Fearing ICE raids, Chula Vista family decides to leave country

By Michael Chen

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    CHULA VISTA, California (KGTV) — A Chula Vista family of five has left the country amidst fears of immigration raids that kept them in constant anxiety for weeks.

Anna, 29, spoke from a friend’s home near Ensenada, Mexico, detailing their decision to leave the United States due to the escalating concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

For Anna and her family, the fear of daily ICE sightings in their neighborhood led to a retreat from normal life.

“That was the last day we all as a family stepped out of the house,” Anna said, recalling January 19 as a turning point for them.

She expressed her terror at the thought of her parents being detained while running simple errands.

“My biggest fear was having to hear that my dad got picked up in one of the ICE raids or my mom got picked up because she was walking to the corner store,” she stated.

Anna’s father immigrated to San Diego from Mexico in 1997 under a work visa sponsored by a restaurant. However, when the restaurant changed ownership in 2008, the family’s legal status became precarious. Their visas expired. The family remained in the San Diego area.

Anna herself is a Dreamer, while her two younger sisters, ages 20 and 17, are U.S. citizens.

After much deliberation, the family made the difficult decision to leave on February 7, citing overwhelming anxiety that disrupted their daily lives.

“Given that we were in constant fear and anxiety, we couldn’t eat, sleep,” Anna explained.

Anna said if they had stayed, her older sister could have petitioned for their parents for visas when she turned 21 in the fall.

“If my parents were to have been picked up by ICE, they would not have a pathway to citizenship,” she said, emphasizing the urgency of their situation. “We decided to play it safe, and have the older sister start the paperwork from outside the country.”

Now on their way to Mexico City, the family is faced with uncertainty. They travel with little money and have no job prospects, while Anna’s sisters have been on the verge of graduating from high school and college. Those plans are now on hold.

“It’s like looking in soapy water at the moment,” Anna expressed, referring to the unclear future ahead of them. “There’s something there, but you don’t know how you’ll be able to achieve it.”

Friends of the family set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with living expenses.

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