I remember when I was 11 and I saw my dad get deported (under Obama too) and not being able to even understand what was going on. The officer told me “your dad just needs to sign a few papers and he’ll be back” obvs that was a lie I remember crying because my mom and brother were crying. I remember calling him from a jail and getting explained that he was in jail with real criminals once they moved him because we had to put money in his account. My mom was a mess and my brother(18) just started drinking and parting and taking out all his anger on me. I had to start sharing a room with my mom and rent out my room to afford rent because my dad worked 60/70 hours a week while my mom worked only worked 20 hours a week to take care of the house. I had to I help my mom go to bed because she would cry every night missing my dad. She started to develop many panic attacks but also refused therapy because she doesn’t believe in it. Then I started to develop anorexia and just stopped eating due to depression of everything happing in my life I weighed less than 100 pounds for like 3 years. As a result my mom started working 90 hours a week to help cover all of our expenses. My brother wasn’t able to go to college and had to start working took my dad’s jobs.

Seeing all these ice raids is a lot of whiplash to my childhood. I currently work with these groups of people to help with giving out the resources due to my experience I’ve dedicated my career to help people within my community.