By ESTEBAN PARRA
The News Journal
May 10, 2009
Diana and Ana Ramírez don't know how much time they have with their mother.
Carmen Irineo, 38, is fighting deportation. Her husband, Herón Ramírez, was deported in February. Diana, 11, and Ana, 13, are U.S. citizens and do not have to leave the country.
This leaves Irineo with a heartbreaking decision if she loses her deportation fight: Leave her daughters here with friends, in a culture they know, in a place where they can get a good education; or, take them with her to her small town in Mexico, where they don't speak the language fluently and where there are limited educational opportunities beyond sixth grade.
"I don't have any family here I can leave them with," Irineo said. "[But] I worry about taking them to Mexico. There's nothing there for them, especially where I'm from."
Irineo grew up in an isolated part of Hidalgo, a central state in Mexico. The nearest town to her house was Maravillas, about a 30-minute walk. There, people attend the town's sole church or school, which goes up to the sixth grade. Anyone wanting more education has to travel well beyond the town or take classes on television.
Choices made by Irineo and others like her who illegally entered the United States are coming to a head as the recession thins job prospects and more frequent raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement force them to seek out a living in the shadows of the economy.
Caught in the middle are the children, many of whom are U.S. citizens by birth, yet face few good options: They either leave the United States with their parents or are left behind with whomever is willing to take them in.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090510/NEWS02/905100383
