Wife of Military Veteran and Mother of Two Deported Despite Having No Criminal Record

The cases of deportation and families separated under the policies of the Trump Administration continue and are as heartbreaking as ever. The latest case is the story of the Juarez family, who will now be separated on two different countries. Alejandra Juarez was just informed by a judge that she will have to leave her family including 16-year-old Pamela and her husband, Cuauhtemoc.

If it wasn’t devastating enough to leave your family, it should be known that Cuauhtemoc has served this country for more than a decade as a former military veteran, and Alejandra will be taking her youngest daughter, 9-year-old Estela with her. Mind you, Estela is a U.S. citizen and has never been to Mexico, but because she still needs to be raised by her mother, so she will be going there with her.

“They’re still trying to digest it,” Cuauhtemoc told The Guardian. “Estela wants to stay here but is too young to take care of herself, she needs her mom. Pamela is very kind and wants to take care of her but she’s 16 years old. She is a teenager, she has a future here, she’s taking college classes, and wouldn’t have that in Mexico. Even though it’s hurting me and it’s burning me alive, I have to think about what’s best for her.”

Katie Aragon, who works with FWD.us — a bipartisan community organization — and is familiar with the case said that she is often asked why someone like Alejandra would be deported.

“As soon as  [Trump] took office in January 2017 he drastically changed immigration enforcement priorities through an executive order,” Aragon tweeted. “The order made every single undocumented person in the US a target for ICE, regardless of their record or community ties. So Alejandra, who was checking in regularly in good faith with ICE, had no criminal record & had been granted parole in place to raise her daughters, suddenly became ICE’s number one deportation priority.”

Alejandra echoed that point, telling The Guardian: “They try and punish me for something that happened a long time ago, but they’re not punishing me, they’re punishing my husband, my kids. It makes you think if it’s really worth fighting for this country when it comes down to this, putting your life at risk for a country that doesn’t take your service into consideration.”

She goes on to say that our immigration system has issues, including under President Obama, however, Trump is only making matters worse.

“When this administration took over things changed,” Alejandra said to The Guardian. “Obama didn’t fix this situation but he didn’t deport people like me. Immigration knew I was here and said under the Obama rules I wasn’t a priority. Now this administration is deporting people with no criminal record. Before, if you had citizen kids or an American husband you wouldn’t be deported, but now they don’t care.”

There’s a GoFundme page set up to help the family, click here to help them.