As ICE raids ramped up throughout L.A., a grandmother who lived within the U.S. for 36 years selected to self-deport and depart her household behind
Los Angeles — As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped up raids throughout Los Angeles in latest weeks, Julie Ear and her household made a tough drive to Tijuana Worldwide Airport simply south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Ear’s mom, Regina Higuera, had lived in america for 36 years. However on this specific morning in early June, she left her residence, her kids and grandchildren — all of whom are U.S. residents — and headed again to her birthplace in Mexico.
“When the ICE raids began selecting up on different states, we knew that we had been going to get hit finally,” Ear instructed CBS Information. “No person’s protected.”
Since President Trump started his second time period, ICE has arrested greater than 100,000 individuals as of early June, based on inner authorities information obtained by CBS Information. The Trump administration has additionally inspired undocumented migrants to self-deport. Final month, it introduced it will supply free airline tickets and a $1,000 incentive to some migrants who selected to depart the U.S. and return to their residence international locations on their very own accord.
Ear mentioned her mom selected to self-deport as a result of “she needed to make it possible for she was in charge of her life.”
“She did not just like the uncertainty of someone coming into her home, or her job, or being pulled over, and simply telling her, ‘Oh, now you are in Mexico,'” Ear mentioned of her mom.
Higuera had crossed into the U.S. illegally when she was solely 15 and went straight to work in Los Angeles’ garment factories, Ear mentioned. She had supposed to remain for only a time period, earn sufficient cash after which return to Mexico. However then she met her husband and began a household.
“She’s been contributing to the financial system, paying taxes yearly,” Ear mentioned. “There is not any profit for being undocumented, they do not get advantages. She’s not going to get a pension. She would not have a 401(ok). She by no means acquired meals stamps. She did not get welfare. Individuals need to come right here to work. And, you recognize, it is not unlawful to need to work.”
Now, lately reunited along with her personal mom in Guerrero, Mexico, Higuera mentioned almost the whole lot outdoors of her new house is unfamiliar.
“I am blissful as a result of I am now not burdened,” Higuera instructed CBS Information from her new residence in Mexico of her choice to depart the U.S. “However there are moments after I take into consideration all of you [her family] and I get unhappy.”
The higher life she labored to construct within the U.S. is now being carried on by her kids.
“That is why I’ve such a powerful daughter,” Higuera mentioned of Ear. “From a really younger age, I taught her, we now have to be sturdy it doesn’t matter what state of affairs that we discover ourselves in.”
Ear mentioned she talks and texts along with her mom every day.
“Typically I neglect that she’s to this point as a result of we speak a lot,” Ear mentioned. “However then that’s when the household factor occurs, that is after I’m like, ‘Oh my God, you are really gone. You are not really right here.'”
