Family battles to lay down roots after mother deported from US

TIJUANA, Mexico: Yami Ponce, a 17-yearold US citizen of Mexican origin, has split her time for the past two years between Tijuana in Mexico, where her mother lives after being deported, and San Diego in the US, where she attends school.

“A few of my friends knew my situation and admired me for they cannot imagine how hard it is and what an effort I have to make every day in managing to get to school,” Yami said.

From Monday to Friday the young woman has to get up as early as 4am to get ready.

Her mother Ixtchel calls an Uber for her and a friend to take them across the 1km El Chaparral bridge into the US. Once across the border, Yami takes a bus and then a train to get to school at 7am.

Since her mother was deported from the US “the life of all the family members has changed”, she said. “The deportation separates children from their parents and siblings. This is unfair and it hurts us.”

Yami and her sister Angela were born and lived in Michigan until 2015 with their parents – then their mother took them to Mexico City.

The family then decided to move back to the US, but the mother was arrested, jailed and deported back to Mexico.

“It will be a long time before I can enter the US, but I hope I could visit my daughters when they get married or have children,” Ixtchel said.

“Whenever I get depressed, I just think about how hard my daughter (Yami) works every day to go to school.

“For now, being in Mexico is good for me. I am involved in my community, but this situation often gets to me. It is not only because I have to live in two places, but also because I am not with my sister,” said Yami.