‘A piece of paper doesn’t make you human’: Growing up with undocumented parents in America

Her whole life, Kimberly and her sisters imagined US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers knocking on doors and pulling families out.

Kimberly’s father’s home in Mexico was a very small “tent looking” structure, she says. He spent most of his young life working, and never attended high school. Her mother also lived in poverty. They knew they wanted to have a family but after their own experience felt Mexico would not give their children the kind of future they deserved. So 22 years ago, when her mother was pregnant with her older sister, the couple made a long and tiring trek across the border to the US. Born in the United States, Kimberly, who requested anonymity, and her two sisters are now educated US citizens. Their parents remain undocumented; for more than two decades, they have lived under the radar working the low-paid jobs that keep America running – as cleaners, in childcare and in construction. But while Kimberly says her parents are safe for now, she worries that could change at any moment. She says life feels “unreal” and “like a nightmare” since US President Donald Trump began cracking down on illegal immigration, executing mass deportations since taking office in January – reigniting her lifelong fear of losing her parents. “Now that I see how Trump is handling all of this, I think maybe it won’t be OK,” she told CNN. “What I see now is that we’re kind of losing humanity. Nobody’s thinking or nobody’s perceiving you as a person. They’re just perceiving you as a thing,” she says. “My parents might not have papers or the legal documents to live here, but they are also human… a piece of paper doesn’t make you human.” Her whole life, Kimberly says she and her sisters often imagined US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers knocking on doors and pulling families out.