Trump's speech disheartens deported mom's kids
Story highlights
- "It was sad how people agreed with him," Angel and Jacqueline Rayos-Garcia said
- Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos struggles to make sense of President's plan
Washington (CNN)The
two teenagers listened warily from their seats in gallery 3, row D of
the House chamber as US President Donald Trump boasted of his
administration's progress in cracking down on illegal immigration.
"Bad ones" were being removed from American communities, Trump said in his first address to Congress. Gang members, drug dealers and criminals who robbed American citizens of jobs, income, even their loved ones.
Angel
and Jacqueline Rayos-Garcia say their mother was not one of those
people. She was simply a devoted mother, doing what she had to do to
give them a better life than the one she had in Mexico. Still, Guadalupe
Garcia de Rayos was caught up in a wave of mass deportations that Angel
and Jacqueline blame squarely on the President.
The
teens watched in disbelief as audience members in front of them
applauded Trump's hardline stance, including his commitment to building a
wall.
Didn't they see a difference between the "bad ones" and people like their mother, they wondered.
"It was sad how people agreed with him," Jacqueline told CNN after the speech. "They're not in our position."
Jacqueline Rayos-Garcia speaking at the US Capitol Tuesday.
Alone in a hotel lobby
Tuesday
was Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos' 35th birthday. She spent it some 2,300
miles away from her children in her hometown of Acámbaro, in the central
Mexican state of Guanajuato.
Because she has no television in her home she watched the speech in an empty hotel lobby, alone.
She
struggled to make sense of Trump's plan. She had hoped for an
explanation of why families were being separated and if there was any
hope for someone like her who just wanted to be reunited with her
family.
Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos watches the speech in an empty hotel lobby.
More than anything, she was just hoping to catch a glimpse of her children on the screen that never came.
She
teared up as former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear mentioned her children
by name, saying they represented the consequences of a harsh immigration
policy.
She was unable to answer
questions about her case or elaborate on her reaction to the speech. She
was simply sad and worried about the possibility of a future without
her children.
Did Trump's policies spur deportation?
Garcia
de Rayos' case has drawn widespread attention. Protesters in Phoenix
attempted to stop her deportation in February by trying to block an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement van.
Her lawyer argues her deportation was a direct result of Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, which prioritizes the deportation of undocumented immigrants who are convicted or charged with crimes.
Garcia
de Rayos came illegally to the United States in the mid-1990s with her
parents when she was 14. She was arrested in 2008 during a workplace
raid and convicted one year later of felony criminal impersonation.
US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have said there was
nothing special about Garcia de Rayos' case. She committed a crime, was
placed under a deportation order and her time had come, they said.
She
became the subject of a removal order in 2013 and was placed under
court-ordered supervision. For years, she reported regularly to a local
ICE office -- until this month, when officials took her into custody and
deported her.
"I am very proud of them, because I know they are fighting so that one day we can reunite," she told CNN earlier Tuesday.
"Tearing families apart"
Rep. Raul Grijalva and Rep. Ruben Gallego, both Democrats from Arizona, invited the teens to be their guests.
The teens, who were both born in the United States, took their first-ever flight to be here.
Gallego
commended the teens for stepping out into the public eye. He hopes it
makes President Trump understand that his policies destroy families
instead of keeping them safe.
"This
could be anybody else's kids," he told CNN. "Now you have two teenage
kids, great teenage kids, that have no mother at home."
Taking in their first flight
Weeks
ago, Jacqueline cried before television cameras as she described what
it was like to see her mother's face looking out at her through the ICE
van window.
"No one should ever go
through the pain of having their mom taken away from them," she said,
"or the pain of packing her suitcase."
On
Monday night, she and her brother both packed light. Each of them
carried only a small backpack as they headed to the Phoenix airport for
their first airplane flight.
Their father made signs of the cross over them before they went into the security line.
That's
something the teens say their mother used to do every night. Now, it's
become their father's role to bless them before bedtime.
Angel
was impressed by the security scanners at the airport. On the plane,
Jacqueline sat in the window seat, gazing at the landscape below.
She wished her mother were still by her side, taking in the scenery.
"It's not fair that she's not with us," Jacqueline said.
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