Robert Vivar and Yolanda Varona met three years ago at Friendship Park in Tijuana, on the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border. They were there to connect with their U.S. families — both deported grandparents, the two had a lot in common.
Today, they work to impact U.S. immigration and the lives of the deported, while living abroad. The group is called DREAMers Moms, and they consider themselves a Tijuana-based chapter of the U.S. group DREAMers Moms from Miami.
When a couple of years ago Varona told Vivar she wanted to create an organization in Tijuana that would help deported mothers connect and maybe even legally reunify with their children in the U.S., Vivar said he was 100 percent on board.
Vivar has been working with deported veterans at the Deported Veterans Support House, in Tijuana, called the “Bunker” for several years. He understands the struggles of the many deported men fighting to reconnect with families living in the U.S.
The two founded DREAMers Moms or Madres Soñadoras in 2014, starting with four people and growing to several dozen.
“A lot of women needed to find a place where they belonged. We learned there was a lot of guilt and shame and many of the women didn’t want to talk about their lives. They thought they were worthless, even though most had no criminal past — their only crime was being undocumented,” Vivar told Fox News Latino.
The group began reaching out to local Tijuana shelters and other non-profits hoping to uncover what the deported mothers needed.
Most of the women are mothers whose children were born in the U.S. or are allowed to be in the U.S. legally through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA is an American immigration policy that allows certain undocumented immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday, and before June 2007, to…….
To read full article: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2016/08/26/dreamers-moms-group-helps-deported-mothers-in-tijuana-mexico-reunite-with-their/
