For 27 years, Maria has worked on farms near the Oregon-Idaho state line. In that time she’s been confined to stay near her home in Oregon, and missed her brother’s funeral in California and family visits in Mexico.
She just wants to feel “un poco libre” — a little bit free, she said by phone. Free enough, at least, to visit her brother’s grave in Indio, California. The site was where Immigration and Customs Enforcement found and deported her when she first came to the U.S., she said. Now, she’s afraid to return.
Maria is undocumented, doesn’t have a driver’s license, and can’t leave and reenter the U.S. She said she lives in constant fear of deportation, of never seeing her four children and of losing her job. The Idaho Statesman is not using Maria’s full name because of her immigration status.
