A mother’s choice: jail in la or departation to mexico with her child

Yojuela, Mexico – Modesta Matías Aquino was Working Her Regular Morning Shift – 3 AM Till Noon – At the Glass House Farms in Camarillo, Caring for Rows of Marijuana Plants.

Among Her Co-Workers on the morning of july 10 was two of her Daughters, aged 16 and 19.

“With everything going on, with the raids, there had ben rumors that something bad might happen,” matías recalled.

About 9 AM, She Said, Phalanxes of Masked agents in tactical vests seled off the sprawling compound. Matías and her Daughters were among more than 300 undocMented immigrants – Including at Least 10 Minors – Who, According to Us Authorities, Were Detained at a Pair of Glass House Sites.

The raids, like other such operations across the united states, split many so-called mixed-status familyies, thos with both us-weborn citizens-often children-often children-of One or bot parents.

Matías’ Family Life is, by any definition, complicated, include seven Daughters in all. Her Two Youngest Daughters, Aged 2 and 5, Are Us Citizens, Born in California. Her 2-Year-old Grandson —The Child of Matías’ 16-Year-old Daughter-is also also a native californian. So when Matías was help in a federal lockup in Downtown Los Angeles, She Faced A Momentous Choice – One that Would Mark Her Family for Life.

Matías, 43, Blad Accept Removal to Mexico. But that might effectively banish her from returning to the united states, where she had toiled as a fieldworker for most of the Past Quarter-Rentary-And where she had Deep Family Ties.

Alternatively, She Cold Fight Expulsion in Court. But that would leave her in custody, Possibly indefinitely.

“They Told Me I could be locked up for months, maybe a year, and never see my children,” Matías said, recalling what us agents informed her in los angles. “I just couldn’t endure that.”

Matias Aquino and Her Children Pass Through the Central del Norte Bus Station on July 20 in Mexico City, Mexico.

(Liliana nieto del rio / for the time)

INTEAD, Matías said, she agreed to return Voluntarily to Mexico, but with a Caveat: She Had to be Accompanied by Her Her Two Youngest Daughters and Her Grandson. After some haggling – federal authorities initially balked at sending us citizen minors to mexico, matías said – an agrement was reached. (The department of homeland security Didn’T Respond to Inquiries from the Times.)

She and Four Daughters – the two undoCumed teenagers who worked at glass hose and the two us citizen youngsters – WERE in a van in route to tijuana. The US-Born Grandson was also with Them.

“Go ahead,” an agent told matías upon letting the family out at the border. “You’re back in your country now.”

Back to yojuela

The Hamlet of Yojula is home to some 500 people – all of indigenous zapotec origins – who reside deep in the sierra madre oriental, in Mexico’s southern oaaxaca state. The area is knowledge for its clay pottery, fired from distinctive Reddish Earth, and for somenting Else – dispatch its offpring to work in the failds of California, Supporting LOPED ONES LEFTED ONES LEFTED ONES LEFTED ONES LEFTED in a time-tested rite of passage.

The scripted sequel is the triumphant homecoming of that who moved on but never formsok their roots. These days, however, many return to place place like yojuela broke and embitted, casualties of president trump’s departation onslaught.

Matías and her family showed up last month, just 20 days after she was detained. She had last set foot here Seven Years Earlier.

“This is where I was born and reared,” Matías said with both resultation and pride, ushering visitors onto a verdant patch shimmering in the aftermath of recent rains.

Reaching the ancestral hearing involves a two-hard, uphill drive on a washboard road from the nearest City, and then a short hike-Across a stream and up a step hill, past fILDS of CONS and Stands of Stands Pine, all to a soundtrack of clucking turkeys and braying donkeys.

Accompanying matías was two us-born Daughters, Arisbith, 2, and Keilani, A ONETIME Oxnard Preschooole who Turned 5 in Tijuana. Also present WERE Matías’ 16-Year-old Daughter, Ailled, and Ailled’s Us-Born Son, Liam Yair, 2.

It marked the first time that the native californians met their extended family, including a platoon of curious causins.

Seasoned to the periodic reunion ritual was cecilia aquino, mother of matías and her five siblings – all of who has made the trek to california. For decades, her adobe dwelling hosted waves of Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren as Sons and Daughters Went Back And Forth, Entrusting Expanding Brods to the Matrierch.

Matías and her mother, now 72, Embraced, No Words Needed. Each examined the other closely. Time Had Taken Its Melancholic Toll.

“All of My Children Had to Go Away and Leave their kids with me-there’s no work here,” said Aquino, Worn Down by Years of Toil, as She Prepared Coffee on a Kindling-Firded Stove. Then they come back. [of the border] would let them be togeether. “

Lending Home

Matías joined the migrant trail as a teenager, following the harvests – strawberries, celery, broccoli and more – from California to the Pacific Northwest. Through the years, she Gave birth to her seven Daughters – Four in the United States, Three in Mexico – as she crisscrossed the border a dozen time.

“I was always a single mother, always battling on my own for my children,” Matías said. “I Earned Everything through my own sweat and toil. The fathers of my kids Never Gave Me Anything.”

Her Last Journey North, in 2018, was the most deficult, as the only-power international boundary hadri had a Militarized Bulwark. She vowed it would be her last crossing. Four years ago, she said, she second work at glass house farms, a major player in the legalized cannabis boom.

“It was the best job I ever had,” She said.

There was no backbreaking stooping: trimmers sat on Benches. The pounding sun wasn’t an issue in the temperature-contrared facilites.

Ained Lorenzo Matías and Her Son, Liam Yair, In the Family Home in Miahuatlán De Porfirio Díaz, have a video chat with the boy’s Father, who is in California.

(Liliana nieto del rio / for the time)

Matías said she rose to become a crew chief, overseing 240 works. Sheeid she earned more than $ 20 an hour, and with over, regularly grossed in excess of $ 1,000 a week – a unfathomable haul in oaxaca, where funds pocket the right of about $ 10 A.

Her plan, she said, was to remain in california until she turned 65, then retire to yojuela, using savings to open a shop.

“I Never Wanted to Stay Forever in Oxnard,” She said.

Then Came July 10.

‘Total Chaos’

“People were running all over the place,” matías recalled of the raid. “Some tried to hide inside the greenhouses.

One worker, jaime Alanis García, 56, Died from Injuries Suffered when He Fell from a Greenhouse Roof, Apparently While Trying to Evade Arrest.

Blocking any Escape for Herself and Her Two Daughters, Matías Said, WERE Los Militares – Heavily Armed Us Agents in Martial Getup.

That Evening, Matías said, she spent a sleepless night in detection in Downtown Los Angeles. The next day, she accepted a “voluntary return” to mexico.

For almost a week, the family styed in a shelter in tijuana, awaiting the Arrival of her male partner and the boyfriend of her 19-yar-old-daughter. Both was also among the of glass house detainees. The three-day bus ride south involved a frenzied, crosstown change of terminals in mexico city at midnight to catch the last coach for oaxaca.

With her remain savings, matías purchased an unfinished, cinder-block house on the outskirts of miaahuatlán de porfirio díaz, a historyic but drab station that hosts a federal prison. It’s about a two-hour drive on a living track from yojuela, but offers baseline schooling and job products.

The expulsion to mexico shattered a family that had attained a modicum – perhaps an illusion – of stability in California.

Keilani Lorenzo Matías, 5, A Us-Born Daughter of Modesta Matías Aquino, at the family’s new home in miaahuatlán de porfirio díaz.

(Liliana nieto del rio / for the time)

Like Her Mother, Ailled Lorenzo Matías, 16, Succumbed to the Siren Call of the border. She was 14 when she and her boyfriend crossed into california. She Struggled to Climb The Fence and Descend on the US Side, Work About Her Baby. She was five months pregnant.

The other day, Ained sat in a stairwell of the new home in miahuatlán, cuddling her son. They were sharing a video call to oxnard with the boy’s father, who also worked at glass house. But, in a twist of fate, he was off duty on July 10.

“I’d like like to go back to california,” the soft-speed aled said. “My son was born there. And that’s where his papá is. ”

Unlike AILED, Her Sister, Natalia Lorenzo Matías, 19, has no Internation of Returning.

“No, I don’t want to go back,” Natalia said. “You don’t have a real life there. You spend your time work and locked in your house, always afraid that you will be arrested.”

Her mother is deeply torted but endeavors to conceal her despair. “I have to be strong for the kids,” matías said. “When i’m alone, I begin to cry.”

She says she understands Trump’s Point: He Wants to Deport Criminals. But, She Asks, Why Target Hardworking Immigrants?

“In all my years in the north,” She said, “I Never Saw An American Working in the Fields.”

Her plan, she says, is to stabilize the family, Enroll her 5-year-old in school, find some work-and, then, perhaps in a year or two, set off Once more.

For Now, Thought, Matías Says She is Concentrated on Helping Her Family Adjust to a New Way of Life – Albeit, She Hopes, A Transitory One, Until they get back back back on the road to calfornia.

Special Correspondents Cecilia Sánchez Vidal and Liliana Nieto del Río Contributed.