{"id":607179,"date":"2018-07-26T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T06:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=607179"},"modified":"2018-07-26T15:12:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T21:12:04","slug":"wait-for-me-please-husband-wife-split-by-border-hold-out-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/wait-for-me-please-husband-wife-split-by-border-hold-out-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Wait for me, please:&#8217; Husband, wife split by border hold out hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_607200\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607200\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/GabrielaAdrian-HugsNotWalls-771x515.jpg\" alt=\"Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda and Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez\" width=\"771\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/GabrielaAdrian-HugsNotWalls-771x515.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/GabrielaAdrian-HugsNotWalls-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/GabrielaAdrian-HugsNotWalls-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/GabrielaAdrian-HugsNotWalls-1170x781.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/GabrielaAdrian-HugsNotWalls.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Sisel Lan \/ for Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda and Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez saw each other briefly at the Hugs Not Walls Event on the border between El Paso and Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez earlier this year.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO, Texas and VALLE DE JU\u00c1REZ, Mexico \u2013 Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda and Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez were lovestruck teenagers when, in 2002, they crossed the border to start a life together far from the violence-plagued valley east of\u00a0Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n<p>They never imagined the border would one day keep them apart.<\/p>\n<p>The two made a home for themselves in a <i>colonia<\/i> east of El Paso &#8212; Adri\u00e1n working construction for big U.S. homebuilders, Gabriela keeping house and raising their growing family. But driving long distances to work left Adri\u00e1n exposed. He picked up traffic violations that led to deportations. And even as the prison sentences grew longer with each illegal crossing, he kept returning &#8212; illegally &#8212; to his wife, daughter and two sons.<\/p>\n<p>It took six deportations, and more than 10 years in prison over five different stints, before he gave up trying to get back.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/searchlightnm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Searchlight New Mexico<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to investigative journalism. Read its Raising New Mexico series\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/raising-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Every day, federal courtrooms in New Mexico and West Texas are filled with immigrants charged with illegal re-entry who claim they were trying to return to a spouse or children. A 2015 report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission showed that more than two-thirds of immigrants charged with illegal re-entry had relatives living in the U.S. other than children. Half had at least one child in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Gabriela lives in the same mobile home and is applying for legal status. She stays for many reasons &#8212; her job, her children\u2019s education and, most importantly, she says, access to specialized medical care for a son with a life-threatening congenital heart defect. Adri\u00e1n lives on the outskirts of Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, two blocks from the border wall.<\/p>\n<p>She can\u2019t go south. He can\u2019t come north.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love my husband,\u201d she says. \u201cEven though he is not with me, in my mind we are going to be together someday. We\u2019re going to grow old, and we\u2019re going to see our children get married. That is the idea I have had since the first time I saw him. I tell him, \u2018Wait for me, please.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The couple\u2019s children &#8212; ages 15, 14 and 12 &#8212; are U.S. citizens and crisscross the border like so many kids do, acting as bridges between families divided. They live with Mom during the week and stay with Dad on weekends.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_607202\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607202\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Adrian_Hernandez_Family-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Adrian_Hernandez_Family-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Adrian_Hernandez_Family-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Adrian_Hernandez_Family-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Adrian_Hernandez_Family-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Adrian_Hernandez_Family.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez with his parents, two of his children and a neighbor (left to right: Mar\u00eda del Carmen Garay Balderrama, Bryan Garay, Antonio Hern\u00e1ndez, Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez Garay, Jacob Adri\u00e1n Hernandez, April Janette Hernandez) at Adri\u00e1n\u2019s home in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The oldest, April, was home the morning in summer 2014 that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surrounded the house and took her father away. Husband and wife haven\u2019t lived under the same roof since.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriela and Adri\u00e1n share the story of their family and the border that divides them with Searchlight New Mexico &#8212; she from her office at the nonprofit Border Network for Human Rights; he from the living room of a rented home with bars on the broken windows.<\/p>\n<p>**<\/p>\n<p><b>Gabriela: <\/b>The day I noticed him was the first day of high school. When I saw him, I thought, he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my life. I couldn\u2019t stop looking at him. I never before believed in love at first sight, but I had just discovered it was possible.<\/p>\n<p><b>Adri\u00e1n<\/b>: She went to the United States for one year [in high school] and came back changed. She was more of a woman. We were in the same class, and we graduated together.<\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: I didn\u2019t have money for college. My mom decided, \u2018There are no jobs here and as far as education, it\u2019s over. We\u2019re going to have to leave.\u2019 We decided to come to the U.S. to work &#8212; me, my mom and my younger sister. [Adri\u00e1n] talked to my mom and said, \u2018I want to go with you. I can help you pay rent and work and I want to be with Gabriela.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: At that time, the situation was getting very difficult here [in Ju\u00e1rez] with the violence, and there wasn\u2019t much work. We both had the laser visa [a tourism permit], so we went in legally. All of our children were born in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Over the next couple years, Adri\u00e1n would occasionally cross the border using his tourist card, to see his parents. On one of those trips, U.S. customs officers stopped and questioned him. <\/i><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: They told me they knew I lived in the U.S. They took my visa and deported me. It was 2003. I remember because Gabriela was pregnant with April. So I had to get back &#8212; illegally this time. I crossed the river. Back then, there was no wall, just the river. I went at midnight.<\/p>\n<p><i>Adri\u00e1n made it back in time for his daughter\u2019s birth. But during the next three years, he would get deported three more times, serving two 60-day sentences for illegal re-entry and another 10 months when he was caught driving with undocumented family members in the car. Each time, he returned illegally.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>In 2007, he had been reunited with his family for two months and was working construction when a sheriff\u2019s deputy pulled him over for speeding and called Border Patrol. When Gabriela got the call, she rushed over the traffic stop just two miles from home.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: I was telling this guy &#8212; the sheriff\u2019s deputy &#8212; \u2018You know he\u2019s not a criminal! Do you know what you do? He\u2019s going to jail, and I don\u2019t know when my family is going to be able to see him again.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em>The same federal judge in El Paso who sentenced Adri\u00e1n to 10 months now gave him six years in a California federal prison &#8212; a longer sentence for a lesser charge, illegal re-entry, that was compounded by his previous deportations.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: My children were constantly asking me &#8212; they were 5, 4 and 2 years old &#8212; \u2018Where is my dad? I miss my dad.\u2019 And I would lie to them. I would tell them, \u2018Your dad is in California and he\u2019s working very hard so he can buy you all the toys that you\u2019ve ever wanted.\u2019 But after so many times, I ran out of lies. I remember one day my daughter said, \u2018Mom, please ask my dad to come back. I don\u2019t want the toys anymore.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><i>Gabriela struggled to find work without a Social Security number. She scoured illegal dumps for mattresses and sold the steel coils to recycling centers. She cleaned trailer lots in Agua Dulce, the poor colonia where she lives.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: I remember one day when we didn\u2019t have anything to eat. Nothing. I had a tomato sauce and three corn tortillas. So I did <i>entomatadas<\/i>, and I gave one tortilla to each of the kids. And then I remember April asking me, \u2018Mama, you\u2019re not going to eat?\u2019 And I said, \u2018No <i>mi\u2019ja<\/i>, I already ate. You eat.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><i>Adri\u00e1n finished his prison sentence in February 2013 and was deported. He returned to Ju\u00e1rez, where he worked at a maquila an assembly factory for several months until one day in November he raised a 19-foot ladder against the 18-foot steel fence and slid down a pole on the other side \u201clike a firefighter.\u201d The family reunion lasted a few months. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: I was practically a stranger to [the children]. The three of them didn\u2019t know me. I had spoken to them by phone occasionally when I was in prison. But we didn\u2019t have that father-child communication. I had to win their confidence and their respect until they started to see me as their father.<\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: We were always very united when we were together. He would arrive home at 5 p.m., eat with us, play with [the children], stay with me and watch a movie. We were that kind of family.<\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: We were always together. We would go out to eat or to the park. We liked to stay home, watch television or a movie &#8212; a tranquil life. I worked Monday to Friday and sometimes on Saturday. She took care of the house and the children.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_607203\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607203\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180714_Adrian_Hernandez_37-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180714_Adrian_Hernandez_37-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180714_Adrian_Hernandez_37-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180714_Adrian_Hernandez_37-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180714_Adrian_Hernandez_37-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180714_Adrian_Hernandez_37.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez looking toward the border fence near his home in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><i>It was 8 a.m. in the summer of 2014 when the knock came. It was ICE. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: I opened the door. And they said, \u2018Are you Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda?\u2019 I knew what was going to happen. They said: \u2018We got a report that your husband is illegal again in the country. Ask him to come out. And if he doesn\u2019t come out, we will wait here until he does.\u2019 My husband was behind the door listening to everything.<\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: I looked out the window and I saw them &#8212; ICE. There were a lot of them, armed, and they surrounded the house as if I was a criminal. My boys were on their way to school but the one who had to see it all was my daughter. She was young, just 11 years old. It was very traumatic. Even today she can\u2019t talk about it.<\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: When I felt all was lost, that they were going to take him, I started crying. I said: \u2018He\u2019s not a bad person. He\u2019s not a criminal. Please, don\u2019t take him! Please, he just came back.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: I remember &#8212; this is really painful for me &#8212; we hugged, Gabriela and me and my daughter. They were crying. It was so hard watching my daughter cry. They practically ripped me away from my wife and children. We had gotten back together, and we were finally living the life of a normal family. Three more years they gave me in prison.<\/p>\n<p><i>Again, the same El Paso federal judge handed down the sentence.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>After so many years in the shadows, Gabriela turned herself in and pleaded for relief under a provision of the immigration code. She made a claim that her deportation would cause \u201cextreme hardship to a U.S. citizen\u201d &#8212; her middle son Abraham, who is in immediate need of a third open-heart surgery. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>These days, she works legally as communications director for the Border Network for Human Rights under a temporary work permit while she awaits a resolution in her case.<\/i><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_607205\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-607205\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180713-Gabriela_Castaneda_56-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180713-Gabriela_Castaneda_56-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180713-Gabriela_Castaneda_56-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180713-Gabriela_Castaneda_56-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180713-Gabriela_Castaneda_56-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/dju_20180713-Gabriela_Castaneda_56.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda at the border fence in El Paso, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: I understand the laws. The laws are very strict with undocumented people. Some of us, we make mistakes &#8212; I\u2019m not saying we don\u2019t &#8212; but I\u2019m not the criminal that my record reflects. I\u2019m a family man, a working man.<\/p>\n<p><i>April, Abraham and Jacob, the youngest, attend school in El Paso and cross the border each weekend to see their father. <\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: Every single weekend that I send them, I tell them, \u2018Enjoy the time with your dad because I wish I could be able to do that.\u2019 When they come back I start asking them a lot of questions. How was it? Where did he take you guys? Was he happy? I want to see pictures, to see what he was wearing on a particular day.<\/p>\n<p>The immigrant is seen as worse than the worst criminal. \u2026 All the damage that his absence has caused my children! My children are U.S. citizens. It seems like this government isn\u2019t taking into consideration that they\u2019re hurting their own citizens &#8212; or maybe they don\u2019t care because those citizens are children of immigrants.<\/p>\n<p><i>An immigration judge will hear Gabriela\u2019s case in late August.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>A<\/b>: I tell her, \u2018We\u2019ve been separated for so many years &#8212; all the years I was in prison and the years here. What\u2019s going to happen in the future? She isn\u2019t going to be able to come here unless she fixes her papers. And if they never get fixed?<\/p>\n<p><b>G<\/b>: My children are everything for me. I am suffering &#8212; staying in a country alone as a single mom, arriving home and nobody there to wait for me &#8212; because I am putting the interests of my children before mine. I want them to have an education. I want Abraham to have a better chance of surviving. I tell my husband, \u2018Adri\u00e1n please understand me, I love you more than anything. But not more than my children. Not more than them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-607206\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/deported-parents.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"1195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/deported-parents.png 510w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/deported-parents-336x787.png 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gabriela Casta\u00f1eda and Adri\u00e1n Hern\u00e1ndez have three children, all U.S. citizens, who crisscross the border like so many kids do, acting as bridges between families divided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":607200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-607179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}