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Florida mother considers self-deportation amid fears over immigration policies

"I feel like it's our only choice to make sure that our daughters are protected and with us at all times."
Quebec Vasquez
Posted

Quebec Vasquez usually posts videos of shopping trips, "mom mornings" and what's in her kid's lunch boxes on social media.

In mid-January, she posted a very different video.

The onscreen title read "self-deportation story." She talked about her mother's sacrifice in bringing her to the United States from Mexico when she was 7 years old. And she read from a to-do list to leave her home in South Florida and move to Mexico.

Vasquez, a mother of three girls, is protected through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Her husband is also a DACA recipient, and their children are U.S. citizens.

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While protected from deportation, they haven't been protected from the fear and uncertainty of rapidly changing immigration policies.

"I feel like it's our only choice to make sure that our daughters are protected and with us at all times," Vasquez explained.

President Donald Trump has made significant changes to immigration policy, starting the first day of his presidency. The administration has highly publicized deportation efforts, suspended refugee programs, canceled migrant appointments and expanded the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's powers.

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida described the state's new immigration legislation as the toughest in the nation, and in February signed the nation's first agreement between local law enforcement and ICE aimed at bolstering federal deportation efforts.

Quebec Vasquez and her daughters
Quebec Vasquez and her daughters.

These policies are causing widespread fear and uncertainty among immigrant families, affecting their daily lives and decisions. Sociologists refer to these as spillover effects – impacts to communities and families that can range from avoiding medical care to maintaining employment.

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"We're living right now in a moment in time where everything is sort of being upended," said Dr. Elizabeth Aranda, a sociology professor at the University of South Florida and director of the Im/migrant Wellbeing Center. "You don't know if the processes that you could rely on in the past to go smoothly will go smoothly. So there's always a sense of fear surrounding - could something go wrong?"

Vasquez's first video on her decision to leave Florida gained millions of views and tens of thousands of comments in less than a week.

"Never in a million years would I have expected the reaction that came out of the video," she said. "There was an overwhelming amount of people that related."

More than half a million people in the U.S. have a DACA status. It was created as a short-term solution for people living in America who were brought here when they were children. They're allowed to stay but not allowed to leave and then return with few exceptions.

Vasquez has had DACA for 10 years, renewing every two years. She's grateful for the opportunities it's given her. She was able to get a driver's license, work, build credit and go to school.

"But it's just this constant cycle of proving that you're worthy of being here," she said.

Despite being in the U.S. for most of her life, the recent political climate has made her feel unwelcome and unequal.

"The United States of America is all I know. This is home. I fell in love here, I gave birth here. I've met amazing people here. And to feel like I'm being pushed out when I'm just trying to be a positive member of society is very unfortunate."

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