After 5 years in Alabama, new law has illegal immigrant family packing

October 05, 2011|
By Gustavo Valdes, CNN


Gabriela Vazquez maneuvers through piles of clothes and toys while trying to control her two small children.

"They never stop," she says, while pulling a pair of pants from an almost-empty drawer and deciding whether to toss the pants to the "keep" or "leave" pile. The decision is not an easy one.

Vazquez is attempting to pack five years of her life in the United States into only a handful of bags.

"I crossed over into the U.S. with nothing but my clothes, so I'm taking nothing, only my clothes and my kids," she says.

Vazquez began packing moments after a federal judge in Birmingham, Alabama, last week allowed most of the state's controversial law, known as HB56, against illegal immigration to go into effect.

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The law allows police officers to check the legal status of people when suspicions exists, detain them and turn them over to federal authorities. It is described by both its supporters and its opponents as the strictest state immigration law in the nation.

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"We expected the judge to rule like the other judges who blocked the laws in Arizona and Georgia," Vazquez says, referring to similar anti-illegal immigration laws approved in those states, with federal judges subsequently blocking the more severe parts of those bills.

"Now, they can take me away from my children anytime," Vazquez says.

Her journey began five years ago when she and her husband left the Mexican state of MIchoacan and headed north in search of jobs.

"In Mexico, it is hard to find a job. I'm 35 years old, and the ads seeking help say they want people between the ages of 18 and 35," Vazquez says.

"It wasn't easy coming over. We left our parents, our siblings, our family, and they didn't know what was going to happen to us."

The couple entered the United States illegally and headed for Montgomery, where they had relatives. They first rented a room in a mobile home with other families until they found jobs. Vazquez's husband, Marco, became a carpet installer while she jumped from job to job in restaurants, hotels and grocery stores.

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They managed to save enough to move into their own place. Along the way, she gave birth to a boy, now 4 years old, and a girl, now 2.

"I was not planning on having kids, but here they are," Vazquez says with a smile.

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