Page 8 The Skanner January 25, 2017
News
Trump Overshadows Young Migrants’ Emotional Trip to Mexico
By MANUEL VALDES
and PETER ORSI
Associated Press
MOLCAXAC, Mexico—
Tamara Alcala Domin-
guez sobbed, barely able
to speak, as she buried
her face in the sweater
of the woman who cared
for her when she was a
toddler.
“My little girl, I hugged
you so much,” Petra Bello
Suarez tearfully told her
now 23-year-old grand-
daughter. “I have you in
my arms, my girl. ... You
found me still alive.”
Alcala’s mother left her
with Bello at age 2 when
she went to seek a better
life in the United States.
“
sands protected from
deportation under an
Obama
administra-
tion program known as
DACA, or Deferred Ac-
tion for Childhood Ar-
rivals, which gave work
permits to immigrants
brought to the U.S as chil-
dren and living in the
country illegally.
Alcala burst out of the
shadows. In her Amer-
ican home in Everett,
Washington, she got an
officially sanctioned job
and pursued an educa-
tion with dreams of be-
coming a doctor.
And last year she en-
rolled in a special pro-
gram that allowed her to
make this, her first jour-
uncertainty ahead: They
said their goodbyes just
before Donald Trump
took office amid vows to
undo the protections his
predecessor put in place,
promises that leave im-
migrants worried about
what comes next.
For Alcala, the trip
may have been either a
last opportunity to see
her grandmother, or a
chance to reacquaint
herself with her native
land in case she winds up
deported.
“It brings a lot of peace
of mind to know that I
was able to interact with
her at least once,” she
said, “before whatever
happens in the future.”
‘It brings a lot of peace of mind to know that I
was able to interact with her at least once be-
fore whatever happens in the future’
A year later, the little girl
joined her mother — and
for two decades Alcala’s
undocumented
status
prevented her from re-
turning to Mexico.
Then she became one
of the hundreds of thou-
ney back to Mexico, and
then return safely again
to the United States.
Grandmother
and
grandchild spent nearly
two weeks catching up
on 20 years, a reunion
made bittersweet by the
In the weeks just be-
fore Trump was sworn
in, more than two dozen
young immigrants made
the same journey as Al-
cala back to Mexico un-
der a provision of DACA
that lets recipients apply
We honor the many
accomplishments of
African Americans.
AP PHOTO/PABLO SPENCER
AP reports on the trip of two dozen young immigrants to visit family
This Dec. 23, 2016 photo shows women making tamales in Molcaxac, Puebla state, Mexico. Folks here say
so many working-age residents have migrated to the U.S., the town is mostly populated by the elderly
and the very young. The first wave of migration started in 1942 with the bracero program, which allowed
Mexicans to temporarily, and legally, work in the United States. After the program ended in 1964, people
continued to go north illegally.
to leave the U.S. for aca-
demic reasons or family
emergencies and then le-
gally return. The Associ-
ated Press traveled with
them.
More than 100 former
child migrants have
made five such trips
sponsored by California
State University, Long
Beach — emotional jour-
neys to what is often
a barely remembered
homeland, to reunite
with family seen only
in photos or on Skype.
The students on this trip
joined long-lost relatives
for Christmas, then gath-
ered after the new year
for an academic course
in Cuernavaca before fly-
ing home to America.
About 750,000 immi-
grants have enrolled in
DACA. Legislation that
would have included sim-
ilar protections, called
the DREAM Act, failed
to get through Congress,
prompting
President
Barack Obama to create
the program with an ex-
ecutive action in 2012.
Trump, as part of his
tough talk on immigra-
tion, has vowed to end
DACA, which he calls il-
legal amnesty. Moderate
Republicans are keenly
aware of the political
dangers of deporting col-
lege students and break-
ing up families. At a town
hall Jan. 12, House Speak-
er Paul Ryan said Repub-
licans had been working
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with the Trump team
on a solution and vowed
there would be no “de-
portation force” to round
up people living in the
country illegally.
Soft-spoken and shy, Al-
cala’s demeanor reflects
an upbringing living
with fear of deportation.
Growing up, her fam-
ily mostly kept to them-
selves and a few friends.
Alcala’s mother encour-
aged her not to speak
Spanish outside the
home to avoid attracting
attention.
She wasn’t to let on
that she was Mexican,
and never to tell peo-
ple where her mother
worked.
“I always felt like I al-
ways had to hide every-
thing,” Alcala said.
Through high school,
Alcala was content with
her
under-the-table
restaurant job. But as
college neared, the lim-
itations of her legal sta-
tus became increasingly
clear.
Her job was never go-
ing to be enough to pay
for tuition. She began to
question why her mother
brought her to the U.S.
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