Life for the Martinez family in Huntington Beach, California, has been completely upended. The father was deported to Mexico while his Navy airman daughter was deployed to the Middle East on the same day. This is a stark, painful realization of the fears many mixed-status families face, caught between the current administration’s immigration enforcement and its foreign policy stance with Iran.
According to CNN, the Martinezes were, until recently, a proud military family. Their living room wall proudly displays photos of their daughter Jessica in her Navy uniform, celebrating her achievements. Her father, Humberto, even sported a “Navy Dad” sweatshirt, though he and his wife Nancy were often too nervous to pass through the permanent checkpoints on I-5 to visit Jessica at her base in San Diego.
