Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Yahir remembers growing up in Mexico without a bed or a stove. He didn’t own a pair of shoes until he was 10, and in the mid-1990s — when he was 13 — he crossed with a group illegally into the U.S. in search of work.
He settled in California and worked on farms across the state. He met his wife and had six children, the eldest of whom is now 15.
Then, on July 10, Yahir, 43, was apprehended while working at a marijuana farm in southern California, in one of the largest immigration raids since U.S. President Donald Trump took office.
“It was like a nightmare, but I was awake,” said Yahir, his skin dotted by sun stains from working in the fields, just hours after being deported to Tijuana. Yahir asked to withhold his last name to protect his family in the U.S..
As Trump ramps up his deportation efforts targeting immigrants in the country illegally, Mexicans – with the largest population of immigrants in the U.S. without status – are living in fear.
They are being arrested at restaurants, farms, Home Depot outlets and 7-Eleven convenience stores.
A remarkable 42% of Hispanic adults are worried they or someone close to them might be deported, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year.
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