_{Aracely’s family was torn apart when her husband was deported. Today she spoke out in a New York Times op-ed on the need for immigration reform.}

This Sunday, millions of families across the U.S. will celebrate Father’s Day, spending time together to show Dad how much he’s loved.

But for many immigrants like MRNY member Aracely Cruz, Father’s Day is another reminder of a painful daily reality. As she recounts in her New York Times op-ed today, this is the second Father’s Day Aracely’s daughters Ariana and Leslie will spend without their dad, Jose, since he was taken from them in an immigration home raid early last year. The last time they saw his face was through a glass barrier in a detention center in New Jersey before he was deported to Mexico.

Jose is a hard worker, a great father and husband, and he did everything he could to support his family. President Obama, while championing immigration reform, has allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under his watch to deport 205,000 such fathers and mothers of U.S. citizen children in just two years. 

As a father of two young boys, I can only imagine the pain Aracely and her daughters feel this Father’s Day. Being away from my sons is hard enough for even one day. I cannot imagine being separated from them for two years or more.

But this year there is hope for undocumented families torn apart by an immigration policy that criminalizes hard-working parents and their children. Under the comprehensive immigration reform proposal currently being debated in the Senate, deported family members with U.S. citizen children like Jose could return to the U.S. and reunite with their families.But only if Congress protects the reunification provision.

A year from now, we hope to be celebrating a very different kind of Father’s Day in which thousands will be on the road home to their families in the U.S. and 11 million undocumented immigrants living here will be walking a newly laid path to citizenship.

But it will take all of us presenting Congress with a unified message in order to win. 

Please read Aracely’s important New York Times op-ed and call Senator Schumer’s office now (202-224-6542) to tell him we want a return home for deported family members and a path to citizenship for our hard-working fathers, mothers, and the children who need them.

Thank you for your support and your commitment,

-Javier Valdes, Co-Executive Director

Make the Road New York has been working to shape the immigration reform debate on critical issues like immigrants’ right to counsel, worker electronic verification and income requirements. You can read more of our op-eds here:

New York Daily News (with Rep. Joe Crowley): “Time to fix a broken immigration system“

Fox News Latino: “Detained Immigrants Have a Right to Counsel” and “Keep Out the Extremists“

Spotlight on Poverty: “The Trouble with Work and Income Requirements“

Crain’s New York Business: “Fix immigration, but not with E-Verify“