A Lost Generation of at Least 500,000 Young People Deported from US to Mexico Nina Lakhani - The Observer
go to original May 19, 2015

‘The first three months felt like someone had died. The grief was so strong’: Maggie Loredo in her family shop in San Luis Potosí. She returned from Georgia at 18. (Adam Wiseman/The Observer)

For the children of undocumented Mexican migrants in the United States, life demands secrecy. They learn to navigate between the two cultures while hiding their illegal status – all the while praying for immigration reform. Their Mexican memories – if they remember at all – are replaced by American dreams. After a few years, they often feel, look and sound so American, they can forget that, in the eyes of the law, they are aliens.

But they are, and they can be arrested at any moment. At least 500,000 young adults who grew up in the US have been deported or have decided to return to Mexico in the past decade. For many it is akin to arriving in a foreign country for the second time, but this time they lack a child’s ability to acclimatise. For years, little was known about what happened to these youngsters, but a picture is now emerging of a well-educated, bilingual, bicultural group whose traumas and talents are being ignored. This is in part due to groups trying to raise awareness of their plight. One such network is Los Otros Dreamers – the Other Dreamers. The name is a reference to the young migrants who would benefit from the Dream Act, a US bill first introduced in 2001, but still not passed, which would have paved the way to citizenship for those brought to the US as children.

Some of these “dreamers” were deported after failed immigration cases or minor offences; many were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Others came back with their parents, or were exasperated at not being able to get a driving licence, work legally or attend university. Fewer than half of American states accept undocumented migrants at university. Regardless of why they returned, many struggle to adjust.

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