http://immigrationprofessionals.info

As you have already mentioned, my family is not unique to this struggle. I have met countless families and children who are juggling to survive the same drama and are doing what they can to avoid being completely torn by it.
I am conscious of the inescapable connection between my lived experiences and the larger struggle of human rights for the migrant community.

My experience is particularly troublesome to explain to people and especially to the media, because it involves the detention of someone (in this case my mom) who committed a crime. A crime that immigration policy considers to be punishable to mandatory detention and mandatory deportation, no exceptions. Here lies the problem.

In 1996, Clinton signed into legislation two immigration laws (IIRAIRA) that criminalized all migrants, even those with long-time legal residency and familial ties in this country, further enmbedding them into the criminal justice system. It turned even the most minor violations under federal law into aggravated felonies under immigration law making them subject to automatic imprisonment regardless of when the crime was committed or if the time sentence for that crime had already been served. In my mom’s case it had, but that had no bearing on the judge’s decision to further incarcerate her nor did the fact that she has 5 American born children in this country, one of which suffers from Bi-polar disorder.

According to Families for Freedom, a “New York-based multi-ethnic defense network by and for immigrants facing and fighting deportation, over 1.8 million immigrants have been deported, since 1996″ It is no coincidence that around this same year, our country began to witness a great peak in the expansion of immigrant detention centers, many of which are owned and operated by private prison corporations like CCA.

I feel obligated to come to my mom’s defense everytime I speak of her because of the sacrifices that she has made for each and everyone of my siblings. She is not a criminal like so many people tend to quickly claim. Immigrants, like so many people in our own society, make mistakes too. The prison system is not disproportionately filled with people of color because we are all criminal, but because racist zero-tolerance policies and harsh mandatory sentencing practices along with the realities of socio-economic oppression make it difficult for many to live life outside gates of that system.

The border wall and the migra now serve as physical symbols of the barrier that segregates both of my parents from us. They are everyday reminders that we are still a marginal and subordinate group of people. Even as someone who was privileged to have been born on the northern side of the border, the reinforcement of ideas of second-class citizenship make me feel less deserving of my rights sometimes, as if I too don’t belong in this country.

Still, there is nothing the government can do to completely tear our family apart, because the space that is created by our family’s unity and love for each other is a very powerful and sacred thing. It is my driving force and the reason why I will do whatever it takes to keep our family strong and unified. It is also the reason why I will continue fight in this lucha for migrant and human rights.

La Lucha Sigue and Gracias for giving me the space to speak out,