Having her family fall victim to the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which criminally prosecuted immigrants that crossed the US border without documentation and separated families as a consequence, Estela Juarez has written a children’s book with the help of Lissette Norman and illustrator Teresa Martin, titled “Until Someone Listens.” The book offers a personal account of Estela’s story of loss and lack of protection under our current immigration system, in the hopes that all who read will listen to the pressing need for immigration reform.
Now thirteen, Estela recalls the evening an immigration officer knocked at her family’s door. It was at that moment she learned her mother, Alejandra, was undocumented. Estela remembers her mom telling her, “I am not as lucky as you. I came to the U.S. without papers.” Alejandra had unsuccessfully tried to enter the US illegally in 1998 as a teenager seeking asylum. At that time, she signed a document she could not comprehend, which ultimately waived all future rights to a visa or citizenship in the US.
Alejandra’s second attempt to cross into the US was successful, and she came into the country undetected. She went on to meet Sgt. Temo Juarez, an American citizen and US Marine Corps veteran. The two married and had Estela and her older sister Pamela, building a life together in Davenport, Florida. In 2001, Alejandra Juarez’s application to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) was rejected, as she was accused of making a false statement at the border when she sought asylum in 1998. A routine traffic stop in 2013 resulted in Alejandra, the wife of a US Marine Corps veteran and mother of two US citizens with no criminal record, being subjected to check in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) twice per year. Under President Obama’s policy, she was not targeted for deportation.
Once President Trump took office and the administration instituted the “zero tolerance” policy, Mrs. Juarez was informed by ICE agents that she now was a candidate for deportation. Faced with this looming threat, Ms. Juarez was forced to leave her husband and children behind, and return to Mexico after twenty years of living in the US.
The family’s plight to spare Ms. Juarez from deportation was featured in a Netflix documentary “Living Undocumented.” During this time, young Estela wrote letters to local newspapers, to the very President for whom her father had voted, to Congress and to anyone who could possibly help her mother stay in the only home Estela knew. Estela’s letter to President Trump was featured at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and with the help of US Congressman Darren Soto, Estela wrote President Biden once he took office, requesting that he take executive action to reunite her family. With the help of Estela’s efforts, Alejandra’s petition for humanitarian parole was approved and she returned home to her family in May 2021. However, her stay is on a temporary basis as she will have to apply for parole every two years.
For families like Estela’s, relief will only come with immigration reform, when individuals faced with such circumstances are offered a road to lawful permanent residency. As the struggles continue for the Juarez family and countless others, Estela reminds us to “continue to share your voice because somebody will hear you.”