Mayra’s story: Family union destroyed
Hi my name is Mayra Penaloza and I was born and raised in California. I met my soul mate when I was in college working toward my teaching career. After 3 years and a half of dating we got married. That same year (2008) I was done with college and I got my California teaching credential. Two months after our wedding we found out we were going to be parents which was something amazing.
We were going to start his paperwork with a lawyer, but we were afraid he was going to end up having to leave the country. So we waited and it was a big mistake. When I was 7 months pregnant he was going to a convention in Utah and got stopped in San Clemente, Ca. He called me and I told him not to sign anything. They made him believe that there was nothing I could do for him and that he had no choice by to be deported. The hardest part for me was to put the thought in my mind that he wasn’t going to be me with when our daughter was born.
In the end, he didn’t meet our daughter until she was 6 months old. I went to visit him when she was 8 months old and again when she was 14 months. He missed the birth, he missed her first steps… what else is he going to miss?
People are unaware how hard it is for families who are separated. Being a teacher I know how difficult it is for my daughter to grow up away from her father. It is also bad to take her once in a while to go see him. Just as kids need rules they also need consistency. I can tell it affects her to only see her father a few times a year, just as it affects her getting used to one place and then moving another.
If I could, I would get on my knees and beg the leaders who oppose an immigration reform to make one happen soon. A lot of people don’t realize that immigrants help the economy – my husband, when he was here, was paying a lot of money for a 2007 Camry that we lost when he got deported. He spent most of his time working and never did anything wrong. I just wish he could come back so we could live happily together.
