Deported Mothers, Separated from Their Children, Wait in Limbo at the Mexican Border Natalie Keyssar and Chelsea Matiash - The Intercept
go to original January 31, 2017

Yolanda Varona, co-director and founder of the Dreamers Moms, looks out the window of the group's headquarters in Tijuana, Mexico. Varona was deported and separated from her children in 2014. She founded the group as a way for deported mothers to support each other in the fight to see their children again. (Natalie Keyssar)

When deported mother Yolanda Varona received a call from photojournalist Natalie Keyssar on Friday morning, her voice was quivering. Varona, a Mexican mother of two and leader of the Dreamers Moms of Tijuana spoke clearly — and forcefully — about her feelings on Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall to fortify the border between the United States and Mexico. In an executive order signed Wednesday evening, President Trump calling for the “immediate” construction of the barrier that has already escalated tensions between the two nations.

“I woke up yesterday to this news, and it filled me with sadness,” Varona told Keyssar, a photographer who documented her life in Tijuana — separated from her children — last spring. “To me, the wall means misery. It makes me think of death, of how many people die trying to cross these borders, and it represents hatred for my community. It means separation of families.”

Varona is one of scores of women who have been separated from their children both legally and physically after being deported from the United States. But she has bonded with others facing a similar plight through the activist organization Dreamers Moms. Though their stories vary, the women share a similar fate: They wait in Tijuana, often for years, for a chance to see their families. Some women have lost contact, while others find ways to connect with their children from afar.

Keyssar, whose reporting for this story was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, spent time with half a dozen Dreamers Moms during her week in Tijuana. Her photographs convey a sense of loss, but the women remained hopeful.

Read the rest at The Intercept

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!