GONZALEZ: Hey, everybody. I’m Ana.

NUNES: I’m Alex. And this is Mosaic.

GONZALEZ: March 6, 2007, is the day when everything changed for Luis Gomez. He’s this 16-year-old kid living in New Bedford, Massachusetts. 

NUNES: He goes to school that day, comes home and gets a call from his aunt.

GONZALEZ: Who tells him, his mom isn’t coming home. 

NUNES: Earlier that day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had gone to where she worked and taken her away.

LUIS: Just my world came crashing down at that point. Just that feeling of hopelessness and knowing that, you know, my mom’s going to be gone, and I’m not going to be able to see her for a long time. 

NUNES: This is Luis’ story.

GONZALEZ: The story of one immigrant kid, smuggled to the U.S. when he was just eight years old, and his journey to find a sense of community here when the life he knew got taken away.

NUNES: Luis is kind of your average guy. Laid back and affable. He wears Carhartt-style work jackets. He likes Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee. And he makes his living working electrical jobs in Providence and the Boston area. 

GONZALEZ: On weekends, he and wife like to hang out--at the beach sometimes, or at their place in Quincy, Massachusetts. 

NUNES: So what’s life like in Quincy?

LUIS: Well, there’s a lot of traffic. Uh, the food’s pretty good. Overall, it’s not bad.

NUNES: Quincy is about an hour drive from where Luis grew up in New Bedford and thousands of miles from where he spent the first eight years of his life in Guatemala. 

GONZALEZ: Growing up in Guatemala, Luis doesn’t know his parents. They split up when he’s very young and immigrate to the U.S. separately. His dad goes to Massachusetts, and his mom goes to Portland, Oregon.

NUNES: Luis is left with his grandma and aunts while his mom works to save up money to bring him to the U.S. 

GONZALEZ: Occasionally he gets a phone call from his mom. 

LUIS: And that’s how we would talk. But because it’s been a few years since I had seen her, whenever we would talk, it would be--there wasn’t that connection.

NUNES: Then, one day, after being gone for about three years, Luis’ mom calls with some important news. 

LUIS: So one of these phone calls she asked if I wanted to meet her, and I said yes. I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I guess all of that time she had been saving up money for me to come over and live with her.

NUNES: Luis is about to make a more than five thousand mile journey to the northwest United States.

GONZALEZ: He hardly knows anything about the U.S. He assumes life in America must be like the TV show the Jetsons: people flying around to work on spaceships, and robot maids on wheels doing all the chores.

NUNES: But Luis’ trip is nothing like a space age TV show.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. He is eight and being smuggled by strangers through Guatemala and Mexico. 

NUNES: The only person traveling with Luis that he knows is his 15-year-old cousin. They hop from one place to another, switching vehicles as they go along.

LUIS: On the back of a truck at one point, the bed of the truck, just laying down. There were some points we were on a bus.

GONZALEZ: Luis says the scariest moment is when the smuggler he’s traveling with drops him and a group of other people off at an abandoned house for days.

LUIS: They just kind of left us there, so then everyone just started freaking out like after the second day. And that’s when I started to question like, “What’s going to happen now?”

NUNES: The last leg of the trip into the U.S. is probably the most dangerous. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. That’s when the whole group has to cross the Rio Grande into Texas. 

LUIS: Swimming, in the middle of the night. The water was very cold. I didn’t know how to swim, and this guy offered to carry me because I was so little. And that’s how I got across.

NUNES: From Texas, Luis and his cousin take a plane to Oregon to be reunited with his mom. 

GONZALEZ: When they land, Luis is blown away by the lights in the airport. They’re so bright and so high, it’s like he’s looking up at the sky.

NUNES: His cousin starts pointing at someone. It’s Luis’ mom. 

GONZALEZ: But it’s been so long that Luis doesn’t recognize her. 

LUIS: Like I saw so many people. And before I knew it, this person was hugging me. And that’s how I knew it was my mom. You know, growing up as a kid, not knowing what that was, the presence of a mother, and then there she was, it was definitely a very special moment. Out of everything the most emotional part.

GONZALEZ: Luis goes home with his mom, and stays in her apartment for a few months. 

NUNES: The excitement of that reunion in the airport fades. Life in the apartment is boring, and Luis feels isolated. 

GONZALEZ: His mom doesn’t enroll him in school, so he sits in her apartment all day while she’s at work, and he watches Disney movies on repeat. He entertains himself by running around the room, pretending to be Tarzan.

LUIS: I remember she bought me a cake. It was great. But that was like a temporary thing. Overall it was kind of that loneliness, because it was really myself.

GONZALEZ: Then, one day, things change for the better. His dad hears through family in Massachusetts that Luis is in the U.S., in Oregon.

NUNES: Right. So Luis’ dad calls up his mom and asks her if she wants to move to New Bedford with Luis. And she says yes.

GONZALEZ: So Luis’ parents get back together, and Luis remembers this being a really great time in his life, probably the best time in his life up to that point. 

NUNES: And it wasn’t just that it was great to have his family back together. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. There’s a lot of Spanish-speaking people from Central America in New Bedford, so it’s more familiar to Luis. He’s feeling more comfortable and more at home. 

NUNES: His family moves into one of those classic New England triple deckers. His aunt and uncle are living on the third floor right above Luis and his parents. 

GONZALEZ: The owners of the building are on the first floor, and they’ve got two kids’ Luis’ age that he can play with. 

LUIS: And so we would all kind of hang out. And they would do cookouts, and we would meet other people from around the city, and it just felt more welcoming.

NUNES: Luis enrolled in elementary school in New Bedford, and he liked it. His teacher spoke Spanish, and that made him feel more at home too. And he was doing well in class and learning English quickly. Eventually, he got bumped out of ESL and into a mainstream class with American kids.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. And Luis also remembers really liking what he thought of as little perks to living in the U.S.: soft carpeting, his own bed, pillows, hot water and reliable electricity.

NUNES: And probably most important to Luis was that, for the first time in his memory, his immediate family is all together. 

LUIS: It felt, for a moment, like a happy family. Everybody was happy. I was happy. I was a 10-year-old having a blast.

GONZALEZ: That’s pretty awesome for Luis. It’s a happy story.

NUNES: Yeah. In a pretty short time, Luis goes from living thousands of miles away from his parents, and not knowing who they are, not having any connection to them, really. Then, within a few months, they’re together and they have this extended network in New Bedford. 

GONZALEZ: Right. And a few years later, Luis’ parents have two more children. So the family’s growing. 

NUNES: Yeah. He’s settling into this new life. He was taken to this totally foreign place, but now it’s become his home. 

GONZALEZ: But like with any young kid, there are things going on that Luis doesn’t totally get yet.

NUNES: Right. As he comes to realize, he’s different than a lot of other kids at school.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. He’s from Central America. He speaks Spanish. And other kids start to treat him differently because of this.

LUIS: People started to be like: “You’re not welcome in this group” type of thing. I remember in middle school we had this thing called home ec. You make pillows and things like that. There was this person passing out things for their birthday. This person was white. And I was the only brown person in the room, I would say. So everybody got an invitation and then this other friend of mine--he’s also white--was asking, “Why didn’t Luis get one?” And she was like “Oh well, he wouldn’t fit in” type of thing. And I was like: “Why not?” I just remember feeling very excluded.

GONZALEZ: As Luis gets older he also starts realizing other stuff, like things about himself and his parents, and their legal status.

NUNES: Right. Like he and his mom would be driving through New Bedford and his mom would see a police cruiser and suddenly panic. 

GONZALEZ: And at first Luis doesn’t know what's going on.

LUIS: I would see her expression and then I would worry like: “But we didn’t do anything wrong.” But I didn’t know she didn’t have a driver’s license. I didn’t know that at the time, and that’s why she was so scared, and like the consequences of: what would happen if she gets pulled over? You know, what would happen to all of us type of thing?

NUNES: Luis has no way of knowing it at the time, but back in early 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking a close look at the textile plant where his mom is working in New Bedford.

GONZALEZ: The factory is called Michael Bianco, and it’s a Pentagon contractor manufacturing military backpacks for U.S. forces. 

NUNES: ICE also believes that Michael Bianco is employing hundreds of undocumented workers who are in the U.S. illegally.

GONZALEZ: So, on March 6 of that year, ICE makes its move. They raid the Michael Bianco factory. 

NPR BROADCAST: The operation resulted in the arrests of more than 300 people. Many of the workers were women with small children.

NUNES: The raid makes headline news around the country, but Luis doesn’t know about it until he gets home from school and his aunt calls him. 

GONZALEZ: At first she’s being vague and cryptic.

LUIS: Like, “Do you know?” Things like that. She was alluding to something. I was like, “I’m OK. I’m alright. What’s happening?”

NUNES: Then she tells Luis. There was a raid. His mom had been at her job at Michael Bianco, and she is one of the 361 people arrested.

LUIS: You know, just my world came crashing down at that point. Just that feeling of hopelessness and knowing that, you know, my mom’s going to be gone, and I’m not going to be able to see her for a long time. If she gets deported...Just that feeling of emptiness and hopelessness. 

NUNES: What happened next at that point?

LUIS: My aunt came and picked me up and then I went over to her place. And then just kind of wait pretty much. I know that overall in New Bedford, because it affected so many people, that everybody was just scared. There was no safety, like it could happen to anybody. There were rumors that it was going to happen at other places. So then nobody wanted to leave their home. Everybody was kind of like scared.

GONZALEZ: Luis’ mother is gone for a while. Days at first, then weeks, then longer.

NUNES: Yeah. And Luis’ dad is working all the time to support the family, so Luis has to take care of his siblings, who are still in diapers. 

GONZALEZ: The family can’t have much contact at all with Luis’ mom. They’re afraid to. If they visit her, they could be detained too and even deported. 

NUNES: The only time they can talk is when another family member who is a legal resident in the U.S. calls Luis’ mom and patches them through from another phone. 

GONZALEZ: Weeks go by, and a lot of the people detained in the Michael Bianco raid get deported. Some apply for asylum and win. Others, like Luis’ mom, hire attorneys and get released to their families. 

LUIS: Luckily, my mom was able to get out. The lawyer did a big help. But after that, my parents started to fight a lot. It wasn’t like it was at the start. I think it was just a build up of not being welcomed here for them. And then just trying to have a relationship, husband and wife type thing with kids, just the challenges of that plus living in a country where you feel not welcomed. 

NUNES: Luis says his parents would get into arguments about the same things a lot of other couples disagree about. His mom thought his dad was working too much and not spending enough time with Luis and his brother and sister. His dad thought he was doing what he had to do to provide for his family.

GONZALEZ: And these arguments are just magnified by the stress of their situation. His mom gets a work permit after the raid and is now legally in the U.S., but his dad still doesn’t have documentation. 

NUNES: Right. So, you want to hear a happy ending here. But the truth is things never really get resolved for Luis’ family, at least not the way he hopes for.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. Actually, things get worse.

LUIS: In 2009, ICE came to our home. They had surrounded the apartment. It was like this big thing you see out of the movies. 

NUNES: This time, the officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are looking for Luis’ dad.

LUIS: They were all these officials, like 6-feet. So I’m only like 5-3, so they were huge to me. They were walking around the house, very intimidating. They kept questioning my mom. She was crying. It was very upsetting. It felt very violating to have people come in, break into your home. And finally I told them where my dad was. My mom was upset at me. But else they weren’t leaving.

GONZALEZ: ICE finds Luis’ dad and detains him. Later he’s deported back to Guatemala. Luis’ family is split up, for good, in another really sudden and dramatic way. 

NUNES: Luis says his father has since started a new life over in Guatemala with a new family.

LUIS: And then my mom, as well, she found somebody else here. And then seeing it all happen it was like “Why is this happening to me? Why?” But I guess people make decisions you know. Yeah.

NUNES: Do you have a sense of bitterness? Like “ICE broke up my family?” You know what I mean?

LUIS: I think my parents, they both had their own issues, but definitely ICE had a big part. They were trying to work things out. But I guess them not being able to see each other definitely didn’t allow for them to try to fix it.

GONZALEZ: To some extent Luis’ story sounds like the story of any kid whose parents split up.

NUNES: Yeah, and he actually compares it to that. It’s this feeling of being really sad and rocked by the fact that you’re family isn’t going to be together anymore.

GONZALEZ: But I think being an immigrant kid adds this other dimension. It’s hard enough when your parents separate, but then to have this feeling like “Maybe they could have stayed together if it wasn’t for ICE?”--that’s got to make you feel like the most unlucky kid in the world.

NUNES: Right. And when you talk to Luis, one thing that’s noticeable is that he’s really calm when he talks about this. He’s forthcoming, but he also doesn’t elaborate too much.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. He keeps his answers short when he can. 

NUNES: Exactly. Like I pointed out to him that something as traumatic as having a parent taken away by the authorities happened to him on two separate occasions, but his reaction was surprisingly muted.

NUNES: That happened to you twice, both parents.

LUIS: Right. Yeah. [Long pause]

NUNES: That must be tough.

LUIS: [Laughs.]

NUNES: I get the sense that a lot of this is hard for Luis to revisit. And I think a part of Luis doesn’t want to dwell on it. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. He wants to be positive and hopeful, and think about the future.

NUNES: Right. And he’s said that. In the decade since his dad was deported, Luis has tried to turn his experience into something that can help other people.

GONZALEZ: Definitely. So back in 2010, he gets involved with a group called Student Immigrant Movement. It’s based in Boston, and it’s this organization that does advocacy work for undocumented young people.

NUNES: Right. And just a side note: we usually stay away from political stories in this series. But in Luis’ case, activism work is a big part of his story.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. After both his parents were detained and his dad was sent back to Guatemala, it’s really important for him to connect to other people in the same situation as him. It gives him a sense of meaning and sense of community.

LUIS: Just speaking to others that have had similar stories. You know, I’ve come to terms with it and realize it’s not the end. Try to be hopeful. Try to be as much positive as you can.

NUNES: When Luis gets involved with Student Immigrant Movement, he’s hearing a lot of stuff he can relate to. 

GONZALEZ: Right. People are talking about the same challenges he’s been through.

NUNES: So, for instance, after Luis graduates high school, he can’t get a driver’s license. He can’t get financial assistance for college. He can’t get a job working legally in the U.S., so he works under the table at a fish factory. 

GONZALEZ: And he realizes that other people need to hear about his story. So he starts telling it to small groups and politicians. He trains other undocumented young people on how to share their experiences too.

LUIS: It was definitely life-changing, I would say. 

NUNES: Another life changing event happens in June 2012, when Luis is in his early twenties, and it’s something he’s been hoping for.

GONZALEZ: President Barack Obama announces an executive order that allows young people like Luis who were brought to the U.S. illegally as minors to defer their deportation and qualify for work permits. 

NUNES: This is Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. 

NUNES: What was your reaction when President Obama signed DACA?

LUIS: Pretty much life changing again. The happiest day up until that point in my life. It was very surreal. I didn’t think it was ever going to happen. And it didn’t really sink in until a year-and-a-half later when I got my work permit and went for my driver’s license and passed. And then just driving with a license. That in itself felt just like freedom. I just felt like everybody else. Not looking over my shoulder like I was being chased by ICE or anything like that. It was a sense of: I’m like everybody else. I’m equal, I guess. 

GONZALEZ: After Luis gets his work permit and his driver’s license, he applies for legal permanent residency in the U.S. and gets it. 

NUNES: He says he’ll be able to apply for citizenship a year-and-a-half from now. 

GONZALEZ: Luis also went to trade school a few years back, and now he works as an apprentice electrician. Next year, he goes for his license.

NUNES: And he’s started his own family. It’s him and his wife. And because he’s in the U.S. legally now, they can travel together on these awesome trips to different countries. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. They’ve been to Italy, and Luis says he wants to see more places in Europe and South America and Central America. He says he’d also like to go back to Guatemala someday to visit.

NUNES: But Luis also says he tries to take things slow, to not get too driven or too excited. 

GONZALEZ: Because he went through so much at such a young age, he wants to keep things simple and appreciate the little things in life, like the beach or even a cup of coffee.

LUIS: Or just like walking in Boston or something like that if I’m working out there, or in New Bedford, or anywhere. Just like walking, and seeing all these buildings. You know, it’s not the Jetsons, but it’s almost there, you know?

GONZALEZ: Mosaic is a production of The Public’s Radio, edited by Sally Eisele with production help from James Baumgartner and Aaron Selbig. Our original music is by Bryn Bliska. Torey Malatia is the general manager of The Public’s Radio. I’m Ana Gonzalez.

NUNES: And I’m Alex Nunes. Thanks for listening.