For mixed-status families, U.S. immigration reform would end anxiety

Reuters ^ | August 10, 2013 | By Tim Gaynor

[Oldeconomybuyer]

U.S.-born Junnyor Diaz studies at a Phoenix high school. His Mexico-born older brother, Edder, has applied for a program to avoid deportation, while their undocumented mother, Angelica, cleans houses to keep the family fed and, above all, together.

For Junnyor and 16 million others like him in mixed-status families, reform could bring stability to a fraught situation in which a U.S.-born child is a citizen with a shot at a university education and a stable working life, while a sibling or parent born abroad can face instability and deportation.

"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't worry for either my brother or my mother," said Junnyor, a basketball-loving 16-year-old whose childhood in Phoenix has been filled with anxiety. "I just want it to go away."

While the Senate passed an immigration overhaul, House Republicans are divided over the granting of legal status to those in the country illegally, a step many see as rewarding lawbreakers.

With the fate of the legislation now uncertain, the Diaz family remains hopeful for even incremental changes to the immigration system. After a lifetime of uncertainty, Junnyor is impatient to put the travails of mixed status behind them.

"It's not just me, there's millions of families across the nation who just hope that this whole thing just goes away."

[Godwin1]

They created their own anxiety when they deliberately chose to violate our laws and borders. They need to go home. Now.