For the past few years, we have been hearing and reading about young U.S. born children losing their undocumented parents to a deportation ruling. From a 2018 article on the American Immigration Council website states that 5.9 million children have an undocumented family member and half-a-million children has encountered the difficulties of immigration.
One of the most recent cases happens to be a 30-year-old Denver father, Zaldivar. He has five children ranging from ages eight to twenty-three and is married to a citizen. He has been working on getting his residency for a while now but his request to stay was recently denied. Fortunately, he was given a postponement of a month in which he had to then present his ticket to exit after the month is up.
While these stories have become a huge tug-of-war between Republicans and Democrats, we often forget who these laws really affect; the children.
Shannon Mendez is a sophomore in the Social Work Department at Delaware State University who similarly experienced the loss of a parent.
It all started when one day she got home to find her mother with a deteriorated look. The following words changed her life; her mother was leaving to Mexico for an unknown period to care for her grandmother.
For the next few months of her senior year in high school, she was in responsible for her younger sisters while handling work and school.
At this point, she was handling two extra curriculum clubs and swimming. Unfortunately, with all the pressure she had to quit swimming.
“I got the taste of what it felt like to not have a mom, a lot to manage,” she quotes. Mendez had to juggle getting transportation to and from work often getting her older sisters to help.
After a long school and work day, Shannon would come home to tuck in her sisters making sure that they had showered, ate dinner, completed their homework, and guide them through the hard period. Then she would get some homework done for the next day. She even managed to squeeze in household work in to her endless schedule often getting to bed at 3 a.m.
During this time, she reflects on not taking care of herself personally and focused her energy on others and her school work.
“[The experience] made me more mature, made me see what it meant to be a parent. As a parent, you have to be there 24/7,” she says. To Shannon, looking over her little sisters was way more than tucking them into bed but making sure they stayed focused in school and were not being affected by the separation of their mother.
After a month, her mother returned to Georgia and noticed the toll on Shannon. Then her mother took another big decision in taking her little sisters to Mexico for the next two months.
Through this time, Mendez noticed a change in the relationship with her mother making them more distant. The separation caused her mother to miss Shannon receiving awards in school and guiding her through prom night.
“It created a big hole because I was used to having her here. Especially when it came to support me, I felt there was no one there,” she said.
As senior year was coming to the end, Mendez felt discouraged to continue her education on to college due to the situation and her legal status.
Eventually when her mother came back to the United States to see Shannon cross the stage and graduate. Then Mendez worked to better the relationship with her mother and was hopeful to go to college in California with the help of family members
“It wasn’t fun;c made me appreciate the people I had,” she quotes.
Even though Shannon’s mother wasn’t deported, she now reflects on the 3,000 children separated from their parents at the border and those U.S. born children losing their parents to deportation. Her story gives us an insight how many of these situations cause many young immigrants to grow up and take responsibilities faster than others.