Living in fear: Area volunteers are helping immigrants improve their lives – Glens Falls Post-Star

Editors note: This is the first of a four-part series that will run on Sundays on immigrants who are living illegally in the Glens Falls region. Some names in this report have been changed to protect undocumented immigrants from exposure.

As their kids splashed around in a pool, the nine women, mostly in their 20s and 30s, sat down to tell about their hardships, their happy times and their perhaps pie-in-the sky dreams.

At first, they mostly looked down at fidgeting hands.

They werent eager to speak in the presence of a reporter.

But once Lonnie, the petite, scrappy 29-year-old, began talking about how she survived after her husbands latest deportation back to Mexico, others began to speak.

She told how she came across the Mexican desert as a pregnant 16-year-old to make a better life for herself and her unborn child and how hard it was when her husband was sent away.

She works as a landscaper these days and earns extra money by selling homemade tamales so her two kids are cared for, even though she hates to cook.

Normally, the women in the group would be learning English at the weekly gathering from a group of local volunteers and soaking up a chance to socialize with other Spanish-speaking women while their kids played soccer and swam.

But on this day at a local home, they were spilling their souls while hoping for changes in immigration policy.

She embodies the American dream, said Susan Sanchez, a Queensbury High School Spanish teacher and one of the volunteers. What does she do when she has no income? She uses what she knows how to do and turns it around. And she makes a mean tamale.

The volunteers, a small group made up mostly of local teachers, sacrifice their family time to improve the lives of these immigrant women who speak limited English and live in fear of deportation. They teach them English, role-play parent-teacher conference scenarios and they even serve as legal guardians for the children if the Mexican women were to be detained or deported.

They have assigned legal custody to us, said Sanchez, who is herself the widow of a Mexican immigrant and is now guardian for children from three families.

The local women work under the radar, almost like a modern-day Underground Railroad, knowing that their efforts if done in the open might hurt the immigrants theyre trying to help.

But theyre desperate to draw attention to what they see as the unfairness of the system and the scope of the problem. They estimate about 1,000 mostly undocumented immigrants are living now in Washington County alone.

Alice, who worked at the now-closed El Mexicano restaurant in Hudson Falls, was one of three immigrants stopped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in March, and now fears deportation every waking moment.

She teared up as she worried out loud, through an interpreter, what will happen to her kids if she is sent back to Mexico.

One child who is now 18 but who came into the country with her as a 4-year-old might have to go with her; while her other child, an 11-year-old, could stay in the U.S. because he was born here.

Its stressful, she said through an interpreter. Her face, which her friends said used to be brightened by a continuous smile, was full of pain. I dont sleep. Im the only thing my children have.

Sally, who waited a while to speak, bowed her head when telling about her 12-year-old son still in Mexico whom she hasnt seen since 2009. She came alone on a temporary visa to work as a hotel housekeeper and stayed, because it was clear to her life is better here.

She met a dairy farm worker, married, but is now torn and troubled to have a life here with her husband and second child, when her first-born is still in Mexico. At least hes with her parents, she said, but she wants him to join her, if she could trust someone to get him here.

Their children born in the U.S. are in a different situation.

None of these kids here know their grandparents, Lonnie said through an interpreter, as one dripping wet little girl pushed a toy shopping cart past the group.

The women, some here on expired visas, some on current visas and others who came across the border illegally, said with the new immigration climate in the country, they fear daily life.

They seldom leave their homes except to work.

They scan grocery store parking lots for ICE officials before shopping.

They have stopped going to church.

Im not doing anything bad. I work hard. Its not right to separate families, Alice said.

But despite all these hardships and sacrifices, when asked how many are still glad they came, all of their hands rose quickly.

They told of corruption, poverty, working up to 12 hours a day for $9 and ruthless drug cartels back home.

The phrase we use is, even though were poor in both countries, poor here is much better than poor in Mexico. It would appear to them back home that we have it all, Amy said.

And when asked what would happen in the area if all immigrants, legal and illegal, were sent back home, they said farm owners have told them, the farms are done.

We would not drink milk, Sanchez said.

When voters in this country selected Donald Trump as president, life changed dramatically for the local immigrant population undocumented and documented.

Talk of building a wall and stepping up deportation efforts struck fear in them.

During the Obama administration, they felt relatively free to work and be a part of the communities where they live. He even began a program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, to allow children who came into the country illegally with their parents to stay and work here.

They felt if they abided by the laws and didnt get in trouble, they were safe.

Now they dont feel safe at all.

The weekly English classes, sometimes at local homes and sometimes at a Hudson Falls school cafeteria, have become their only entertainment.

They speak with disdain about Trump.

I understand we are here not being citizens, but we came with no bad intentions, just to work, Alice said.

Beth, another of the women, who is here on a legal work visa, called Trump a showman who cant relate.

Hes not interested in people. He just likes power, she said. And he doesnt want to learn.

But hes winning, because now were all scared, Alice said.

Headlines were made recently when the Department of Homeland Security announced a one-time increase of 15,000 seasonal work visas for the rest of this season. But only days earlier, The Washington Post reported internal sources saying Trump was weighing an expansion of Homeland Security powers to speed up the removal of illegal immigrants who cant prove they have lived in the United States for at least 90 days.

Regardless, the local immigrants, many of whom have lived and worked here for a decade or more, are scared.

Wed be willing to pay a fine to stay. We dont even need to be citizens, just legal, Amy said.

Their advocates say they come here illegally, or overstay their visas because of a broken system that makes obtaining immigration visas cumbersome, expensive and often impossible.

Sanchez has been helping immigrants in the area learn English for the better part of two decades. She started when asked by her father, a local bar owner, who volunteered her services to customers who were farmers and had immigrant workers in need of help.

But for the past three years, she and a small group of others, including teachers, a school social worker and student volunteers, have joined in more structured weekly sessions to improve the lives of local immigrant women and children.

Kingsbury farmer Betty Getty hired immigrant workers from Mexico about 17 years ago and immediately started teaching them English and making them part of the family, with dinners and mixers at her home to make them welcome.

Lisa Catalfamo is a Glens Falls High School social worker, photographer and great friend of Gettys who met her immigrant husband at one of Gettys mixers. She has traveled to the immigrants hometown of Coyula, Mexico to deliver to their families photos of their loved ones who are working here, seeing the tears and smiles they generate.

Julie Leonelli, a retired teacher who still subs almost full-time in South Glens Falls, routinely takes children of local immigrants who are too afraid to leave the house out to dinner or for fun outings to places like Proctors Theater. Her husband taught one child to drive and the couple even bought a bigger car so they could haul more of the children around.

Sarah Rath is a retired teacher from Vermont who drives to the area for the weekly sessions with the immigrant women and helps organize soccer games on Sundays for the men to get a taste of home. She is also planning a trip to Mexico next week to take Lonnies 12-year-old son to see his deported father.

Everybody needs to see their father when theyre 12, she rationalized.

And Glens Falls High School Spanish teacher Shannon McKeighan, a good friend of Catalfamos, brings students from the schools AFS International Club she advises to help watch the womens children and teach them to swim while the women learn English.

The volunteers work to improve the lives of immigrants in the region with an overall goal of changing regulations so the immigrants can do the simple things they want in life work hard and raise their families here.

At the weekly sessions, they teach English to the mostly Mexican immigrants and help with tasks like filling out paperwork for the kids school or doctors visits. They role-play scenarios the women might encounter at school or in the community.

But their efforts often go beyond the sessions. They will go to doctors offices, go with the children to sign them up for summer soccer and drive them to stores. They consider them friends.

I feel I get just as much out of it as they do, McKeighan said, adding that while she knows some are here illegally, she sees it as a victimless crime.

The biggest sign of the devotion of these volunteers to the immigrant families is their decision to serve as guardians for the children if their parents get detained or deported.

We have paperwork on 22 families, Sanchez said. We fill out travel forms, power of attorney, medical releases, school releases and travel across the border with a minors forms.

They help because its the right thing to do, they say.

You look at smiles on peoples faces who dont have a lot to smile about and thats payment, Rath said.

The student volunteers said they look forward to seeing the children each week and have learned a lot about the lives of people who have less than they do.

I didnt think it would become as important to me as it has, said Glens Falls senior Katelyn Mello, who has worked with the children for three years. Her older sister, Haylee, serves as a lifeguard and said she wishes she had joined the group sooner.

Its very rewarding to know we can provide a safe place where they can have fun and not be scared or nervous, said McKeighans daughter, Kelsey, a recent college graduate who still helps out. Its a judgment-free zone.

But Sanchez said it comes at a cost. Her two young daughters are often left with babysitters while she helps the immigrants. And family outings to the lake or to the Great Escape often include immigrant children, who seldom get such opportunities.

But I kind of like it, 11-year-old Mia said. It makes you realize we have it good.

And my mom is changing the world, 10-year-old Ava chimed in with a smile.

News of the arrest in Washington County of one immigrant here illegally for sexual assault of a young teen spread through the weekly session on July 26, and led the volunteers to bow their heads with sadness.

The women said they felt sorry for the victim and know that the arrest will add fuel to the fire of those who oppose immigration reform. They spoke of supporting border security and not wanting immigrant criminals in the country, but said the issue isnt black and white.

There are simply good and bad in all populations, Sanchez said, using teachers and priests as examples. This will make people say, You see, Trump was right, they are all criminals.

Catalfamo cited statistics that these immigrants commit crimes at a rate 2 to 5 percent lower than native born Americans.

And Rath said, although sexual assaults by white men are in the news on a daily basis, a similar offense by an undocumented immigrant gets far more attention.

Isnt that racism? she said.

On a recent sunny day, older boys and girls played soccer. Little ones wearing floaties bounced in and out of the pool and some hung from a jungle gym swing set with a slide.

McKeighan and the Mello girls kept an eye on the pool to keep the kids safe.

A blanket on the edge of the pool was covered by uninflated punch balls, stickers, candy and a variety of toys prizes for a summer reading program if the kids read a certain number of books.

Their skin was darker than groups of kids you generally see around here, but other than that, it was a normal summer kid-filled setting in the Glens Falls region.

But theyre feeling the brunt of the countrys tougher stance on their immigrant parents. They all know about the recent roundup of immigrants and the resulting closure of the popular El Mexicano restaurant, which is now for sale.

Their parents tell of their children being taunted in school by classmates who say theyll soon be sent back to Mexico.

Its bullying, Lonnie said. They get really frustrated.

The kids fear police officers these days, too, Sally said.

Theyre always pointing out, I just saw the police go by, she said, adding that she believes there are both good police and bad police.

Some of the kids dont want to go to school anymore, fearing their parents wont be there when they get home. Lonnies 3-year-old even began pulling her hair out after her fathers detention.

The volunteers have come up with a family emergency plan if their parents are detained, they said, training the children who to contact and what to say.

But the volunteers say these kids, nearly all of them born in this country, are also winning awards in school for educational and behavioral achievements, and the mothers, most of whom have minimal education, said these opportunities make the hardships worth it. Amy spoke proudly of seeing her daughter recently collect awards.

They are thriving in school, despite the climate around them, volunteers said.

School is a safe place to be and the people are generally welcoming, said Catalfamo, the Glens Falls school social worker.

But while school is fun, life outside of school these days isnt.

They want to go to Lake George or Great Escape, but their parents fear leaving the house.

These kids have rights, but their parents dont, and theyre stuck in their parents world, Rath said.

The only place I go is Wal-Mart to get food and then home, Amy said.

Leonelli tries to help fix that problem. She met a lot of the children as director of religious education at St. Josephs Church in Fort Edward, but her efforts on their behalf continue long after the church school season ends.

She takes the kids to the movies and the library, to Proctors Theater for a show and to The Harvest restaurant for dinner.

She has noticed glares from people worried the dozen or so children would act out and ruin their experiences.

But the glares soon led to praise from others about how good the children were.

I absolutely love them. Im a teacher, been teaching since 1987. These kids are so well behaved, so appreciative of anything you do for them, she said.

When they were at The Harvest, all 12 of them, a woman at a nearby table picked up the tab, she said.

She said, These kids are close to my heart, Leonelli said, adding that the woman didnt explain further. I think some of it is because of all thats in the media about whats happening to these Mexican families. People dont know what to do to help.

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Living in fear: Area volunteers are helping immigrants improve their lives - Glens Falls Post-Star