One woman's reflection on the immigration debate
After the Mother's Day brunches have long passed, perhaps it is still fitting to chew on the meaning of motherhood and sacrifice.
That my mother sacrificed for her children is an understatement. My family emigrated from China to America when I was 3 years old. Many years later, when my dad was in the process of applying for green cards through his employer, he divorced my mom. Now "unqualified" to remain in the U.S. - as she was no longer part of our family in the eyes of the government - my mom had the choice to move back to China or stay in the States "illegally." Would she mother me from across an ocean or remain without papers here so she could be present for my growing-up years?
From a mother's perspective, the answer was clear. Her child had grown up in America. The opportunity for me to live here was the driving force behind her leaving behind her homeland and old life in the first place. Would any mother not stay to see her daughter through adolescence to adulthood and support her in living out her dreams in a new country?
My mother stayed in the U.S. and started her own Chinese restaurant, where she created jobs for citizens. She remarried and now has two young children who are U.S. citizens. My stepdad came into the country undocumented in the first place, and his immigration situation is story in of itself. One morning in 2008, after they spent nearly 10 years building a life together, the Department of Homeland Security abruptly arrived at their door and detained my stepdad, leaving my mother to run the family restaurant while caring for their children. They both had deportation orders.
Today, my stepdad has been deported to China, after spending nine months in an immigration jail. My mother is still here, clinging tenaciously to the dream to raise her two young children in America and give them the same opportunities I had. She has been waiting 15 months for a court decision on her appeal to reopen her immigration case.
• Liuan Chen Huska lives in Wheaton.