"M. holds a strand of her hair up. "Look", she says laughing, pointing at white streaks she says weren't there before this summer. It's been stressful, she says, holed up indoors with the kids. As she speaks, her youngest climbs on top of the washing machine and proceeds to throw about a hundred plastic Easter eggs on the floor; unbeknownst to her, the baby she's rocking is wildly waving a large bottle of glue."
"M. and her husband have lived and worked in the U.S. for around 15 years. Their kids are all US citizens, but she says this summer it just felt too risky to go anywhere. There were no trips to the pool, no visits to the aquarium or local parks. Her eldest was planning to go to a STEM summer camp, which the family pulled her out of."
Across the U.S., many parents welcome the return to school, but undocumented families face renewed fear about immigration enforcement near schools. M., an undocumented mother in rural southern Maryland, spent the summer mostly indoors with her four U.S.-citizen children, avoiding pools, aquariums and parks. A visit from immigration agents at her husband's landscaping job intensified the family's lockdown and prompted pulling their eldest out of a STEM camp. The parents told their children they are U.S. citizens while the parents are not, and warned outings could lead to detention or deportation. The start of school raises fears about agents arriving during classes or pickups.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]