Goodbye, America: Frustrated, a Young Immigrant Returns to Chase His Dreams in Mexico Liz Jones - KUOW Public Radio
go to original July 25, 2014

Before entering Mexico, leaving the U.S. for good, Jorge Lerma takes this photo. Lerma, 32, was an undocumented immigrant for nearly half his life before deciding to return home for better opportunities. (Jorge Lerma)

As Jorge Lerma approached the Mexican border from the U.S. side, he felt like he was hooked to a bungee cord, ready to leap into the unknown.

Jorge had lived in the U.S. for 16 years, attended high school and college in California, but his status here as an undocumented immigrant thwarted his dreams to be an engineer. So he decided to move back to Mexico.

I spent time with Jorge before he left his tiny rented room in Bellevue and gave him a recorder to document part of his return home.

On his way south, Jorge stopped in Los Angeles to say goodbye to friends from his engineering program. They gathered for a beach party and talked about careers, marriage and having children. It was like a final glimpse at the life Jorge had hoped to find here for himself.

As he approached the border, he filed a dispatch at 10:45 a.m. on the San Diego trolley, blue line to San Ysidro: “You can see Tijuana, like Tijuana is right next to San Ysidro, and I could see like a hill with houses. I was kind of like wow, this is it.”

Read the full article at KUOW Public Radio

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!