I, too, was separated from my mother as a child

We’re happy to share this powerful essay from our friends at PublicSource.

PublicSource Editor’s Note: As journalists, we spend a lot of time talking with officials and community members and distilling it into stories that explore important issues of our time. But we realize that sometimes it is just more powerful to hear it straight from the source. This is one of those times. From PublicSource, this story: 

Fear is what I feel as I’m typing up this piece of my personal story amid the most recent outrage over the Trump administration’s stance on separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border. But that is exactly what the government wants me to feel.

We — the children of parents who at one point made the difficult decision to leave our home countries due to crime, poverty and abuse — are humans and we have a voice.

But the fear threatens us with the notion that if we dare share our stories, we are putting our families in jeopardy of being deported, having our citizenship revoked, ruining everything our parents sacrificed for us and, worst of all, being separated from one another.

Enough is enough. Our stories need to be shared. The damage our immigration system has already caused to children needs to be addressed.

Click here to read the rest of the story.