Actress tells how parents were taken, deported. Left alone at 14. No govt agency checked on her.

[madfloridian]

'Orange is the New Black' actress: My parents were deported


Actress Diane Guerrero is seen in the movie "EMOTICON." (Indican Pictures)

My parents came here from Colombia during a time of great instability there. Escaping a dire economic situation at home, they moved to New Jersey, where they had friends and family, seeking a better life, and then moved to Boston after I was born.

Throughout my childhood I watched my parents try to become legal but to no avail. They lost their money to people they believed to be attorneys, but who ultimately never helped. That meant my childhood was haunted by the fear that they would be deported. If I didn't see anyone when I walked in the door after school, I panicked.

And then one day, my fears were realized. I came home from school to an empty house. Lights were on and dinner had been started, but my family wasn't there. Neighbors broke the news that my parents had been taken away by immigration officers, and just like that, my stable family life was over.

Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if I had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, I found myself basically on my own.

There is a CNN video at the link below of an interview with her on this topic.
'Orange Is The New Black' Actress Breaks Down Talking About Family's Deportation (VIDEO)

[LanternWaste]

1. Imaginary borders are something we accept as a reality

Imaginary borders are something we accept as a reality, whilst the reality of breaking up families is rationalized by the nationalist.

I hope one day the human species evolves past our penchant of focusing on the imaginary and the make-believe and less on the reality.

[nomorenomore08]

2. +1000

So well said.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

13. Borders are not "imaginary"

They demarcate a nation - a group of people - who pool resources together for defense and the common good. Unless you want to go to one world government, which, imo, would be a nightmare, borders serve a vital purpose.

[AnalystInParadise]

22. This times a million

But you seem to use your brain to think with instead of your heart......Unfortunately we have too many that do the opposite.

[Rose Siding]

39. We could strive to think with our brains....

without being heartless.

[madfloridian]

42. Yes, I saw that little dig also.

You are right.

There are ways to handle things without the cruelty.

To imply that we are not "thinkers" because we care is a real slam.

[Enthusiast]

53. +1

[Jakes Progress]

54. If your brain can't think of better than this

then it is a sick and defective organ.

Thought does not equal cruelty. The brain can think of things other than selfishness.

[Heather MC]

46. It's one thing to create boarders against

Governments that may be trying to "take the land" as was the case when the USA was being formed, but keeping regular folks out who desire a better life is just shitty.

Boarders should not strip us of our humanity.
IMO

[Jakes Progress]

55. Meaning what?

Do you favor the actions described in the story?

[BlueJazz]

3. The poor woman. What a brave soul. I wish I could have been around to help.

[sammy750]

4. YES, but the GOP do NOT CARE

about human lives. They are trying to destroy the new Obamacare, taking away the medical needs of millions. They care less if people are ill and die.
Our nation is only as good and healthy as the people, so the GOP in there mission to destroy the nation are taking down the people with it. Wake up people, the GOP is the real ISIS trying to destroy us.

[Shrike47]

5. As an attorney, I advised persons in the U.S. without papers to MAKE A PLAN for the children,

should they be deported, and nagged on the subject. The parents need to line up a friend or relative in advance of need, if the immigration people strike.

I'm not saying this was her parents' fault, I'm saying it was foreseeable and others in similar positions should plan ahead.

[madfloridian]

6. Don't you think Immigration should plan better than leaving kids without parents?

Just wondering.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. I agree completely with you.

There is no excuse for Immigration to deport parents of children without making a valiant effort to help those children.

The reality might be that the parents should have made a plan, but as a country, we should not tolerate children being left to fend for themselves.

[Demobrat]

12. Yes they should

But should has nothing to do with reality.

[peacebird]

29. Because their home country is a violent place ruled by druglords perhaps?

Where people are 'disappeared' never to return? They hope their child, who IS an American citizen by birth, will have a safer, better life here. I am sure it breaks their hearts, but they ar doing what they feel is best for the child.

[azurnoir]

36. Lol the library will be closing soon

[redruddyred]

49. I hear there's some debate over that anchor baby law tho.

republicans think they can repeal it thru a lawsuit.

[JustAnotherGen]

51. That would be shameful

Shame on them.

And it's a direct attack on the 14th Amendment.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Between a Supreme Court that is intent upon turning back the clock to the 1920's for black Americans - and this direct attack on the 14th. . .

I'm awful glad I married a European citizen and he has me on the tax payers for his home country and on our apartment building over there. At least I have an out when the worm turns against us.

[redruddyred]

62. it was just an idea floated about in a conservative magazine.

I don't know if scotus is in on it yet.

I wonder if the law has the unintended consequence that it encourages women to reproduce when such would not be necessarily in their best interest?

I don't know why we can't be like canada or australia and immigrate skilled workers instead of predicating the decision solely upon family ties or employment (mostly family ties tho).

[JustAnotherGen]

67. We are like them actually

I'm married to an immigrant from Italy - there is an element of pay to play in America that gets lost in the immigration debates. My husband is in the midst of his green card update (had it since 1973) - they keep trying to tell him -

This time you've been here for 13 years straight.
And you are married to an American.
And you are a business owner.
Get citizenship.

There could be massive tax implications in Italy if he does that - let alone his Veteran benefits could go bye bye. Including the one where we get reimbursed by te Itlian government for his hypothyroid treatment . . . Which is the result of an immunization the government gave him and a lot of other Italian soldiers in the late 80's. Now look at health care in the US vs there. Why would we risk our retirement? Trying to tell immigration that he has vested interests in not getting citizenship is falling on deaf ears.

Tee hee - they also don't understand I married him for the health care card! Running joke in our home. It's easier for my Italian Citizenship to go through process if HE is ONLY Italian. We will take the green card update - thank you very much.

[redruddyred]

68. I'd like to be a citizen of another country.

seriously.

[SoCalDem]

37. Perhaps the parents preferred that INS/the state NOT "take control" of the kids

Undocumented people fear INS more than anything else, and even though they may not have made a formal plan, and the fact that friends took her in, proves that the informal "network" did work for her. She is probably LUCKY to have not been put into the foster kids routine.

It sucks that this happened to her family, but until we have better laws to address the issue, this will continue to happen

[Starry Messenger]

52. +1000

[Xithras]

44. Back in the late 80's....

...there was a family of undocumented farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley who were grabbed and deported by the INS while their 12 year old daughter was at school. It took weeks before they were able to connect back with someone in the county to check on her. Between the language barrier and the complications of calling out from INS detention, they simply weren't able to contact law enforcement. By the time someone went out to investigate, the landlord had already cleared their place out and the girl was nowhere to be found. As far as I'm aware, she was never found. And the worst part? Nobody cared. There was no search for her, there was no wall-to-wall media coverage, and the police did little more than issue a missing persons notice.

She could have been kidnapped. Or she could have been sucked into the criminal underground when she became homeless. She might have tried to hitchhike to her relatives in Los Angeles and vanished along some highway. Nobody knows. She was just gone. *poof*

So, yeah, they should have a plan. And make sure the kids know what it is.

[vkkv]

8. What would happen to me if I snuck into social democracies such as Denmark or Norway hoping

to improve my quality of life?

I'd be deported... yes, I would be given health care if needed, but I would eventually be deported.

[kcr]

9. It's awful how you can't even turn on the news

without hearing about all those Americans that Denmark and Norway have to deport every day. It's an epidemic.

[madfloridian]

10. ........

[vkkv]

11. Exactly

I'm with Obama, have the undocumented workers come forward, sign up, be given a way to become legal, pay taxes. But, of course, crossing borders illegally must stop and I agree with Obama on that.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

15. Why should anyone stop crossing the borders?

They want a better life here, probably won't get caught, and if they are, they might spend a few months in a detention center, and then get deported. It's well worth the risk. As long as we continue to legalize every ten or twenty years, without doing anything meaningful about control, millions will continue to pour in.

[justiceischeap]

21. You sound like you have a problem with "illegals" crossing the border.

I mean, it isn't an ideal situation but I find myself recalling how this nation was founded. It's a shame the Native American's couldn't find a way to control the borders when the Euro's came over.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It's a shame we're not that nation any more.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

24. That nation wasn't funding the Department of Defense

And no one, today, is going to start a new life by saving for a covered wagon, taking a trip westward, and living off the land.

Not to mention that I want universal HEALTH care, universal preschool, and free community college. I want better social safety nets. I want better wages.

I just don't think we're going to get those things as long as employers can use undocumented immigrants to drive down wages. As of now, the mentality in this country is "survival of the fittest."

And don't get me started on what H1-B visas are doing to programmers' jobs.

My son-in-law (programmer) was just put on a new project because he is the only American citizen in his group, and a particular government contract requires it. He jokes, "Mom, I'm the white person at work, except I'm not white!" (He's second generation Asian.)

[tblue37]

65. What is *really* preventing us from getting all those lovely benefits

would be the endless wars that are waged to benefit the MIC and other war profiteers, and the fact that our national wealth continues to be redistributed upward to the top .01%, who will soon have every last bit of it, since they cannot bear even to leave crumbs for the rest of us.

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. We ARe that nation, still. The US has always let immigrants into this county

Which is what the Statue of Liberty stands for
and why Ellis Island was built.
The legal immigration laws have had quotas in the number of immigrants who can legally enter.

Immigration is not the problem.

Illegal immigration causes a lot of problems tho.

[Maedhros]

32. This is a natural result of American hegemony.

We use our massive military to browbeat the world into allowing our corporations to plunder third-world resources, hoarding the lion's share of the world's wealth within our borders, then clutch our pearls when the victims of our hegemony dare to try and have some of it for themselves.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

14. We know they won't let us stay

so we don't try to get into Denmark or Norway.

In fact, I would be moving to Vancouver, but Canada won't take me.

[kcr]

16. Right. That's the reason.

The US never deports anyone. Guerrero must be totally making her story up.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

17. The odds of getting deported are worth the risk

What happens? You live here for seven years, get picked up, spend a few days to a few months in a deportation center, and then get sent home. And the odds are that won't happen.

[kcr]

18. If things are bad enough in the US, the same holds true

The reason you don't leave this country is the risk isn't worth it. It's the same reason throngs of Americans aren't doing so.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

19. Actually, I don't try to get into Vancouver or France

because I'm pretty darn sure I would be deported. I can assess the risk and assume it's not worth it.

However, if I knew that millions of Americans were living in France without documentation, and only a small percentage ever got deported, I might try it.

[kcr]

20. Do you think that's the reason why every American makes that decision?

Or is it because there aren't millions of Americans fleeing the country without papers on a daily basis? Which is why there aren't countries dealing with millions of Americans without papers. See? So their numbers are a bit different. Easy to feel smug in your risk assessment When you don't think big picture

[justiceischeap]

23. Well, there's also the point that even though lots of Americans talk about immigrating elsewhere

they know they don't have it near as bad as, say, people try to meek out an existence in places like Mexico. Why take the risk when your life is basically fine? Immigrants (illegal or otherwise) take the risk because living in poverty in the US is much better than living in poverty in Mexico.

[kcr]

28. Yes, and frankly, I think it's absurd to compare the two

Not to minimize the problems we have in this country or anyone who genuinely feels a need to move for a better life and does whatever they can to make that happen, wherever they are from.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

27. Have you ever noticed how many people here declare that would move

to a country with better social programs if they could only get in?

And, of course, there's that pesky ocean. It's a definite problem.

[kcr]

30. The ocean between here and Canada? I must have missed it.

Yeah, posts on a political message board don't mean millions of people are yearning to break away. Sorry.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

31. No.

You know, people from all over the world would like to get into Canada or France or Norway. It's not just a "handful" of Americans, so they maintain sane immigration policies. That's the point.

[Jakes Progress]

57. So sane equals making children into uncured for orphans.

You go a long way around to say how you support the republican view of immigration.

[madfloridian]

26. And perhaps leave children behind to fend for themselves.

My family were all immigrants here a couple of hundred years ago. They came for a better life.

There has to be some middle ground.

[vkkv]

33. They came legally,

yes?

[madfloridian]

38. Don't think there were any rules or laws about immigrants back then.

[vkkv]

40. No rules back then...

For several reasons.

The U.S. gov't was begging people to come from Europe to help build the railways and ports. Free land was given out for homesteads to get people to move west and push Native Americans out.

We had little stress on our infrastructure as we do in modern times.

[madfloridian]

41. Hey, I get it.

What I posted it is controversial.

There appear to be just a few of us that think it could be handled better.

[redruddyred]

48. oh no ellis island was brutal.

long waits in poor living conditions, physical exams, fees...

[REP]

60. Ellis Island didn't open unti the very late 1800s

Before that, most immigrants entered through New York but there were almost no restrictions or processing for white immigrants.

[redruddyred]

63. how did they manage to keep the 'undesirables' out?

w/o a formal processing center.
I mean let's face it prolly the point of ellis island was to enforce racist immigration laws.

[REP]

64. Before Ellis Island, each port of entry kept track

[REP]

43. There were if you weren't white, and the length of time to become a citizen was manipulated

Until about 1875, just about anyone who was white was welcomed but the length of time as a resident before becoming a citizen was often used as a political ploy (immigrants were sympathetic to one party, so the other party tried to exclude them from being eligible to vote ... sound familiar?). Then there was concern over the number of criminals, people from asylums, unskilled workers, etc being admitted so policies started to change.

For non-whites, the bar has always been higher. There was the Chinese Exclusion Act, and as recently as about 100 years ago, my grandfather and his family were turned away because the US had enough Jews, thank you. They ended up entering Canada legally and then the US illegally.

[redruddyred]

47. I hear it's really tough for europeans too tho.

a grueling process.

maybe they simply get more airtime.

[REP]

61. Not in the timeframe under discussion (1700s to 1875)

And after 1875, there were very few barriers for white, Christian European immigrants.

[Diclotican]

50. vkkv

vkkv

It depend - if you have a reason to leave your country of birth - for trying to make a better life half across the world - and was able to claim asylum - and even get a permit to stay in the country - you would possible be given most of the help you needed to settle down - and make a life for yourself in Norway or Denmark or Sweden - or Finland and Iceland and so one...

On the other hand - if you was traveling half across the world - wanting to settle down in our corner of the world - without a reason, just for trying to improve your quality of life - then you might have ended up in a brick wall somewhere - before been deported out of the country - back either to the country of your birth - or to the point where you first crossed into Europe (It is part of the Schengen Treaty)

But you could also try to emigrate to either Sweden Denmark Norway Iceland or Finland, if you have a job or some skills who neither of us had - or that would benefit our five country's - it is many who end up in Norway either for a shorte while - or for a long time - even for the rest of their life, when they first come to the country doing a job - and for some reason or another end up living here for the rest of their life.. I have known a few, who ended up married to a norwigian wife - and therefore settled down here - even if it was not the plan... And have all plans to live out their life here...

Diclotican

[Jakes Progress]

56. So simplistic. So reaonabobble.

The two do not equate. It shows a naive, and very limited view of the world and the differences between nations.

Did you mean to imply that leaving the US to is like fleeing Honduras?

[LeftyMom]

66. I missed the part where Denmark's policies were destabilizing the US and rending it lawless.

It's almost as if your analogy was absolutely horseshit.

[madfloridian]

58. Obama's announcement tomorrow.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/283192281.html

Obama to announce immigration steps Thursday, potentially shield 5 million from deportation

[lpbk2713]

59. It's really amazing she's still alive.

Given her vulnerability at such a young age it would have been easy for her to fall into the wrong hands.

[madfloridian]

69. Bet she was glad to hear Obama's message tonight.