ATLANCA, Mexico — After Antonio Cuahua was deported to Mexico in late November, his four children, who are U.
citizens, faced a stark reality: Leave the United States or enter foster care.
Family members who live in the United States couldn`t afford to support the children.
Their father, 33, had been sole caregiver for Cecily, 10; Anthony, 8; Marrissiah, 6; and Enrique, 5, as they grew up in Owensboro, Ky.
, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville.
“It’s a big mess,” Jacqueline Lynn Linares, the children’s aunt, said in mid-December.
She was their temporary legal guardian after Cuahua was taken into custody Sept.
“If we can’t come up with the money, these kids are going to end up in foster care,' she said then.
'Frankly, we aren’t going to be able to carry on much longer.
15: Too old for DACA, man who spent 30 years of his life in U.
is deported► Jan.
14: Trump blasts Dems as DREAMer debate heats up► Jan.
13: Feds begin accepting DACA renewals following court order Last week after donors from across the USA chipped in more than $2,500 to provide the means to get copies of the children`s birth certificates, apply for passports and process documents that will enable them to apply for Mexican citizenship, the kids took their first plane ride, courtesy of the Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis.
They had a tearful reunion Thursday at Veracruz International Airport in the Mexican state of Veracruz and arrived at their father`s house, almost 1,500 miles from Owensboro, on Thursday night.
The extended Cuahua family lives together in a small grouping of cement structures built on the side of a mountain about 75 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
In one structure is a kitchen where the children’s aunt and grandmother cook over an open, wood fire.
In another are the family living rooms, where the children watch movies on a flat-screen TV.
Antonio Cuahua and now his children, too, live just up the hill from his brother’s family and his mother.
“Things are a little bit different here,” said Cuahua, deported after ICE agents stopped his car in September and discovered a series of misdemeanors.
“They’re going to have to get used to new things.
” After spending the morning blowing up balloons and playing with their father, the children scattered to explore their new world.
“Daddy said we can be as loud as we want,” Anthony said with a grin.
His little brother Enrique squealed as he ran by.
The Cuahua children have been ecstatic to see their father, who had been gone for three months.
But after the newness wears off, experts say they likely will experience a rough transition to life in Mexico.
12: ICE 7-Eleven raids showcase new immigration strategy► Jan.
12: Deportation stay granted for caregiver `daddy` of paraplegic boy “What it is creating for them is exceptional and extremely unusual hardship,” said Luis H.
Zayas, dean of the Steven Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas, Austin.
Zayas spent years researching what happens to American children of undocumented immigrants who return to their parents’ native countries.
At least 500,000 such children live in Mexico alone, many in rural areas where their parents struggle to provide for them, he said.
“Many of the people who come to this country undocumented come to find work,” Zayas said.
“They’re manual laborers.
They’re from rural areas, and that’s where they take their children back to.
” Antonio Cuahua fits this pattern.
He left his hometown when he was 16 and immigrated illegally to the U.
He worked on Kentucky tobacco farms and in restaurants as a teenager before finding more stable employment as a construction worker.
He lived in the United States for 17 years and during that time had four children.
Cuahua had sole custody of all his kids; their mothers have not been in the picture for five years, Linares said.
“Things are a little bit different here,” Cuahua said.
“They’re going to have to get used to new things.
” None of his children know Spanish.
Anthony, the oldest boy, met his cousin who is about the same age and does not speak English.
The two were a little confused at first, then Anthony offered his cousin one of the Nerf guns he brought from Kentucky.
The two laughed and chased each other around the house, diving under tables and hiding around corners.
While they played, Cecily, the oldest, went out to see what her grandmother and aunt were doing.
10: Court victory for DREAMers may prove short-lived► Jan.
5: Each day, 120 DREAMers lose protection from deportation She stood at the edge of the family’s large water basin, where water is brought via hose from an underground supply her uncle found about a mile up the mountain.
From across the basin, Cecily watched her grandmother washing clothes.
Her grandmother`s arms moved quickly, scrubbing the clothes against an old washboard, pausing just long enough dip a Tupperware container into the water.
Cecily grabbed a plastic dish and mimicked her grandmother’s motions.
The elder woman smiled at her.
“Cecily, come here,” her uncle, Filipe Cuahua, called from the kitchen.
Filipe and Antonio Cuahua are the only family members here who speak English.
Filipe Cuahua also immigrated illegally to the United States as a teenager and lived in Kentucky.
His English is rusty though.
He has not used it since he returned to Mexico years ago.
Cecily walked into the family’s kitchen, where her aunt was boiling chayotes, a Mexican squash, and black beans.
Her aunt and uncle spoke in Spanish for a moment, then Filipe Cuahua turned to Cecily.
“You like bistec, don’t you?” he asked, using the Spanish word bistec instead of the English word 'steak.
' Cecily looked confused.
“Bistec?” he repeated.
18: Somalis faced `slave ship conditions` on failed deportation flight► Dec.
8: New Jersey DREAMers arrested after protest inside U.
Capitol The girl blushed and looked quickly at the floor.
Filipe Cuahua and his wife exchanged helpless looks, then he moved forward and hugged his niece.
“It’s OK,” he whispered.
Antonio Cuahua has not yet found a job in Mexico but said he will start looking after his children start going to school.
He plans to enroll them but has to teach them some Spanish before they go because none of the teachers speak English, he said.
30: He`s been a U.
citizen for 20 years, yet ICE detained him for 3 days► Nov.
29: Churches give sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation The whole family will help, he said.
“I have plans for my kids,” Antonio Cuahua said.
“I have to look after them first.
(They must) learn a little bit of Spanish before I can do anything.
” Follow Jessie Higgins on Twitter: @ECP_Higgins Read or Share this story: https://usat.
citizens, faced a stark reality: Leave the United States or enter foster care.
Family members who live in the United States couldn`t afford to support the children.
Their father, 33, had been sole caregiver for Cecily, 10; Anthony, 8; Marrissiah, 6; and Enrique, 5, as they grew up in Owensboro, Ky.
, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville.
“It’s a big mess,” Jacqueline Lynn Linares, the children’s aunt, said in mid-December.
She was their temporary legal guardian after Cuahua was taken into custody Sept.
“If we can’t come up with the money, these kids are going to end up in foster care,' she said then.
'Frankly, we aren’t going to be able to carry on much longer.
15: Too old for DACA, man who spent 30 years of his life in U.
is deported► Jan.
14: Trump blasts Dems as DREAMer debate heats up► Jan.
13: Feds begin accepting DACA renewals following court order Last week after donors from across the USA chipped in more than $2,500 to provide the means to get copies of the children`s birth certificates, apply for passports and process documents that will enable them to apply for Mexican citizenship, the kids took their first plane ride, courtesy of the Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis.
They had a tearful reunion Thursday at Veracruz International Airport in the Mexican state of Veracruz and arrived at their father`s house, almost 1,500 miles from Owensboro, on Thursday night.
The extended Cuahua family lives together in a small grouping of cement structures built on the side of a mountain about 75 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
In one structure is a kitchen where the children’s aunt and grandmother cook over an open, wood fire.
In another are the family living rooms, where the children watch movies on a flat-screen TV.
Antonio Cuahua and now his children, too, live just up the hill from his brother’s family and his mother.
“Things are a little bit different here,” said Cuahua, deported after ICE agents stopped his car in September and discovered a series of misdemeanors.
“They’re going to have to get used to new things.
” After spending the morning blowing up balloons and playing with their father, the children scattered to explore their new world.
“Daddy said we can be as loud as we want,” Anthony said with a grin.
His little brother Enrique squealed as he ran by.
The Cuahua children have been ecstatic to see their father, who had been gone for three months.
But after the newness wears off, experts say they likely will experience a rough transition to life in Mexico.
12: ICE 7-Eleven raids showcase new immigration strategy► Jan.
12: Deportation stay granted for caregiver `daddy` of paraplegic boy “What it is creating for them is exceptional and extremely unusual hardship,” said Luis H.
Zayas, dean of the Steven Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas, Austin.
Zayas spent years researching what happens to American children of undocumented immigrants who return to their parents’ native countries.
At least 500,000 such children live in Mexico alone, many in rural areas where their parents struggle to provide for them, he said.
“Many of the people who come to this country undocumented come to find work,” Zayas said.
“They’re manual laborers.
They’re from rural areas, and that’s where they take their children back to.
” Antonio Cuahua fits this pattern.
He left his hometown when he was 16 and immigrated illegally to the U.
He worked on Kentucky tobacco farms and in restaurants as a teenager before finding more stable employment as a construction worker.
He lived in the United States for 17 years and during that time had four children.
Cuahua had sole custody of all his kids; their mothers have not been in the picture for five years, Linares said.
“Things are a little bit different here,” Cuahua said.
“They’re going to have to get used to new things.
” None of his children know Spanish.
Anthony, the oldest boy, met his cousin who is about the same age and does not speak English.
The two were a little confused at first, then Anthony offered his cousin one of the Nerf guns he brought from Kentucky.
The two laughed and chased each other around the house, diving under tables and hiding around corners.
While they played, Cecily, the oldest, went out to see what her grandmother and aunt were doing.
10: Court victory for DREAMers may prove short-lived► Jan.
5: Each day, 120 DREAMers lose protection from deportation She stood at the edge of the family’s large water basin, where water is brought via hose from an underground supply her uncle found about a mile up the mountain.
From across the basin, Cecily watched her grandmother washing clothes.
Her grandmother`s arms moved quickly, scrubbing the clothes against an old washboard, pausing just long enough dip a Tupperware container into the water.
Cecily grabbed a plastic dish and mimicked her grandmother’s motions.
The elder woman smiled at her.
“Cecily, come here,” her uncle, Filipe Cuahua, called from the kitchen.
Filipe and Antonio Cuahua are the only family members here who speak English.
Filipe Cuahua also immigrated illegally to the United States as a teenager and lived in Kentucky.
His English is rusty though.
He has not used it since he returned to Mexico years ago.
Cecily walked into the family’s kitchen, where her aunt was boiling chayotes, a Mexican squash, and black beans.
Her aunt and uncle spoke in Spanish for a moment, then Filipe Cuahua turned to Cecily.
“You like bistec, don’t you?” he asked, using the Spanish word bistec instead of the English word 'steak.
' Cecily looked confused.
“Bistec?” he repeated.
18: Somalis faced `slave ship conditions` on failed deportation flight► Dec.
8: New Jersey DREAMers arrested after protest inside U.
Capitol The girl blushed and looked quickly at the floor.
Filipe Cuahua and his wife exchanged helpless looks, then he moved forward and hugged his niece.
“It’s OK,” he whispered.
Antonio Cuahua has not yet found a job in Mexico but said he will start looking after his children start going to school.
He plans to enroll them but has to teach them some Spanish before they go because none of the teachers speak English, he said.
30: He`s been a U.
citizen for 20 years, yet ICE detained him for 3 days► Nov.
29: Churches give sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation The whole family will help, he said.
“I have plans for my kids,” Antonio Cuahua said.
“I have to look after them first.
(They must) learn a little bit of Spanish before I can do anything.
” Follow Jessie Higgins on Twitter: @ECP_Higgins Read or Share this story: https://usat.
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