The arrests took place on Wednesday in seven sites in six different cities in Mississippi. When Victoria Flores, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, found out that Immigration Customs Enforcement had been involved she sent a text to her husband telling him to watch out for ICE.
“It’s sad because there were lots of people who were just working and taking their kids to school. A lot of kids were left behind waiting for their parents, and what’s going to happen to those kids, and that’s what’s happening in Grand Rapids too.”
Flores and her husband Alejandro have been in the country without legal status for the last twenty years. They both work odd jobs so as not have their status questioned.
“I have seen ICE in our neighborhoods while I am walking and I’ve been really lucky that they haven’t apprehended me or asked me for my papers.”
While Flores is undocumented all three of her children are U.S. citizens and so she says that means she has to make a safety plan in case anything were to happen.
“All we can do is prepare our children, giving them a plan, and we know that we are in a country that is not ours but that we come here to progress not to cause any harm but we have to be prepared and the only way we can do that is letting our children know in case anything happens.”
Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News.
