot afford telephones, so Rudy has been raising the money for one. He hopes that they will be able to talk on the phone soon.
Meanwhile, Raquel’s lawyer has been working on her behalf, and the federal government has said that she will be allowed to return some time within the next six months. Because “the law has changed” since she was deported, ICE has said she will be given permission to be in the U.S. for ten years and the opportunity to apply for citizenship in five years.
But the stress on her younger children and her 15-year-old son, whose father (from a previous relationship) has also been deported, continues. The older son has moved into an unstable living situation and is beginning to have problems at school. The younger children, two of whom are in Head Start, are afraid to be away from their father. The two children in elementary school are doing poorly. They ask for their mother often.
After spending all his money on lawyers, the trip to Mexico, and trying to procure a phone for his mother, Rudy fell behind on the rent and has lost his Section 8 (subsidized) housing. The entire family now lives with Raquel’s mother.
“Rudy” is a pseudonym for a Mexico-born U.S. citizen. “Raquel” is a pseudonym for his wife. Rudy requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize his wife’s legal case.
