[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” _builder_version=”3.0.51″ src=”http:\/\/houston2017.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2017\/07\/Illse-Holding-Hands.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” sticky=”off” align=”left” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” force_fullwidth=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” background_size=”initial”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.0.51″ background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
Imagine living most of your life in one city and not knowing which country you will live in ten years from now.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the situation for a 29-year-old undocumented woman in Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cI identify myself more from Houston because I\u2019ve been living here half of my life,\u201d Susana said. \u201cBut when I was in Mexico I was a child and now that I\u2019m an adult, I love both countries but certainly more Houston than Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n
We agreed to call her Susana because she and her family live in fear of deportation.<\/p>\n
Susana is in the U.S. under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The DACA program protects undocumented youth brought to the United States as children from deportation and guarantees a permit to work in the U.S. The program is now in legal limbo under the Trump administration, and that\u2019s left people like Susana and her family afraid to do normal things.<\/p>\n
Susana lives with her two parents who are undocumented from Jalisco, Mexico. Her father has to drive long distances to go to work. He\u2019s afraid of being stopped by the police and of getting deported because he doesn\u2019t have permission to work in the United States. Every day he leaves for work, he does it with a new sense of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Susana said her father always says, \u201cJust remember, we don\u2019t know if I will come back because I\u2019m driving seven hours to go to work, and will never know what\u2019s going to be on the way to work.\u201d<\/p>\n