Bianca Rojo: longing for her family to be reunited
Bianca Rojo is one of 4 US citizen children. Her parents, Margarita Jaime and Ignacio Rojo, got bad advise from an attorney while trying to get legal status, and after fighting for 8 years to win legal residency, they lost their case in the 9th circuit court of appeals. 
Her parents signed their voluntary deportation, and the whole family–Bianca and her three younger brothers included–moved back to Guadalajara. After a year, Bianca and her younger 13 year old brother came back to their country to finish High School in Alameda County, CA. Bianca and her brother lived with different uncles and had to work at night as Janitors cleaning night clubs to be able to eat and pay for their boarding. Now Bianca is at the university, and her brother is about to graduate high school. She gets to see her parents only once a year, because money is so tight.
My father first came to the United States in 1985, when he was only 15 years old and my mother came to the United States in 1987, when she was only 14 years old. They came to this country looking for a better life for their family in Mexico and for a better future for their children as well.
My mother and father came from Michoacán, Mexico. The reason why they decided to leave their own country and family and come to a foreign place was because of necessity. My parent’s grew up in a ranch where money was very scarce and education was only available to those who had money. They were not able to have the education they wished they could have had because of all the hardships they faced, so they came to the United States. While here they saw that the extreme poverty they had faced and lack of education was something they would never want their own children to see or face.
My parents were in the US for over 20 years. They owned a house, paid taxes, had jobs. So it was a huge blow when they were told they had to leave. The day of the court decision is one that I will never forget in my life. That day I remember my mother woke us up very early to get ready and look nice for our court appearance. She and my father were so excited because they said it was going to be a very special day in which they were finally going to be able to be with us forever without ever being scared or hiding. Once we had arrived to the court house in San Francisco and were inside the courtroom the judge started asking my parents questions. I was only 13 and wasn’t very aware of the delicacy of the matter. The next thing I know the judge tells our attorney to take my two younger brothers’ and I outside of the room, right away I knew that was very unusual. I remember waiting outside the room with my younger brother’s because like my parent’s had told us, everything was going to be ok. After 15 minutes outside the room the attorney rushed out and looked at me with such a sad grieving face. Then my mother and father came out and once I saw my mother I knew right away. My mother came out trying to keep herself composed for us, her face was so pale and her eyes were so red. While trying to keep herself together she looked at me and she started covering her face to avoid us seeing her cry. I felt like something so heavy had fallen from my head down to my feet, and I fell to the floor. I started crying nonstop because I knew that my life was over, for the first time ever my parents did not know what was going to happen to us and our family, my father and mother’s dream of having a better life for us was over and crushed. From the day of our court date until the day in which we left my brother’s and I would wake up during the night crying hysterically, afraid of what was going to happen to our parents.
My family is so important to me because they are the ones who are able to pick me up when I’m down, and they’re the ones who I can always depend on to be there during the good times and the bad. But I don’t have my family here, the only family I truly have is my younger brother. I get very emotional sometimes because I don’t have the same opportunity to wake up in the morning and give my mom a hug. The only thing I can do is call her.
I believe that good American values have a lot to do with family and the way your parents bring you up. Something that I have noticed throughout the years of separation from my parents is that my younger brother and I have become much closer to our parents then we were before. We see our parents as friends, someone that we are able to confide in and are not going to judge us.
I feel that the way this broken immigration system is hurting hard working people and citizen children is un-American. I think there are many American’s that do understand what it’s like to be an immigrant or a child of immigrants, but there are great numbers that do not understand. Being an immigrant child comes with a lot of responsibility. Growing up most of the time your immigrant parents do not either understand or speak the language you grew up speaking which builds a great co-dependence with their children. As immigrants we have often times have been made fun of the way we speak or look. We have to become responsible and have a very high level of drive because we are taught from an early age that education is essential and without it we are nothing
If my parents were able to have legal statues everything would be dramatically different. One thing that would change right away would be the suffering. We would finally be able to see one another everyday and have that special bound between mother and daughter, son and father and brother and sisters. My brother and I would finally have a solid home to live in; we would no longer be moving from house to house being mistreated. We would finally have love and feel loved after so many years. We would finally be truly happy. Throughout this time I have build a brick wall to protect myself from getting hurt, my smiles and laughter are sometimes false to cover the pain that we are going through. If my parents become residents, I would break that wall down because I know my mother and father will never let any more people hurt us as much as we have been hurt.
