They were teens when a parent was deported. They still feel the pain as adults

"Jesus usually came home from school to a raucous scene: the family TV blaring, his mom loudly cooking dinner and his two young sisters fighting about nothing in particular. When his dad came home from work, they'd all gather around the kitchen table for dinner. But this day was different. Everything was eerie and quiet and dark, he recalled. All of the lights in the home were off. The television was silent."

"The Guardian recently spoke to three adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s who lost a parent to deportation when they were children. We hoped to better understand the long-term consequences of family separations and to provide insight into the challenges likely to face young people whose parents are now being ripped away during Donald Trump's second term."

"For Jesus and others, there were devastating and wide-ranging emotional, physical and financial impacts that came with their parents' deportations, and some felt the psychological consequences well into adulthood."

The Guardian interviewed three adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who experienced parental deportation during childhood to understand the lasting impacts of family separation. Jesus, a DACA recipient now in his 40s, was fifteen when his father was unexpectedly taken into custody at an immigration court hearing in 1999 under the Clinton administration. He came home to find his house eerily quiet with all lights off and his mother unresponsive. These individuals faced devastating emotional, physical, and financial consequences from their parents' deportations, with psychological effects extending well into adulthood. Their experiences provide insight into challenges currently facing young people whose parents are being separated during recent immigration enforcement actions.

Read at www.theguardian.com