The stories of two immigrant families were among the most powerful moments from the third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. One North Carolina family, led by an undocumented mom who came to the U.S. with her infant more than two decades ago, said they feared being separated under the Trump administration. A second family to speak that night, however, had already been ripped in two.
“Instead of protecting us, you tore our world apart,” 11-year-old U.S. citizen Estela Juarez said. Her mom Alejandra came to the U.S. in 1998, and while Alejandra been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2013, she’d been allowed to stay as long as she checked in with immigration officials. That changed in 2017. “Now, my mom is gone and she has been taken from us for no reason at all,” Estela continued. “Every day that passes you deport more moms and dads and taken them away from kids like me.”
The out-of-control ICE agency outrageously set its sights on Alejandra Juarez for deportation in the summer of 2018. She should never have been targeted by federal immigration officials in the first place; that her husband, Cuauhtemoc “Temo” Juarez, is a Marine sergeant who served in Iraq only made the situation worse.
”Trump says that he loves the military,” she told Orlando Sentinel at the time. “This administration deporting me, what message are they sending to the military? That they don’t care about families? You serve this country, you might get killed, but, by the way, I don’t care about your spouse?” Despite urgent pleas from elected leaders like Congress member Darren Soto of Florida—he had filed unsuccessful legislation to try to protect the family—the administration deported her.
While BuzzFeed News reports that Estela followed her mom for a short time to Mexico, she ultimately returned to her dad and sister Pamela. This is not the kind of decision any child should have to make, between her mom or her country. This is her country. “Mr. President, my mom is the wife of a proud American marine, and a mother of two American children," Estela said in the video created by film maker Cristina Costantini. "We are American families. We need a president who will bring people together, not tear them apart."
In a second video, a mixed-status family showed the various ways the administration has weaponized an already inhumane immigration system to further punish immigrants. Silvia Sanchez came to the U.S. more than two decades ago with her daughter Jessica, who was born with spina bifida. “Doctors gave the baby weeks to live if she didn’t seek better care, so Silvia left her home in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and crossed the border,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
With the help of U.S. citizen daughter Lucy’s translation, Silvia described crossing the Rio Grande while holding infant Jessica above her head. “I did what any mother would do to save her daughter’s life,” the mother said. After both reached the other side alive, Silvia said that she "was afraid we'd be caught, that we'd be detained and deported. But I had to save my daughter."
Jessica is now 25, but she continues to remain at risk. “I qualified for DACA, but Donald Trump took away my ability to apply for the program,” she said in the video. According to some estimates, as many as 300,000 young immigrants are eligible to enroll in the program, but can’t because this lawless administration is defying court orders to reopen the program.
“I don’t have the right ID, so I can’t get health insurance through the exchange,” Jessica continued. “I need health insurance, I deserve it right?” Her mother, seated next to her, quickly responded in Spanish: “Of course, my daughter. We all deserve hope, a good life, and health.”
Even with her own family in crisis, Silvia remembered the parents who are today taking the same risks to save their own children, like the way she saved Jessica 24 years ago. "It breaks my heart to see how babies are separated from their families at the border,” she said about the inhumane family separation policy that resulted in the state-sanctioned kidnapping of thousands of children at the southern border. “That's wrong. Those babies need to be with their families."
While Silvia and Jessica can’t vote, Lucy can. “On November 3, I’m going to vote for my mother, my sister and my daughters,” she said in the video. “I will vote for a future where all of our lives have dignity and respect.” She will vote for future where her mom and sister have the same rights as her. “We need a leader who will fix the broken immigration system and commit to keeping families together,” Jessica said.
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