(character names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Friday afternoon, April 14th 2006.

Juana S. Gonzales is a 27 year old, mother of two, Jorge 9 and Ramiro 4. She is ironing her apron, as she gets ready to go to work at a local Italian restaurant by Lake Merritt, in the city of Oakland. “I’ve been working there for a little more than 6 years. I started as a busgirl and 2 years ago I was made a waitress.”

She is an illegal immigrant that arrived from Guadalajara, Mexico 17 years ago. She managed to come to the U.S. using her look-a-like sister’s green card, Silvia E. Gonzales, fooling security pretending to be her. Even though she has made this country a home for her and her two children, her immigration status haunts her time again while she works under a fake social security number and a fake green card.

The fact that she has given birth to two natural U.S. citizens seems to have no impact on her situation. “I’m going through some hard times right now because the father of my boys is undergoing some sort of surgery and isn’t giving me any more money. I’ve never had any kind of insurance for my kids, my car, or anything. I’m afraid to go to the doctor, take a bus, and even sometimes paranoid about la migra. Sometimes I feel I’d be better off–in many ways, if I went back to Mexico and lived with my mother, like she suggests. At least no one would be looking at me funny, you know?”

If tomorrow an immigration officer found out about Juanita’s status, she could be captured and deported on the spot, leaving her unattended children behind. There are many others like her at the restaurant where she works, some who have unfortunately gone though the terrifying experience of deportation. She’s hopeful she will soon be able to amend her status, if and when the president, senate and congress come to a resolution on the future of undocumented immigrants.