Story Title:Elizabeth’s Story
Department of Homeland Security Form 194: Proof of Legal Entry into the United States
Even now, I sometimes dream that we are all together. Before Dad and Mom and I left. I was the youngest of five, but my big brother and my sweet sisters stayed behind. I never saw them again. In my dreams, we are still kids, laughing and playing. I wake up and cry.
I was thirteen; I was a child. I didn’t want to leave the only home I knew. My parents said “We are leaving. You’re coming with us.” And that was that. I didn’t choose to be an “illegal alien.” I wasn’t a Martian on a spaceship.
The journey here was one long nightmare. Sixty-six days. We got lost. More than once. Grown men were crying and begging to turn...