We hear all too often of the tragic stories of undocumented immigrant moms and dads stalked and swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but what happens after their deportation? NBC News profiled Beatriz Morelos Casillas, an undocumented mom who was torn from her four U.S. citizen kids this past summer after a routine traffic citation. Casillas had no criminal record, paid taxes, and had lived in the U.S. for nearly 20 years. It didn’t matter to ICE thugs, because under Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, she was treated no differently than an actual “bad hombre”:
After being detained, Casillas was held in a local jail, then a county jail, before being flown to Laredo, Texas, with other deportees. U.S. immigration agents walked her across the bridge to Nuevo Laredo, and then left her there alone.
Nuevo Laredo is a violent place; the U.S. government has issued a travel warning for American citizens travelling to the city, because of the risks of carjacking, kidnapping, robbery, and homicide. At least two other Painesville deportees have been kidnapped upon being returned to the city.
Casillas saw her husband when he flew to Mexico for a brief visit after her deportation. She has not seen her children since July.
“I feel like a stranger here,” she said from Mexico, where she’s currently living with her husband’s family. “Because it’s too many years since I left here. I’m by myself here. I miss everything.” David Leopold, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called it “a tragedy” and a result of the Trump administration throwing out any deportation priorities set up by the Obama administration. “There is absolutely no compassion at this point,” he said. “There are basically no priorities for deportation. Everyone is a priority.”
According to NBC News, “Painesville, which is about one-quarter Hispanic, has been rattled by media coverage of Casillas’ deportation.” The family’s father, David, has struggled to try to explain why their mom is no longer at home:
“When we told the children, they all started to cry,” he said. “They asked me, ‘Why? Why, if the police are supposed to help? Why did they take their mother?”
Since Casillas was deported, her husband said the home they once shared feels lonely. “I don’t know how to explain it to you, but it feels empty.”
All families hurt when a loved one is deported, but none feel the pain and damage the most—and the longest—than children. An estimated 6 million U.S. citizen kids haviebat least one undocumented family member, and research has shown that mass deportation policies “create toxic stress for young children by breaking families apart, instilling fear in the immigrant community, and preventing families from accessing programs that meet children’s most basic needs”:
Being separated from a parent or caregiver—or even the idea of a separation—exposes young children to stress and trauma. In extreme cases, children may be present during immigration raids, where armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may burst into a home and forcibly remove parents. Children who have been separated from their parents frequently show signs of trauma, including anxiety, depression, frequent crying, disrupted eating and sleeping, and difficulties in school. Many young children also have a misunderstanding of legal status in general, often equating being an immigrant with being unauthorized. These children may believe that they or their authorized relatives are also in danger of being deported, further escalating their fear.
Some families have resorted to taking steps to ensure the future of their children in the U.S. in case they are deported, including giving power of attorney to relatives or close friends. In Casillas’ case, her husband is able to care for their kids. But according to 2011 data, an estimated 5,000 U.S. citizen kids are in foster care following the deportation of their parents. And because Casillas was turned away at the border years before she settled down here, unjust immigration laws could hinder her being able to reunite with her kids:
What is frustrating for Casillas and her supporters is that most deportees have no way of adjusting their status or re-entering the U.S. legally. Despite the fact that she has American-citizen children and a husband who is lawfully present on a work visa, Casillas cannot obtain a visa or a green card. It would be well over a decade before one of her children, for example, could sponsor her for legal entry.
“In her situation, there is nothing that she (Casillas) could do, with the laws as they are written today, to correct her status,” said attorney Elizabeth Ford. “There is no mechanism… to change it right now. That’s why we need comprehensive immigration reform, to help these people come out of the shadows and to stop ICE from their mass deportations.”
Back in Mexico, Casillas tells NBC News that she “passes her days inside, praying and worrying. For her, it is as if sixteen years of the life she had known vanished in an instant.” To get through her days, she Facetime chats with her children. “All I can say to them, is keep the hope. Any day, I don’t know when, we’ll be together again.”