U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP

A photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows people detained at a facility in McAllen, Texas, on Sunday.

I want to talk about some of the experiences my family has gone through because of immigration, the problems we had faced. Both of my parents were detained and sent to a immigration center.

 One important thing for a kid is their parents or their family to be all together and happy. Like a regular family, we go out together and have fun going for ice cream, having a good childhood . Then what about the kids who are being separated from their parents, who just  want something better for their kid, to have a successful life. To not be like them and actually have a chance to be better than them.

Immigrants that come from Mexico, Salvador, Latino America or around the world, to the U.S to have a better life  for their kids. They are taken away from their parents first thing when they cross the border. The kids cry out to their parents not to leave them, fighting to be with them to not be separated. They are both sent to detention centers separated from each other, they may be in different states or countries miles away from each other. They lied to my parents, they told them it was a check up like every time. They left in the morning when we were getting ready for school and they told us “see you guys later, we will be right back like always”. We got home and waited for them to come home but nothing. My brother got a call from an unknown number, he answered, it was a machine. Then we heard my parents, they told us “ nos agarraron, they lied to us their taking us to a detention center, will be back don’t worry about us, see you guys soon.”

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The conditions kids are in are bad, they sleep on the floor and put in cells. They cry every night for their parents. They wait for a family member to pick them up. If there is no one, they send them to an orphanage or adoption center for a temporary family until their parents come out from the detention center. As for the parents, they are treated like prisoners, they have to wear a suit and Crocs. They have chains in their feet and hands when taken out of their cells. They were put together with real prisoners, when they would fight they would put them in the hole/isolation and leave them there for a week.

The food is not good, “Maruchan is the best meal they had, my dad said”. They would buy a Maruchan and some chips to make a burrito out of it. They can’t have long calls; they only get 25-30 minutes. They have to pay for everything, their family members have to deposit them money. If you had no one, you could not afford calls or food. I went to visit my parents in a detention center, I had not seen them for 3 years or more.  Let us work together to help immigrants, to not be separated by trying to change the government minds. To be together and give them a chance for a better life for them and their kids.